Mets right-hander has a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow and will require surgery, reports . It seems unclear exactly what kind of surgery Montas will require but Heyman says it will very likely be a full Tommy John, which would wipe out his entire 2026 season. Even a le ser surgery such as an internal brace procedure would put him on the shelf for most of next season. The news doesnt come out of nowhere. Montas was placed on the 15-day injured list a few days ago with a UCL injury. Manager Carlos Mendoza described it as pretty significant and said Montas would not be returning in 2025. The news of the surgery has more of an impact on 2026, which could go down as a lost season for Montas. A full Tommy John surgery generally requires 14-plus months of rehab. The internal brace alternative can sometimes allow a player to come back around a year later, though even that is a rare outcome. Time will tell what 2026 has in store for Montas. Either way, his signing is officially a regrettable one for the Mets. Coming into 2025, they gave him a two-year, $34MM guarantee with $17MM salaries in each year and an opt-out after the first season. He Brendan Donovan Jersey suffered a lat strain in February and didnt make it back to a big league mound until late June. He posted a 6.68 earned run average in seven starts and got moved to the bullpen. After two relief outings, he landed on the IL. Montas will certainly forego his opt-out chance and keep that $17MM salary on the Mets books for next year. For their $34MM investment, they have so far received 38 2/3 innings with a 6.28 ERA. Theres a chance he returns late in 2026 but only for a few outings even in a best-case scenario. The news doesnt impact 2025. As mentioned, Montas had already been bumped to the bullpen even before being ruled out for the rest of the year. This means the club wont be planning on him contributing in 2026 either. Thankfully, next years on-paper rotation looks a lot like the current group. , , and will all be back next year. Sengas deal has a post-2025 opt-out but its conditional on him pitching 400 innings over the 2023-25 seasons. Since he mi sed most of last year, hes only at 280 1/3 and wont vest that opt-out. In addition to those four, the Mets are turning to prospects and late this year. Either or both could be candidates for next years rotation. The same is true of , who is in Triple-A. is currently on the IL but can be retained for 2026 via arbitration. has UCL surgery late in 2024 and could be back in the mix next year. While its not ideal for the Mets to be paying $17MM plus taxes to a pitcher who is out of action, he had seemingly fallen out of their plans regardle s. They have plenty of other pitchers and one of the top payrolls in the league, so they can absorb this hit better than most. For Montas personally, he will eventually return to the open market ahead of the 2027 season, which will be his age-34 campaign. He mi sed most of 2023 recovering from shoulder surgery, so he wont have a lot of momentum going into that return to free agency. He will be coming off a four-year stretch from 2023 to 2026 where he was only healthy in 2024 and had a 4.84 ERA that year. Photo courtesy of Brad Penner, Imagn Images St. Louis Cardinals Jersey