NY Mets contract with Frankie Montas has the same feel as another recent deal

Our expectations aren’t so different for Frankie Montas as they were for Omar Narvaez

Back when Narvaez signed, fans could easily look ahead with the expectation that Alvarez would, by 2024, have some grip on the starting catcher spot. And yet a player option appeared in his deal that would hamstring the Mets into eating more salary to have a veteran catcher go away just as they did with James McCann before Narvaez.

Montas had a better year than Narvaez did prior to joining the Mets. Perhaps due to the recent bias toward valuing pitchers a lot more, it seems less risky in some ways. Even if he did repeat the 7-11 record and 4.84 ERA he combined to have last season, there’s value to a guy who can eat up 150+ innings.

There’s a problem, though. Montas has only ever done this twice in his career: last year and 2021. He’s no pup. He’ll turn 32 in March. A lack of track record of staying healthy and only having one truly memorable season should have us wondering just how high his ceiling could actually reach.

Believe it or not, expectations weren’t so low when the Mets signed Narvaez. He had hit well in the past. His defense was solid. He regularly threw out just below the league average of attempted base stealers. Swinging from the left side, fans were able to convince themselves a platoon situation could get the most out of him. How wrong we were.