DSJ Quick Take: Rangers Activate Jordan Montgomery, Designate Nolan Kingham
The Texas Rangers reinstated left-hander Jordan Montgomery from the 60-day injured list Friday, ending a rehab from a second UCL reconstruction that cost him all of 2025 and the first four months of this season. Nolan Kingham was designated for assignment to clear the 40-man spot.
- Where does Montgomery fit? Manager Skip Schumaker said he will pitch out of the bullpen, with no defined role set yet.
- What did the rehab look like? Eight starts between Frisco and Round Rock, a 3.75 ERA over 24 innings, 21 strikeouts, and 3 walks, capped by 5 scoreless innings on 86 pitches Aug. 2.
- Who else moves? Cal Quantrill shifts to the bullpen after a 3.34 ERA in 7 starts covering for Jack Leiter, leaving a rotation of Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, MacKenzie Gore, Kumar Rocker, and Cody Bradford.
- What’s next? Texas opens a three-game set against Baltimore on Friday at 7:15 p.m. CT at Globe Life Field, on Rangers Sports Network.
ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers activated left-hander Jordan Montgomery from the 60-day injured list on Friday, putting him on a major league roster for the first time in nearly two years. Right-hander Nolan Kingham was designated for assignment to open a spot on the 40-man roster.
Montgomery, 33, last pitched in the majors on Sept. 22, 2024, for the Arizona Diamondbacks. He underwent hybrid UCL reconstruction surgery in March 2025 and missed the entire season. Texas placed him on the 60-day injured list on March 8.
Kingham made his major league debut Monday, allowing one run on one hit and 2 walks with 1 strikeout over 1 inning. The Rangers had selected his contract from Triple-A Round Rock on Aug. 1. He carried a 6.99 ERA over 46.1 innings with Round Rock this season.
Texas activated fellow left-hander Cody Bradford on Wednesday, in a 6-0 win over the San Francisco Giants. Bradford was working back from his own UCL surgery.
Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said Montgomery will pitch out of the bullpen, and that Texas has not settled on a defined role for him there.
“We’re excited to have Monty back,” Schumaker said, via MLB.com. “Obviously, a long road back. He’ll be used in the bullpen. What role that is, I think that’s to be determined based on what we need and who’s available, who’s not available, a lot of different things. I don’t think there’s this defined role that we have for him. I think we’re just at the point where we need our best guys going. We feel like he’s one of our best, obviously.”
Montgomery made 8 rehab starts between Double-A Frisco and Triple-A Round Rock over the past six-plus weeks. He worked 24 innings with a 3.75 ERA, 21 strikeouts, and 3 walks. His final rehab outing came Sunday, Aug. 2, when he threw 5 scoreless innings on 86 pitches for Round Rock.
Velocity has been the open question through the assignment. In his July 25 outing for Round Rock, Montgomery averaged 90.6 mph with both his fastball and his sinker. That sat roughly 1 mph below where he was in 2024, and 2.5 mph below his 2023 marks.
Rehab assignments for pitchers ordinarily cap at 30 days. Clubs can apply for 10-day extensions for pitchers returning from UCL surgery, with a maximum of three, which pushes the window to 60 days.
Cal Quantrill posted a 3.34 ERA in 7 starts filling in for Jack Leiter. Leiter had arthroscopic surgery on his right ankle and went on the injured list June 21, retroactive to June 19.
The bullpen has been a man down since the end of July. Jakob Junis landed on the 15-day injured list on July 30, retroactive to July 29, with a left adductor strain.
Schumaker said Quantrill is also moving to relief, with his role undetermined as well.
“We do feel good about the options [in the bullpen],” Schumaker explained. “We feel good about multiple innings. We have some bridge guys now to get to the back end, which is always exciting. [Jakob] Junis is feeling better today as well, which is great to hear. So it’s starting to look like we have some different options out there in different spots.”
Texas Rangers Rotation Stays at Five
Texas will go with a five-man rotation of Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, MacKenzie Gore, Kumar Rocker, and Bradford.
Entering the weekend, deGrom is 7-7 with a 3.96 ERA and 135 strikeouts against 29 walks over 113.2 innings. He took the loss last Saturday against the Houston Astros, going 3.1 innings and allowing 5 runs on 7 hits with 5 walks and 3 strikeouts.
Gore came to Texas in a January trade with the Washington Nationals. Rocker was the third overall pick in the 2022 draft, and the Rangers signed him for $5.2 million that July.
Jordan Montgomery’s Second Run in Texas
The Rangers signed Montgomery to a one-year contract announced Feb. 13, worth $1.25 million plus performance bonuses. The Dallas Morning News first reported the terms. Schumaker was the St. Louis Cardinals bench coach in 2022, the season Montgomery was traded from the New York Yankees to St. Louis.
Texas acquired Montgomery from the Cardinals at the 2023 trade deadline. He went 4-2 with a 2.79 ERA in 11 regular-season games down the stretch, then went 3-1 with a 2.90 ERA in 6 postseason appearances during the franchise’s first World Series championship run. That included 2 1/3 innings of relief in the Game 7 clinching win of the ALCS in Houston.
He signed with Arizona at the end of March 2024 for one year and $25 million, with a $20 million vesting player option. Montgomery went 8-7 with a 6.23 ERA over 117 innings in 25 appearances, including 21 starts, and struck out 83. He missed close to a month with a knee injury and finished the year in the bullpen.
Montgomery said he and Bradford leaned on each other through their rehabs.
“I’m excited just to get back out there and help the team finally,” Montgomery said. “I’m just trying to help the team. So whatever they tell me to do. … It’s been a lot of work and a lot of determination. It’s been a long time. Being around Cody, we would kind of feed off of each other. It’s been a long time for both of us, so seeing him throw well was really awesome.”
Texas enters Friday at 57-58, second in the AL West and 1.5 games behind Houston. First pitch against the Baltimore Orioles is set for 7:15 p.m. CT at Globe Life Field.
