Frankie Montas leaves Sunday game early with reduced velocity

Bad news from the Oakland A’s game on Sunday.

Starting pitcher Frankie Montas exited the game early, after throwing just one inning.

The month of July just began, which means we’ve entered trade season, and Montas is considered a strong candidate to be dealt before the deadline. However, the star right-hander was not pulled from this game due to such a transaction, reports Matt Kawahara of the S.F. Chronicle. The team will provide further updates, but “he has NOT been traded,” adds insider Martin Gallegos.

During his inning of work against the Seattle Mariners today, Montas threw 13 pitches and topped out at 94.5 mph with his fastball. His four-seamer averaged 93.8 in four tries, significantly lower than his 96.2 season average on the pitch, and his sinker also registered nearly 3 ticks lower than usual on the radar.

A large sudden drop in velocity is almost always an injury, though for now that is just speculation and nothing is official yet. Hopefully there is some other explanation.

This year sucks. Hope Frankie is OK.

UPDATES

The team provided updates after the game ended.

Montas “had some tightness in the back of his shoulder. It just didn’t feel like he could get fully extended,” explained manager Mark Kotsay in the video below. His status is day-to-day for now.

Kotsay noted that an initial cursory examination revealed inflammation. Montas will “probably” get an MRI, per insider Martin Gallegos, but the pitcher downplayed the issue as soreness and doesn’t sound worried at this time. More details from Matt Kawahara of the S.F. Chronicle:

Montas said he felt he “didn’t recover well” after his NY start. Said soreness is normal but he noted velo dip. Asked level of concern: “To be honest I don’t have any concern. I don’t think it’s anything bad. I just think it’s probably some inflammation.”

Stay tuned for more developments!