ARLINGTON -- The Rangers have been looking forward to reinforcements on the pitching staff for months.
Finally, those reinforcements have arrived.
The Rangers activated left-hander Jordan Montgomery off the 60-day injured list prior to Friday’s game against the Orioles. Fellow UCL rehabber Cody Bradford was activated on Wednesday, in Texas’ win over the Giants.
Montgomery, 33, last pitched in the Majors on Sept. 22, 2024, as a member of the Diamondbacks. He missed all of last season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in March 2025.
Montgomery made eight Minor League rehab starts between Double-A Frisco and Triple-A Round Rock, pitching to a 3.75 ERA across 25 appearances. He looked particularly sharp in his last outing on Aug. 2, tossing five scoreless innings with five strikeouts for Round Rock.
“We’re excited to have Monty back,” said manager Skip Schumaker. “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.”
Schumaker said that both Montgomery and Cal Quantrill -- who posted a 3.34 ERA in seven starts filling in for an injured Jack Leiter (ankle) -- will both go to the bullpen, though exact roles are to be determined for each.
“We do feel good about the options [in the bullpen],” Schumacher said. “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.”
The Rangers will go with a five-man rotation: Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, MacKenzie Gore, Kumar Rocker and Bradford.
The Rangers signed Montgomery to a one-year deal in Spring Training, hopeful that he would fortify their pitching staff in the back half of the season. It’s unclear whether Montgomery will be deployed as a starter or a reliever, or perhaps in some combination of both roles.
Montgomery returns to Texas as a postseason hero, having helped guide the Rangers to the franchise’s first World Series championship in 2023. He pitched to a 2.79 ERA in 11 games down the stretch of the ‘23 season, then went 3-1 with a 2.90 ERA in six appearances with the Rangers that postseason.
“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.”