Tom Brennan: Willie Montanez & Fences; & Int'l $$ and Players

Thunderous first baseman Pete Alonso may or may not get an extension from the Mets.  Speaking of 1B's...

Back in the late 1970s, for nearly 2 seasons, Willie Montanez was their first baseman for a while.

Willie had flair, which I liked, and an interesting career.

When he had just turned age 18 in 1966, he got up twice without a hit.

At age 22, he was finally back for 25 at bats,

The following year, in 1971, he really arrived.  

He was #2 in the Rookie of the Year competition, with 27 doubles, 30 HRs, and 99 RBIs for the Phillies.

He hit 20 dingers in just one other year, with (who else?) Atlanta in 1978.

He hit .304 in 1974, but had just 7 HRs (and 79 RBIs) in 143 games,

In 1975, just 10 HRs, but racked up a hefty 101 RBIs, .302.

1976? .317, with just 11 HRs and 84 RBIs.

1977? 20 HRs, 68 RBIs, and .287 for Atlanta in 136 games.

Close to Keith Hernandez numbers.

In 1978, at age 30, the Mets got him, and he puts up 17 HRs, 96 RBIs (nice), but slipped to .256.

I used to watch every game I could when I was young, and saw many a Willie Montanez fly ball caught on the warning track in the pitchers' park known as Shea Stadium.   

Just 7 of his 17 HRs that year were at Shea.

In 1979, Willie hit a lousy .234 with the Mets with a sickly 5 HRs in 109 games.  He simply did not hit well in Shea.  Was he done, or just in need to get outa Dodge?

The Mets traded him mid-season to Texas, and "halleluias" were heard  inside Willie's house.  He was headed to a HITTERS' park.

So, again, was his paltry output in the first 4 (Mets) months of 1979 a sign that he was washed up?  

Nope, it was simply a sign that he hit crappy in crappy hitting Shea.  

In 38 games with Texas, he exploded, as he hit 8 HRs and .319. 

He added a decent, but very low-powered year in 1980 in his age 32 season, and did very little (just 1 HR, 8 RBIs) thereafter. 

Career .275, with 802 RBIs, when all was said and done.

Summary: 

Willie was a fine hitter and run producer.  His HR output was sporadic.  

But he (no surprise!) hit poorly at Shea.  

At good old Shea, both as a Met and as a Mets opponent. he had 766 plate appearances, and a weak slash line of .234/.294/.326.  

Everywhere else, he hit a vastly better .280/.330/.410.

Two other thoughts:

1) JT Schwartz should try emulate Montanez, who hit well and drove in a good number of runs in many a season without all that many HRs, which seems to be the M.O. of JT in the minors so far.

2) Willie is another of many examples you can find of someone who was a fine hitter up to age 30-31, but who faded fast in his early 30s, another example of the dangers of giving Gargantuan Pete a very long term, big bucks deal.  Those guys in their 30s decline rapidly, almost as a rule more than an exception. 

P.S.   

As fellow Mets writer Remember 1969 wrote a few years ago:

The New York Mets traded Jon Matlack and John Milner to the Texas Rangers for Willie Montanez, Ken Henderson and Tom Grieve  (Dec 08, 1977)

My thoughts?

Jon Matlack LOVED Shea Stadium, going 40-35, 2.49 in 680 IP there.  

Overall career ERA?  3.18.

So, outside of Shea, his ERA was around 3.50, a run higher than his Shea ERA.  Pitchers loved Shea.  Pitchers' Park.  Kind of like Citifield in that regard.

INTERNATIONAL POOL MONEY:

As the signing period begins in mid-January, running through December 15, here (per a Baseball America article as of last April) is how much each team could spend:

Signings of $10,000 or less do not count against a team’s bonus pool.

Below is how much each team has available to spend in the 2024 international period.  Five different pool amounts exist for the 30 teams, with the Mets in the middle tier:

Signing Bonus Pool B: $7,114,800

D-backs
Guardians
Orioles
Pirates
Rockies
Royals

Signing Bonus Pool A: $6,520,000

A’s
Brewers
Mariners
Marlins
Rays
Reds
Tigers
Twins

$5,925,000 Pool:

Astros
Braves
Dodgers
Giants
Mets
Nationals
Red Sox
White Sox

$5,152,200 Pool: 

Angels
Blue Jays
Cardinals
Cubs

$4,652,200 Pool:

Padres
Phillies
Rangers

Yankees"

(Apparently, the differences between teams' spendable dollars, without further research, have at least in part to do with Competitive Balance Round picks). 

Baseball America lists these names for apparent key international signings to come for the Mets:

New York Mets ($5,925,000)

Yovanny Rodriguez, C, Venezuela
Edward Lantigua, SS, Dominican Republic
Yensi Rivas, SS, Dominican Republic
Leandy Mella, SS, Dominican Republic
Bohan Adderley, SS/CF, Bahamas
Anthony Delgado, OF, Dominican Republic
Adolfo Miranda, OF, Cuba
Maxgregori Harvey, RHP, Dominican Republic

8 players (presumably listed in order of perceived importance), only one of whom (at # 8) is a pitcher.  

Few are the pitchers, it seems, that make it from International Signing to being eventually a NY Mets pitcher in Queens.