Miguel Montero

Miguel Angel Montero Fernandez (born July 9, 1983) is a Venezuelan professional baseball catcher for the Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played in MLB for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Montero is a two-time MLB All-Star.

Baseball career

Arizona Diamondbacks

He was signed as an undrafted free agent in 2001.

Montero during his tenure with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2010

Montero made his major league debut on September 6, 2006, against the Florida Marlins. In that same game, Aníbal Sánchez of the Marlins would throw a no-hitter against the Diamondbacks. Montero would play in a total of 6 games that year, recording a .250 batting average.

In 2007 and 2008, Montero platooned with Chris Snyder at the catching position for the D-Backs and batted a .224 average with 10 home runs in 2007 and batting .255 with 5 home runs in 2008.

Montero began the 2009 season slowly, hitting just three home runs and having just a .200 batting average through the first two months. However, when Snyder was put on the disabled list in June, Montero's playing time increased markedly and he finished the season with a career-high .294 batting average.

Montero caught Edwin Jackson's no-hitter on June 25, 2010.^[1] He would finish the season with a .266 batting average and 9 home runs.

In 2011, after hitting .272 with 10 home runs and 45 RBI, Montero was selected to his first All-Star Game. He also threw out 40% of baserunners trying to steal, a career high.

Montero was named to his second All-Star game in July 2014, replacing the injured Yadier Molina for the National League.^[2]

Chicago Cubs

Following the 2014 season, the Diamondbacks traded Montero to the Chicago Cubs for minor leaguers Jeferson Mejia and Zack Godley.^[3][4] Before a hand injury in mid-July, Montero had appeared in 73 games for the Cubs with 217 at bats. He had 10 home runs and 32 runs-batted-in with a batting average of .230. On August 12, 2015, Montero hit a walk-off home run to give the Cubs a 3-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers in the 10th inning to extend the Cubs winning streak to 6 games.

On August 30, 2015, Montero caught Jake Arrieta's no-hitter against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

On October 15, 2016, during Game 1 of the 2016 NLCS, Montero hit a pinch-hit grand slam in the 8th inning to break a 3-3 tie and lead the Cubs to a 8-4 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was only the third pinch-hit grand slam in postseason history.

On November 2, 2016, Montero entered Game 7 of the 2016 World Series in the bottom of the 9th inning as a defensive replacement for Cubs backup catcher David Ross. In the top of the 10th inning, having batted only .091 (1-11) in the postseason to that point, Montero hit a single to left field which drove in Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo and improved the team's lead to 8-6. Since the Cleveland Indians only scored one run in the bottom of the 10th inning to make the score 8-7, Montero's RBI provided the game's decisive run and sealed the Cubs' victory.^[5] After the series, Montero expressed his disappointment in losing playing time to Willson Contreras and David Ross.^[6]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Miguel Montero.

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• Venezuelan Professional Baseball League statistics
• miguel montero on Twitter