Yankees news: Monty makes his move

Yankees news: Monty makes his move

ESPN | Jeff Passan: The final big free agent domino has fallen. Former Yankees southpaw Jordan Montgomery has reportedly signed a one-year, $25 million deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks that includes a second-year player option for $20 million if he makes at least 10 starts in 2024. There are escalators for the value of the option based on how much he exceeds that total, too. The “we tried” statements are already coming out of Yankees camp. Inspiring, huh?

MLB.com | Brent Maguire: Yes, the most important news from yesterday was for all the children. The Captain, Aaron Judge, is due to make his PAW Patrol debut. Well, it’s actually a spin-off called Rubble & Crew. As a noted dog dad, Judge said, “…it was a blast to join Rubble and his friends.” In all seriousness, this is great for the growth of the game among younger audiences. As we’ve seen the NBA and NFL do a great job marketing to the youth, MLB is trying to join the movement.

NBC News | Katherine Itoh: Oscar Gonzalez suffered a freak injury on Monday night in Mexico City. He fractured his orbital bone on his own foul ball. Gonzalez had already been reassigned to Triple-A where he will attempt to develop his offensive game in hopes of regaining his 2022 lightning. It’s not clear how long it’ll be until he gets to do that.

FanGraphs | Paul Sporer: Even with the uncertainty of Gerrit Cole in the air, the Yankees’ rotation still grades out as average according to FanGraphs’ positional power rankings. At No. 12, the Yankees are just one spot behind their rival Houston Astros. Marcus Stroman is expected to lead the way in volume with the rest of the rotation not far behind. Despite the question marks in the rotation, there is a still a world where some things fall right and they end up in the top 10 in the league. (Montgomery probably would’ve helped. Oh well.)

NJ.com | Cayden Steele: Randy Johnson. One of the best pitchers of all time. One of the most imposing pitchers of all time. But more importantly, one of the tallest photographers of all time. Johnson has been seen on NFL fields taking photographs for a few years now. In this piece, he spoke about his passion for photography and making the step up to the big leagues by photographing in Africa. Pretty neat post-career hobby.