Jesus Montero Appears To Have Really Dropped 40 Pounds This Winter

Unfortunately for Jesus Montero, his weight became an issue last offseason when he claimed all he did was eat and showed up at Mariners camp looking way out of shape. Later in the year, after he’d been demoted to the minors, the weight issues cropped up again when a Seattle scout heckled him during a game, prompting the one-time catcher to throw an ice cream sandwich at the scout, whom was fired.

A couple weeks ago Montero, like many other baseball players, claimed he dropped weight (40 pounds to be specific) and was in the best shape of his life. If these Spring Training 2015 pictures from Seattle Times writer Ryan Divish count for anything, it appears Montero wasn’t kidding and dropped a ton of weight.

Here’s a picture of Montero taken by Divish from last year’s Mariners’ camp.

Body types or what a guy looks like in Spring Training really shouldn’t be an issue. Baseball history has repeatedly shown us that literally any body shape or size can find some success on the diamond. Part of the beauty of baseball is that you can be an either Adam Dunn or Jose Altuve and still make an All Star team.

Montero’s weight issues are a little different than what we saw earlier this week with Pablo Sandoval at Red Sox camp, mainly since it was something the Mariners front office became concerned with as 2014 pressed on. If nothing else, credit Montero for dedicating himself and dropping the weight.

He’s still only 25 going into the season and considering the Mariners traded Michael Pineda for him, they’re still going to give him a chance. Montero only played in six games in 2014 and has a lifetime line of .251/.291/.378 in parts of three seasons in Seattle, but his bat did have a lot of pop during his rookie year with the Yankees. Although he’s no longer projected to be a catcher, Montero could easily unseat Logan Morrison at first base for the Mariners going forward.

Anyways, we can officially remove the “Fat” Jesus Montero.

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