Cardinals: Yankees manager responds to Jordan Montgomery’s criticism

Yankees manager Aaron Boone responded to St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Jordan Montgomery’s criticism of his time in New York.

At this point, St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Jordan Montgomery’s criticism of his former team, the New York Yankees, is well documented. He revealed that the organization didn’t have much faith in his fastball while adamantly stating that his new team has much more confidence in his ability to throw the heater.

Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake responded to the criticism. Now, Yankees manager Aaron Boone has responded, calling Montgomery’s comments “unfair.” In comments to reporters, including NJ.com, Boone said: “Monty had been a really good pitcher for us and he’s gone there and he’s had a good start to his Cardinals career. Pitching in a large ballpark in the National League Central, frankly, is a different animal than pitching in the American League East.”

To be fair, Boone isn’t wrong. Pitching in the AL East against some of the games elite teams and pitching in the hitter-friendly Yankee Stadium is much different than pitching in the NL Central and in a pitcher-friendly Busch Stadium. That being said, Montgomery has performed admirably in the situations that he is being put into in St. Louis, and that’s exactly what he is supposed to do.

Just look at his numbers in St. Louis: Montgomery, 29, has a 2.05 ERA in eight starts and a 44/9 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He has made parting with Harrison Bader, believed to at one point be the Cardinals’ long-term center fielder, into an afterthought. And he has turned the Cardinals’ rotation into a strength and positioned the team to be able to compete with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta Braves and New York Mets in the postseason.

So yes, what Montgomery is doing in St. Louis – throwing more fastballs – is clearly working. The Yankees did not like it, of course, but the results speak for themselves. And it appears that getting the left-hander out of New York was best for both Montgomery and the Yankees.