Mason Montgomery humiliating Juan Soto has Pirates fans dreaming big

There’s a certain kind of electricity that only elite velocity can create — the kind that makes a fan base collectively lean forward, eyes wide, ready to believe they’ve just seen the future.

On Sunday, Mason Montgomery gave Pirates fans exactly that feeling. The lefty pitched a scoreless seventh inning in the series finale against the New York Mets and delivered the moment that set social media on fire: a 99.5 mph four-seamer with 20 inches of induced vertical break that quite literally knocked Juan Soto off his feet.

And just like that, the conversation shifted. Fans weren’t just impressed — they were campaigning. The Pirates don’t have a locked-in ninth-inning identity? Fine. Problem solved. Give it to Montgomery.

Except… it’s not that simple. Because while Sunday looked like dominance, it also quietly included a reminder of exactly why the Pirates haven’t handed him that role.

Before the Soto punchout, Montgomery put himself in trouble. Back-to-back singles. A wild pitch. Runners on second and third with one out. That’s been the concern with him all along. To his credit, he did escape it — two strikeouts, damage avoided — but living on the edge and owning the ninth inning are two very different jobs. And if you zoom out even slightly, the full picture comes into focus.

Two days earlier — Opening Day — Montgomery was extremely hittable. Two earned runs on three hits in 2.1 innings. No intimidation. No viral moment. Just the version of a pitcher that still hasn’t figured out where the ball is going on a consistent basis.

That’s the version teams will force him to be. Because right now, while the stuff is undeniable, the command is negotiable.

Mason Montgomery dominated Juan Soto, but he still has plenty of room for improvement

When Montgomery is right, he looks like a video game glitch — 100 mph with ride at the top of the zone that hitters physically can’t square up. When he’s not, he doesn’t just miss… he misses into danger. Middle-middle. Belt-high. The exact spots that turn elite velocity into batting practice.

That’s not a closer profile. Not yet. Because losers don’t just throw hard — they control chaos. They limit traffic. They don’t need to escape jams because they don’t create them in the first place (unless they're David Bednar, which could explain why Pirates fans see something comfortably familiar in Montgomery's approach).

Montgomery, right now, is still learning how to pitch within his own arsenal. And that doesn’t mean the excitement is misplaced. If anything, Sunday showed exactly why the Pirates are so intrigued. You can’t teach 100 mph with that kind of life. You can’t fake a pitch that makes Juan Soto fall over. That’s real. That’s rare.

But what you can’t do is fast-forward development just because the ceiling flashed for an inning. Because if you hand him the ninth right now, all you're doing is exposing the inconsistency.

The Pirates don’t need another reliever who might dominate. They need one who will.

Montgomery isn't there yet. He might be soon. Honestly, if he ever finds even average command, he won’t just be a closer — he’ll be a problem for the rest of the league.

But one electric inning — even one that sent Soto to the ground — doesn’t erase everything that came before it. It just reminds you what’s possible. And for now, possibility isn’t the same thing as reliability.