Willie Montañez—A Pretty Good Run Producer in His Peak

By JT

Willie Montañez was drafted by the Cardinals them moved on to the Phillies where he stayed 4½ years, the longest he played anywhere in his 14-year big league career. After that, he played for seven more teams in eight years before returning to the Phils for a cup of coffee. 

He began with a bang, hitting 30 homers in 1971, his first as a starter, then never came within ten of that again. But he did drive in a lot of runs. Frum 1971-80—his prime, he drove in 86 runs per 162 games, which seems pedestrian now, but was a good number then. Those ten seasons, among major league first basemen it ranked seventh. 

And among the first baseman that had 3,000 at-bats in that span, his .277 batting average was ninth, about the middle of the pack, not great but not bad. His home run total was also ninth. He led all first sackers in sacrifice flies in that 10-year span with 65 and he was second in base hits. 

He was known as a bit of a hot dog, a showboat in the field, and he was not a super fielder, but he would kill you either. 

Montañez was second in the Rookie of the Year voting in 1971 and was 24th in the MOV voting in both 1975 and 1976 and was an All-Star in 1977 and got votes for All-MLB in 1975 and all-NL in 1976 (honorable mention, if you will). 

So, good on Willie. he was a guy who was going to field okay at first, hit a lot of doubles for you, and at his very peak hit .300 and drive hin 90-100 runs. You could do a lot worse at first base in the 1970s. 

 A nice career.