ARLINGTON —  Rafael Montero elected free agency for the first time in his career with little fanfare or expectation. He had once been the Mets’ No. 2 pitching prospect entering the 2014 season. Four years later, he was 28 years old and had just missed the entire 2018 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. 

The year before, Montero had posted a 5.52 ERA in the Mets’ rotation, his fourth season trying to find a foothold in the big leagues without much success. Add to that a surgically repaired right elbow, and Montero’s future appeared dubious. 

Who would want him now? 

His chance arrived in Texas. 

The Rangers restarted Montero’s career and repurposed him into a reliever, giving new life to the soft-spoken Dominican righthander who is now a veteran staple in the Astros’ bullpen. 

“I was very grateful for, obviously God for allowing me to be able to get back into baseball, and to them (the Rangers) for just trusting in me,” Montero said this week through an interpreter. 

Gratitude did not beget graciousness. On Thursday in the American League Championship Series, Montero hurled a shutout ninth inning and officially closed the door on the Rangers in the Astros’ Game 4 victory, the second scoreless outing he has delivered in the series. 

In five innings pitched for Houston in four games this postseason, Montero has not allowed a run while surrendering one hit and two walks. He struck out eight of the 18 batters he faced against Minnesota and Texas. 

Montero is no stranger to facing his former team in the playoffs. Last postseason, the former Mariner helped the Astros eliminate Seattle in the ALDS by throwing 3⅓ scoreless innings across all three games of the series. 

“I've always said I can't fall in love with a team just because wherever I get the opportunity, that's where I need to get the job done,” Montero said. “At the end of the day, it's business, so I kind of have had to forget that I was there. Obviously I now pitch for the Houston Astros and try to get the job done here. Eternally grateful for them (the Rangers) for giving me an opportunity but that's all in the past.”

The business of baseball can be harsh, as Montero learned when the Mets outrighted him at the end of his lost 2018 season. Montero said he wasn’t even throwing yet post-op when the Rangers signed him to a minor-league deal that winter. At the team’s spring training facility in Arizona, he began an arduous rehab process and started to rethink his future. 

Montero said the Rangers offered him a chance to try and start games. He declined. 

“I said no, I’d rather pitch out of the bullpen and try to take care of the arm a little better,” he said. 

In 2019, Montero made his season debut for the Rangers on July 23 and went on to pitch 22 games out of the bullpen with a 2.48 ERA. He found that his pitch velocity increased following the surgery, whether a result of the operation itself or of throwing fewer innings in his newfound relief role. 

“At first it was a little uncomfortable,” Montero said of his transition from starter to reliever. “Thankfully, here we are a couple years later, still pitching.” 

That season shaped the ones that followed as Montero finally confirmed his belief that he could be an effective major league pitcher. A rough 2021 season in Seattle saw him traded midseason to Houston, where he made just four appearances before an injury shut him down for the season. 

The following year, Montero bloomed into a formidable leverage arm and performed well enough to sign a three-year, $34.5 million contract extension with the Astros prior to the 2023 season. The deal made Montero one of the highest-paid relievers in baseball. 

The coronation of his new contract period did not go as planned. Montero had a 6.57 ERA in 37 appearances prior to the All-Star break with an opponent OPS of .923. The Astros began to avoid using him in high-leverage spots, relegating him to cleanup duty. Montero worked to rebuild his confidence and to regain the staff’s trust, and posted a 4.22 ERA over his last 12 outings of the regular season. 

“I think it's no secret to anyone that the beginning of the year wasn't what I wanted, wasn't what anyone wanted, with the way that I was pitching,” Montero said. “But thankfully after the All-Star game I was able to make that adjustment and be able to pitch a little bit better, and super grateful to be here in the postseason. Hopefully, God willing, we will be able to win again.”

In two postseasons with the Astros, Montero is holding opposing hitters to a .128 batting average and .476 OPS with two extra-base hits through 14 appearances. 

“Montero, he's a veteran guy,” Astros reliever Bryan Abreu said. “He knows how to do everything. He knows how to bounce back from really bad moments. That's baseball. That's everything. And also as a teammate, we just have to support him and try to help as much as we can with the mental part.” 

In Game 2 against the Rangers, the Astros summoned Montero from the bullpen in the third inning to mop up Framber Valdez’s disastrous start. It marked the earliest Montero had entered a game since 2017, when he was still starting games for the Mets. In two seasons with Houston, he had never pitched earlier than the fifth inning in a regular season or postseason game. 

Montero retired all four Rangers hitters he faced in the third and fourth innings, including strikeouts of Marcus Semien and Adolis García, and kept the Astros’ four-run deficit from growing in what ended up a one-run loss. On Thursday in Game 4 at Globe Life Field, Montero issued a one-out walk to Jonah Heim in the ninth but stranded him there with a strikeout and groundout, sealing a critical Houston win that evened the series. 

“When I got here, I've always said that I'm really not here to try to find a specific role, so like for example, to throw the eighth or throw the seventh inning,” Montero said. “I've always said I just want to pitch wherever I can help the team and do the best in that situation.”