Jes\u00fas Montero, a former promising Yankees prospect whom Brian Cashman dealt away, saying he \u201cmay very well be the best player I\u2019ve traded,\u201d but who never quite reached those heights, has died at 35 after a motorcycle accident earlier this month.<\/p>\n
On Oct. 4, Montero\u2019s motorcycle hit a pickup truck in Valencia, in his native Venezuela, and he suffered severe injuries for which he was put into an induced coma at Valencia City Hospital. The Yankees announced his death Sunday.<\/p>\n
Signed as an international free agent in 2006 for $1.6 million, Montero was a hyped prospect immediately, Cashman calling the then-16-year-old the best Venezuelan hitting prospect since Miguel Cabrera.<\/p>\n
Jesus Montero, a former catcher who was once the Yankees\u2019 top prospect, has died at the age of 35. AP<\/p>\n
Montero sailed his way through the minors, his bat as advertised but facing questions regarding his defense behind the plate and fluctuating weight, before debuting in 2011 as the Yankees\u2019 No. 1 prospect and among the best regarded in the sport.<\/p>\n
Then 21, Montero arrived as a September call-up and crushed major league pitching for 18 games in which he smacked four homers, hit .328 and posted a .996 OPS. <\/p>\n
He cracked the postseason roster and went 2-for-2 in the sole postseason game he played, an ALDS loss to the Tigers.<\/p>\n
Jesus Montero with the Yankees during the 2011 playoffs. Neil Miller<\/p>\n
And then he was gone: The following January, the rotation-needy Yankees sent Montero, whose potential the club and its fans had dreamt of for years, to Seattle in a package for Michael Pineda, a swap Cashman knew could go wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s that good,\u201d the GM said of Montero during a conference call at the time. \u201cHe\u2019s a middle-of-the-lineup-type bat. \u2026 It\u2019s not easy to make these decisions, but I know I\u2019m excited about what I\u2019m getting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Montero was involved in a motorcycle accident earlier this month, according to GoFundMe. Charles Wenzelberg\/New York Post<\/p>\n
Montero never took off with the Mariners, getting a long, 135-game look in his first season in which he knocked 15 homers with a .685 OPS while splitting time at catcher and DH.<\/p>\n
He tore his meniscus the following season, then accepted a 50-game suspension upon being implicated in the Biogenesis scandal. He then showed up for the 2014 season overweight. <\/p>\n