'I've been on both sides': Frankie Montas' advice to suspended Cincinnati Red Noelvi Marte

GOODYEAR, Arizona — The scrutiny. The suspicion. The embarrassment. The boos and chants of “cheater” that just kept coming at ballpark after ballpark.

“Even a year after everything happened to me, I would still hear it from fans,” Cincinnati Reds pitcher Frankie Montas said.

What “happened” to the right-hander chosen to throw the first pitch of the Reds’ most important season in years was an 80-game suspension in 2019 for testing positive for a banned performance-enhancing substance.

It makes Montas a cautionary tale for anyone who wants to learn from his experience — maybe even one of redemption, depending on your perspective.

At the very least, nobody in the Reds clubhouse knows better what Reds rookie Noelvi Marte faces after the youngest player on the roster was hit this spring with an 80-game suspension for a positive steroid test.

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“It’s definitely a lot of disappointment,” said Montas, who was 26 when he was suspended and the best pitcher on an Oakland A’s team that would win 97 games. “I was disappointed in myself a lot because I felt like I let my teammates down; I let my team down when they needed me the most.”

Montas, one of the most gregarious, likable players on the team, made a point to engage with all his Reds teammates as soon as he got to Arizona after signing a one-year, $16 million free agent deal.

Montas believes in Marte, despite suspension

That included getting to know Marte well enough in just a few weeks, Montas said, to feel confident saying “he means well” and that “I strongly believe in him, and I’m going to be on his side.”

Marte, 22, won’t be allowed to work out at the Reds’ Goodyear, Arizona, facility until the big-league club breaks camp, at which point he can participate in extended spring training. He also isn’t eligible to play in the postseason this year.

“It’s tough,” Montas said. “From the team perspective, but more from a person perspective. He’s going through a lot. He’s young. And he’s a hard worker. That’s a guy that was going to help us a lot. At the end of the day we’re just trying to give him our full support.”

Montas expects to reach out to Marte and offer whatever advice and support the rookie wants once “things settle down and (we) let him process everything.”

That support is the key to getting through the emotional valleys of the suspension and keeping the strength to be prepared enough when he returns to not only succeed on the field but deal with the lingering scrutiny and travails off of it, Montas said.

Teammates were key for Montas during suspension

“I had really good teammates that were checking on me a lot and making sure that I was mentally straight,” he said, singling out pitchers Chris Bassitt and Mike Fiers.

Another part of that support system: A’s general manager David Forst.

“He and I talked a lot during that time,” Forst said. “And he was frankly very embarrassed about it. Felt like he let his teammates down and took a lot of pride in being part of that pitching staff.

“I don’t want to speak for Frankie, but I think he learned a lot about being away from the game during that time.”

What Forst said he learned about Montas during that process was “just the accountability. He took responsibility for it. He made sure he came back better.”

Forst, in fact, said the A’s approached Montas about returning this past winter before the Reds signed him.

If Montas has any advice in the short-term for Marte it’s to stay focused on that responsibility to the team to be ready to play when he comes back and to be even better.

“You can’t sit at home and just sit on your couch and feel sorry about yourself and say, ‘Oh, man, this season could have been’ or ‘I could have done this,’ “ he said. “That time that you’re going to be (suspended) try to improve whatever you have to get better at.”

What might have been? Marte already had talked about competing for a Rookie of the Year award and was one of the top three or four betting favorites at some sports books.

Montas' suspension cost him likely All-Star appearance

What Montas missed was even more tangible, his suspension in late June 2019 coming just before he likely would have been selected as an American League All-Star (9-2, 2.70 ERA).

He still hasn’t made an All-Star team.

But Montas said he did get better after his suspension. “Mentally for sure,” he said.

He returned in 2019 to make one start in September, allowing one run in six innings against the Angels. And after the awkward and strange pandemic-abbreviated season in 2020, Montas produced career highs the following year in almost every category, including starts (32), innings (187) and strikeouts (207) — putting himself on the trade radar for every team in baseball looking for a starting pitcher.

By 2022, he was the A’s Opening Day starter.

But that doesn’t mean any of it was easy. And Marte has a long road to endure even after his return.

Montas said the booing and catcalls when he returned didn’t bother him because of his support system, including his wife and family, and the mental strength he had by then.

“Because I knew who I was and I knew what happened to me,” he said. “And the people that were important for me that knew me as a person and as a player, I had their full support. That made it easy for me.”

Besides, the best cure for the boos was to pitch well after returning, he said.

“I didn’t hear that much (after a year or two) because after everything that happened to me, I showed that I can pitch,” he said. “I showed who I am as a player, who I am as a person.

“I’m a big believer in God. If I have my faith straight and I know that only one guy is going to be able to judge me at the end of the day, and he knows my heart, it doesn’t matter what the people outside this clubhouse think.”

That’s one of the reasons he believes he might be able to help Marte, of Marte wants his help.

Montas: 'I've been on both sides'

“I’ve been on both sides,” he said. “I’ve been in the clubhouse when guys got popped before, and I had the chance to talk to them and give them a little bit of my experience, what I went through.”

He also has the experience to share with those left in the clubhouse since Marte’s departure: “We have to focus on our goal. Because you have to still go out there on Opening Day and still try to win games. The goal doesn’t change.”

So what about the positive test in the first place? Montas released a statement at the time saying he’d taken something banned by mistake because he wasn’t careful enough and that he took responsibility for it.

“It was some crazy stuff. I didn’t check, didn’t read the label (on the product) in the Dominican,” he said. “It was a tough time. Especially because I’m a big family guy. I treat my teammates like they’re part of my family.

“So it took a lot out of me mentally.”

He tries to see it as a benefit in his life long-term.

“I took the chance during that time I was out to think about a lot of stuff, to get better, try to be a better teammate, try to be a better husband, try to be a better dad,” he said.

“Things happen for a reason,” he added. “That made me realize how much I love this game and how much I missed it. I wasn’t in the dugout. I wasn’t in the clubhouse, hanging with the guys. That getting taken away from me, it made me realize a lot of things — that, ‘Hey, you actually really like this game. This is your life. This is what you’ve done since you were a kid.’

“It made me appreciate it more.”

Montas said he still takes supplements, like most players.

But these days, he said, “I just do the (MLB-approved) things that they provide here.

“I’m literally really skeptical about what I put in my body,” he added. “Even if I go and get a smoothie with my wife and kids, I try to order probably the cleanest smoothie that I can have. ‘Just give me a berry smoothie.’ No protein, none of that. Just as clean as it can be.”

Whether he’s able to impart any wisdom that Marte can use when the rookie is able to resume his career, it’s certain to remain a long and publicly scrutinized road for Marte.

“At the end of the day people are always going to have expectations. People are always going to have their different opinions,” Montas said. “If you know who you are, if you know who you are as a person, who you are as a player, if you have teammates behind you that know who you are and what you bring to the table, it’s going to be easy to move on.”

Clubhouse filled with players who know Marte well

Montas said one of Marte’s great strengths is a clubhouse full of other young players who know him well.

“They know who he is as a person before anything,” Montas said. “So I think it will be an easy transition for him and just try not to think about what fans are going to say or what people outside this clubhouse are going to think about it.”

After nearly five years, Montas won’t say if he believes philosophically in the MLB policy and testing procedures and enforcement or whether he sees any problems within the system.

“I don’t really want to talk about that because I don’t want to say anything to, like, make things worse or whatever,” he said. “With people saying, ‘Frankie thinks this, Frankie things that, Frankie says this or that.’

“I have my own opinion that I stand behind. And I feel like everybody has their own opinion on that.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Reds' Frankie Montas to suspended Noelvi Marte: 'I've been on both sides'