This story was excerpted from Adam Berry¡¯s Rays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
ARLINGTON -- Pitching the ninth inning Tuesday night at George M. Steinbrenner Field, lefty reliever Mason Montgomery leaned on his fastball and stepped on the gas.
His first pitch to Pirates catcher Joey Bart clocked in at 100.2 mph. Then came three more heaters, all fouled off by Bart. The first was 99.9 mph. The second was 99.6. The third? That one caught Montgomery¡¯s attention when the velocity flashed across the scoreboard in Tampa: 102.2.
So, had he ever hit 102 before?
¡°Um, no,¡± Montgomery said. ¡°First time.¡±
Montgomery flung one more fastball to Bart, up and away, and the catcher whiffed. Montgomery went on to strike out Tommy Pham on a slider and, after giving up a hit to Andrew McCutchen, struck out Ke¡¯Bryan Hayes with another 100 mph fastball.
Four batters, three strikeouts and one fastball that people couldn¡¯t stop talking about.
¡°I just heard some of the guys be like, ¡®102?¡¯¡± Montgomery said. ¡°I was like, ¡®Yeah, I guess.¡¯
¡°It was pretty cool. I was trying to do it again, but I couldn¡¯t.¡±
Montgomery made a successful move from the rotation to the bullpen in Triple-A that helped get him to the big leagues last September, and his second appearance of the season was a fine example of what the Rays¡¯ newest relief weapon can do.
¡°He¡¯s fun to watch. He¡¯s electric. He¡¯s in the zone,¡± Rays outfielder Kameron Misner said. ¡°That¡¯s a very uncomfortable at-bat for anybody.¡±
He¡¯s looked so special, in fact, that Rays manager Kevin Cash has taken to jokingly deflecting questions about the 24-year-old lefty.
¡°I don¡¯t like talking about Mason Montgomery,¡± Cash said, smiling. ¡°He¡¯s really good. Keep it at that.¡±
Why mess with a good thing, right? And it doesn¡¯t get much better than what Montgomery is doing on the mound.
Consider the numbers behind his special fastball, explained by MLB.com Statcast analyst David Adler.
1) Velocity
Montgomery is averaging 99.8 mph on his four-seamer -- by far the fastest?of any left-handed pitcher this year. He's almost two full mph faster than Aroldis Chapman, who's next at 97.9 mph.??
If he keeps up that velo all year, Montgomery would join Chapman as the only lefties in the pitch-tracking era to average 99-plus mph on their four-seamer?for a full season. Chapman, one of the most overpowering flamethrowers ever, has done it six times.
Montgomery has already hit triple digits six times, topping out at 102.2 mph. The only southpaws who have ever hit 102?in the pitch-tracking era are Chapman, Jos¨¦ Alvarado, Felipe V¨¢zquez ¡ and Montgomery.
Montgomery topped out at 99.5 mph in the Majors last season, according to Statcast. He attributed the increased velo to his work with a core velocity belt and the time he¡¯s had to embrace the mentality of a single-inning reliever: ¡°Knowing that I¡¯m going out there and I can let it eat.¡±
2) Rising movement
Montgomery's fastball is also an elite "rising" fastball.?
It only drops eight inches from his hand to the plate, the least drop of any lefty four-seamer?in 2025 (only Padres righty Jeremiah Estrada's four-seamer drops less among all pitchers). The less a pitch drops, the more it seems like it's "rising" to the hitter. A rising fastball is the type of fastball that generates swings and misses, because the batter swings under the baseball.?
Gravity causes all pitches to drop, but if you remove the effect of gravity, you're left with the amount of movement the pitcher creates himself from how he throws the pitch. That number is called induced vertical break. Montgomery's four-seamer generates 19.3 inches of induced rise?-- which is a ton of rise. It's three more inches of rise than the average fastball thrown by a big league lefty, and that makes a big difference when it comes to a fastball getting whiffs.
3) Release extension
There's one more factor that makes Montgomery's fastball even more explosive. He gets great release extension -- in other words, he drives down the mound and releases the fastball closer to the batter.?
Montgomery is 6-foot-2, but he releases his fastball from a point 6 feet, 8 inches in front of the rubber. That's a lot of extension relative to his height, and really, it's a lot of extension, period. The average MLB left-hander gets 6 feet, 6 inches of extension on a four-seamer.
What that means is, the hitter has even less time to react to Montgomery's fastball -- and that fastball is already coming in at 100 mph. So somehow, his 100 mph heater seems even faster.?
Montgomery's combination of extreme velocity, rise and extension from the left side is very rare. By the metrics, there's really only one comp for Montgomery's fastball in the 10 years of Statcast tracking: Chapman in his dominant seasons with the Reds, Cubs and Yankees from 2015-17.
Montgomery's 4-seamer, 2025:?
? 99.8 mph avg. velo / 8" total drop / 19.3" induced rise / 6.7' extension
Chapman's 4-seamer, 2015-17:?
? 100.4 mph avg. velo / 9" total drop / 18.4" induced rise / 6.8' extension
Chapman has set the bar for overpowering heaters in this era of baseball, and Montgomery's four-seamer might be the closest thing we've seen to it.