PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- During his junior season at Texas Tech, Mason Montgomery only made one relief appearance. “And it was brutal,” he said, smiling.
Before last year, the left-hander’s lone outing out of the bullpen was a bulk-inning outing in the Rookie-level Florida Complex League in 2021. He obviously started in high school. In other words, Montgomery was a full-time starter -- and a good one, at that.
But late last summer, as Montgomery battled to get deep into games and limit runs for Triple-A Durham, his coaches approached him with an idea: How about moving to the bullpen? Just focus on one inning at a time and leave it all out on the mound.
The transformation was instant, and the results were incredible. Armed with an upper-90s fastball and a wipeout slider, Montgomery quickly established himself as a rookie reliever to watch.
Now, the only thing that’s “brutal” is having to step into the batter’s box against him.
“I mean, it was super impressive,” reliever Cole Sulser said. “Hard not to be impressed when he goes out there striking out everyone with electric stuff like he did.”
Two years ago, Montgomery reported to Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex for his first big league Spring Training camp. He was coming off a spectacular season in the Minors, having earned the Rays’ 2022 Minor League Pitcher of the Year Award, and seemingly bound for a future in Tampa Bay’s rotation.
But Montgomery took a slight step back as he moved into the upper Minors in 2023, struggling to maintain his top-end stuff and posting a double-digit walk rate. Triple-A presented a tough test last year, and he had a 7.04 ERA after his first outing in August.
Then, on Aug. 8, he pitched the seventh inning, struck out two and picked up a save. His average fastball velocity ticked up nearly 3 mph from his most recent start, according to Statcast. He touched 98 mph and didn’t fire a fastball slower than 95.1 mph.
And just like that, a potential high-leverage reliever was born.
“It’s weird, because it’s not like as a starter I’m trying to take anything off of it,” Montgomery said. “But I think knowing that you’re going one inning, you can go out there and give it all you’ve got for 20 pitches, and that’s it.”
The 24-year-old went on to strike out 20 of the 38 batters he faced for Triple-A Durham from Aug. 8-Sept. 3. He gave up five hits and walked five in 9 2/3 innings over 10 outings. He didn’t allow a run.
Called up to the Majors in early September, Montgomery faced 37 hitters and struck out 17. He gave up six hits, five walks and two runs in 9 2/3 innings over nine outings. On Sept. 24 in Detroit, he struck out all six batters he faced.
“It just happened so fast. It’s like, you blink, and OK, it’s already been a month that it already happened,” he said. “It’s definitely something that I’m proud of.”
Montgomery isn’t messing with a good thing this spring. He might tinker with a two-seam fastball, but he’ll focus on his two best pitches: his four-seam fastball with vertical movement reminiscent of former Rays reliever Colin Poche, but with more velocity, and an upper-80s slider that generated a 56% whiff rate during his MLB debut.
It was all there as he breezed through his first outing on Tuesday.
“It’s not a very fun at-bat. The ball gets on you quick. He hides it well. He’s got a really wipeout slider,” manager Kevin Cash said. “It felt like every time he came in there, there was something that we were all wow-ing about in the dugout.”
Montgomery admitted he “didn’t expect it to go that smoothly at all” when he moved to the bullpen. He credits Triple-A teammates Sulser and Michael Gomez for helping him learn how to handle a relief role and adjust to the routines of life in the bullpen.
Sulser deflected the praise, saying it was all about Montgomery. But the 34-year-old right-hander made himself available in the Minors and Majors for any of Montgomery’s questions about weightlifting schedules, throwing programs, setting goals when warming up and having to pitch more often.
“He's an incredibly hard worker, and I think he made the adjustment super well, obviously,” Sulser said. “You could see his stuff was just electric. It was pretty amazing to watch him go into the 'pen.”
Montgomery said he took some time early in the offseason to reflect on how much changed for him in such a short time last year, and he thought Tuesday about how far he’s come -- and where he’s gone -- since his first big league camp two years ago.
“It’s certainly different, but nevertheless, it’s still pitching,” he said, smiling. “It’s definitely cool.”