Elehuris Montero - 5/12/22

Prospect spotlight on the Rockies' Elehuris Montero

Prospect Spotlight 🔦

Elehuris Montero, 1B/3B/DH - R/R - 23 y/o, 6' 3" / 215 - Rockies (AAA) #6 prospect

Montero is most well known as one the top pieces in the Nolan Arenado trade. After joining the Rockies organization, Montero dominated at the plate at both AA and AAA, slashing .278/.360/.529 with 28 homers (121 wRC+). So far this season at AAA Montero has hit a robust .288/.359/.462 (108 wRC+) with a 7% walk rate, 17% strikeout rate, and 6 home runs.

Montero has always been an aggressive hitter, but he’s become more patient as he’s continued to develop his approach at the plate. He’s gone from seeing the fewest pitches per plate appearances in the minor leagues to a modest (but still above-average) swing rate of 50% this season. As far as his plate discipline goes, his chase rate (31%) has been in line with MLB average and his zone swing rate is 4 points higher than MLB average. He’s also maintained a healthy whiff rate of 12% overall. It’s also worth noting that one area where he’s significantly worse than average is contact on pitches outside of the zone (53%). This isn’t totally insignificant, but I would be much more concerned if his contact rate on pitches in the zone was below-average, which it isn’t (89%). Of course this data is in AAA, and it’s likely it won’t all translate, but it’s encouraging to see his approach improve.