After the Yankees had finished off a win over the Mets on Monday night, two of the television screens in their clubhouse were tuned into a game between the Cardinals and Cubs.
And when Jordan Montgomery secured the final out of a 99-pitch, one-hit shutout, there were at least a few audible cheers around the clubhouse from his former teammates.
“Just stoked for him,” Gerrit Cole said Tuesday.
Though the ideal scenario might have been Montgomery flashing that kind of performance in pinstripes, his former rotation mates are just happy to see him having immediate success with the Cardinals after being traded there last month for injured outfielder Harrison Bader, who won’t be available to play until September because of plantar fasciitis.
Cardinals pitcher Jordan Montgomery winds up during the first inning of a game against the Cubs. AP
Yankees pitchers Gerrit Cole, left, and Jordan Montgomery tap gloves before a workout at Yankee Stadium in 2020. Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post“I wouldn’t say it’s bittersweet, just because I’m genuinely excited to see what Harrison Bader can do here also, and then I’m super excited for Monty and his opportunity there,” said Jameson Taillon, one of Montgomery’s closest friends in the Yankees’ clubhouse. “So I wouldn’t call it bittersweet, I’d just call it sweet. I think if you asked everyone in here, they’d just be excited for him.”
In four starts with the Cardinals, Montgomery is 4-0 and has given up just one run over 25 ²/₃ innings (0.35 ERA) with 17 base runners and 24 strikeouts. Before the trade, he was 3-3 with a 3.69 ERA across 114 ²/₃ innings this season for the Yankees.
“He’s getting too good now, I’m gonna have to probably stop f–-king texting him,” Cole joked. “Be like, ‘All right, we got it. We got it, Jordan.’ ”
Montgomery’s early success in St. Louis can be attributed to a number of factors — Taillon and Cole both mentioned the impact of having future Hall of Famer Yadier Molina catching him.
But Montgomery is also throwing more four-seam fastballs with the Cardinals than he did with the Yankees, including for a season-high 35.4 percent of his pitches on Monday. In all but one of his Yankees starts this season, he threw the four-seamer for less than 20 percent of his pitches, and it was usually his least-used offering.
“I think it’s more fastballs, better east and west,” Cole said. “I was in his ear about that all the time here, but for whatever reason, maybe having a Hall of Famer [catching you], being in a different division where fastballs are more prevalent. He’s just seemed to settle in and start to perform the way he’s always dreamed of.”
Cole said he had also worked with Montgomery on becoming more self-sustainable with his routine, in case he one day left the hands-on Yankees. Montgomery has since let Cole know how much that has helped his transition.
The Yankees, meanwhile, replaced Montgomery in the rotation with trade acquisition Montas, who had struggled in his first three starts before facing the Mets on Tuesday. But they are banking on the trade with St. Louis paying dividends once Bader gets healthy.
“We were plus defense at every position except center field, so now we are in position if we can unpack that present, which we expect we can, we just have to wait on it for a period of time,” GM Brian Cashman said on Tuesday’s episode of “The Show” podcast with The Post’s Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman. “So, stay tuned and we’ll see how it plays out. No regrets, because this is the space we knew we’d be in. … You gotta rob Peter to pay Paul sometimes.”
