Frankie Montas’s terrible 2025 season has taken yet another turn for the worse, as the struggling right-hander has been placed on 15-day IL (retroactive to August 22nd) due to a right elbow UCL injury. To replace him on the active roster, the Mets have called Huascar Brazobán back up from Syracuse.
There is not yet word on the extent of the injury or how long it may have been impacting Montas, but it could certainly provide some explanation for the veteran’s difficulties this year. After having the beginning of his season impacted by a lat injury in spring training, he’s struggled mightily since making his debut in June, as evidenced by his 6.28 ERA over nine appearances. Since losing his rotation spot to Nolan McLean, he has been subjected to mop-up duty in the bullpen—an awkward use of a roster spot for a team that needs all the help it can get to hold onto their meager lead for a playoff spot. Now we will need to wait and see if Montas’s injury is significant enough to knock him out for the rest of the season and potentially beyond (also, for the skeptics who believe this may be a Billy Eppler-esque phantom IL situation: it’s tough to rule anything out, but it seems unlikely that this is the injury designation the Mets would go with if they were just trying to open up a roster spot).
In the meantime, Brazobán shall be making his return after being shipped to the minors at the end of July. After a stellar start to the 2025 season, the 35-year-old reliever lost his place in the circle of trust after putting up an 8.50 ERA since the beginning of June (with his walk total rising all the way to 8.5 per nine during that time frame). His topline numbers in the minors don’t look stellar (6.75 ERA in seven appearances), though seven of the eight runs he’s allowed came in just one game and his walk numbers have gone down. Since his departure, the Mets have been lacking bullpen options who are capable of going multiple innings, so they will likely hope that Brazobán can fill that role as he did in the beginning of the season.
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