The moves are already starting to leak out for the worst team in the league Arizona Diamondbacks. In an offseason that is rumored to be full of trades and transactions focusing around acquiring starting pitching for their crowded young and highly talented infield it seems as if Tony La Russa is also looking for a new captain behind the plate.
During the trade deadline this past season, Tony made moves quickly getting rid of Martin Prado, Brandon McCarthy, and Gerardo Parra, and while they traded away Prado they received a very good and talented catcher in Peter O'Brien. Peter was featured in the Arizona Fall League’s All-Star Game this past weekend showcasing his talents. While most scouts see his bat as a definite plus, many scouts picture his defense as "Raw", and almost nobody expected him to be ready for the starting job in Arizona this rapidly.
Montero is still owed almost $40 million over the next three seasons and the team has been reportedly attempting to cut their payroll this season from $112 million down to at least $100 million. Now while the club already has over $68 million locked up in contracts already the D'backs still have key players who are on one year deals as well as arbitration hearings. For players such as Wade Miley, Addison Reed, Cliff Pennington, and Mark Trumbo it seems as if that $100 million mark will be reached very soon and without much flexibility.
With Montero now on the trading block along with almost all of their infielders, a package deal could sweeten the deal for a #2 or #3 starting pitcher. The Diamondback rotation last year had the least amount of wins of all rotations in the majors and they are in need of a workhorse type pitcher to chew up a lot of innings.
Montero is into his 30s now and last season only two more catchers caught more innings than him and over the past four season he leads all the majors in innings caught. Teams are very worrisome about the fact that they fear Montero will wear down quickly. However, teams do see a veteran catcher that could help their team and if they can ignore the price for this aging catcher a trade could be in the works as we speak.