On Tuesday, CardinalSportsReport.com received confirmation that Stanford sophomore outfielder/right-handed pitcher Braden Montgomery has entered the transfer portal. The news comes as a shock to those who follow the Cardinal baseball program. The Cardinal have reached the College World Series three seasons in a row and Montgomery is widely expected to be a first round pick in the 2024 MLB Draft. Many think he could go as high or even higher than Tommy Troy did in this year’s draft, who went 12th overall to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Why a guy with such high draft stock would enter the portal on the surface seems like a head scratcher.
Before getting into possible reasons for why Montgomery is making this move, let’s quickly recap the season he just had. Montgomery batted .336 for 17 home runs, 61 RBIs, a .611 slugging percentage, and a .461 on base percentage. His 17 home runs were tied for second on the team along with Alberto Rios (who went in the 3rd round to the Los Angeles Angels) and only one home run back of Troy, who hit 18.
Defensively, Montgomery had a .981 fielding percentage and just two errors. On the mound, he had a 1-2 record to go along with a 12.21 ERA. While his pitching as a whole wasn’t great, he made strides towards the end of the season, becoming a solid weapon on the mound in the Pac-12 and NCAA tournaments.
When you add it all up, Montgomery had a really strong sophomore season. Perhaps not as strong as he was hoping to have, but he is still on track to being a high-mid first round selection in the 2024 MLB Draft. His hitting and outfield abilities alone warrant such a selection and then when you add on his pitching potential, there’s really a lot for MLB teams to like.
So with that all being said, why would he enter the transfer portal? I need to stress that I do not know what is going on in Montgomery’s head and that I have not been given any official reason for why he is making this move. There are however a few possibilities that have sprung to mind.
The first is NIL. It could be that Montgomery is looking for a big NIL pay day and entering the transfer portal drives up the price of real estate. Wanting to see what the market is like makes some deal of sense and he can only find out what that market is like if he enters the portal.
The second reason could be that Montgomery isn’t happy with how he was utilized this season. Towards the end of the season, especially in the NCAA tournament, he became a DH for a lot of the games, limiting his chance to show off his defensive abilities. Of course, Stanford did this to keep him more rested for pitching, but maybe he wants to show that he can play in the outfield and then go straight to pitching.
Finally, there could be a combination of him wanting to play closer to home and also have a better chance of winning a national championship. Montgomery is from Mississippi and perhaps he wants to go play for an SEC team closer to home that he feels offers him a better shot at a national championship. While Stanford has made the College World Series three seasons in a row, they’re going to have a hard time getting back there for a fourth straight year. Him wanting to not only get back to Omaha again but also stay there longer could be part of the equation as well. Especially if he can combine that with playing closer to home.
There are of course other reasons that could also be at play, but those three seem to be the leading contenders. There’s also a possibility that Montgomery comes back to The Farm for a junior season. Especially if this is an NIL driven decision. Stanford could decide to put together some sort of package to keep him happy and/or convince him that if he plays for them next season, that’s his best shot to make big bucks with his first major league contract. It’ll be interesting to see how this all plays out and where Montgomery decides to play his third and presumably final season of college baseball.
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