Mason Montgomery just threw the fastest pitcher in Tampa Bay Rays history.
At this time last year, Mason Montgomery had just made his first start of the season for the Durham Bulls and it was an utter disaster. The southpaw allowed seven runs on nine hits — two home runs — and was pushed out of the game just two outs into the second inning. He would go on to have some decent performances but altogether struggled as a starting pitcher in Triple-A. However, an August move to the bullpen led to his fastball going up several notches.
Now, the starting pitcher that could barely scrape past 94mph possesses one of the best fastballs in all of baseball.
The 2025 regular season is still very young, but Montgomery has made two appearances out of the pen for the Rays and has struck out four of the eight batters he’s faced with a 28.6 whiff%. During his latest outing, Montgomery struck out the side (he did allow a basehit to Andrew McCutchen).
The first batter he faced was Joey Bart and with a 1-1 pitch, Montgomery reared back and delivered a 102.2mph fastball that Bart swung through for a strike. This pitch is now the fastest recorded pitch in the statcast era for the Rays and likely the fastest pitch in franchise history; the previous fastest was a 101.9 offering from Diego Castillo in 2018.
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