page_title: Jesús Montero
section_title: Minor leagues
hierarchical_section_title: Jesús Montero / Professional career / Minor leagues
caption_attribution_description: English: Jesús Montero 日本語: ヘスス・モンテロ
context_page_description: Jesús Alejandro Montero López is a Venezuelan professional baseball catcher who is a free agent. He has played in Major League Baseball for the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners.
  Signed by the Yankees in 2006, Montero became one of the best prospects in baseball. He debuted in MLB with the Yankees during the 2011 season, and was traded to the Mariners for Michael Pineda during the 2011-12 offseason. After his rookie year in 2012, Montero struggled with the Mariners in 2013 before ending his season with a 50-game suspension for his involvement in the Biogenesis scandal. He spent most of the 2014 and 2015 seasons in the minor leagues. His last major league game occurred on October 3, 2015 for the Mariners. Montero was signed by the Toronto Blue Jays in 2016 and the Baltimore Orioles in 2017 but spent his time on their minor league teams. He was signed by the Sultanes de Monterrey in 2017 and Generales de Durango in 2018 but was released from both teams.
context_section_description: On July 2, 2006, Montero, an amateur free agent, signed a professional contract with the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB), receiving a $1.6 million signing bonus. Baseball America considered Montero to be the best player available and the best power hitter in the 2006 international free agent class. In 2007, at age 17, Montero made his professional debut in Minor League Baseball for the Gulf Coast Yankees of the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League. As a result of his performance, the Yankees invited Montero to spring training in 2008, where he hit a home run in his only at bat before being assigned to minor league camp.  He spent the 2008 season with the Charleston RiverDogs of the Class A South Atlantic League, where he batted .326 with 17 home runs and 87 runs batted in (RBIs), with two stolen bases. Baseball America rated Montero as the Yankees' second best prospect after the 2008 season.
  Montero began the 2009 season with the Tampa Yankees, the Class A-Advanced Florida State League affiliate of the Yankees. On June 3, 2009, the Yankees promoted Montero the Trenton Thunder of the Class AA Eastern League.  He hit .317 with nine home runs and 33 RBIs in 44 games with the Thunder. Despite having played only a portion of the 2009 season in Trenton, Montero was added to the Eastern League All-Star roster. Baseball America ranked Montero as the third-best prospect in baseball at midseason in 2009. He was named to appear in the All-Star Futures Game for the second year in a row, which features baseball's best minor league prospects. Montero's season ended prematurely when he sustained a broken finger while catching.
  At the start of the 2010 season, Baseball America ranked Montero as the Yankees' best prospect, and as the fourth-best prospect in all of baseball. The Yankees invited Montero to spring training, where Yankees' hitting coach Kevin Long declared him ready for the majors as a hitter, though the team wanted to see improvement on defense. Montero spent the 2010 season with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees of the Triple-A International League. Early in the season, Montero struggled, but he improved after the All-Star break. Montero admitted that he did not spend as much time practicing in the batting cage as he should, and that Alex Rodriguez started fining Montero $100 for every day he didn't work out in the cage.
  At the 2010 MLB trade deadline, the Yankees and Seattle Mariners almost completed a deal that would have sent Montero, Zach McAllister, and David Adams to the Mariners for Cliff Lee. When the teams shared medical reports, the Mariners were concerned by Adams' health. As a result, they chose to trade Lee to the Texas Rangers in a package centered around Justin Smoak.
  Montero was named to appear in the International League All-Star game He finished the season with a .289 batting average, 21 home runs, and 75 RBIs in 123 games. Montero was honored on the International League's Postseason All-Star team, and was chosen as the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Player of the Year.
  Baseball America rated Montero as the third-best prospect in baseball before the 2011 season. Montero contended for a spot on the Yankees' 25-man roster in spring training in 2011.  Yankees officials believed Montero was ready to be the starting catcher, which would have enabled Jorge Posada to shift to designated hitter, though the signing of Russell Martin allowed the Yankees to be patient with Montero. A spring training injury to Francisco Cervelli gave the Yankees an opportunity to use Montero as Martin's backup, but Montero performed poorly with the pressure, and the team decided it was best for Montero to play every day in the minor leagues, rather than two games a week in the majors. Montero began the 2011 season in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Montero batted .288 with 18 home runs and 67 RBIs for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on the season.
caption: Montero with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees in 2010
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