The athletic young infielder stands out for his defense, speed, and plate discipline.
While the Detroit Tigers have finally started to see a bit of progress with international free agents, there still isn’t that much to write home about. Wenceel Pérez and Keider Montero made pretty good first impressions in 2024, and Josue Bricéno is one of the fastest rising power-hitting prospects in the game. Still, we may have to wait on infielder Franyerber Montilla for an everyday starting player acquired through the international free agent system.
The 19-year-old out of the Dominican Republic is far from a sure thing at this point. However, he’s already a slick fielding defender with the tools to eventually stick at shortstop at the major league level. As a hitter, Montilla shows a really good eye for the strike zone and some sneaky power that should grow as he fills out to go with his switch-hitting ability. He brings another element with the speed to steal a good amount of bases. Combine those in a switch-hitter who so far has been pretty good from both sides of the plate, and there’s a lot to like.
Montilla had an excellent season playing in the Dominican as an 18-year-old. He walked 13.4 percent of the time, struck out 17.3 percent of the time, and managed to hit for a little power. In a player who has the athleticism to play in the middle infield, that gets some attention. He followed it up by coming stateside last spring and tearing up the Complex Leagues after turning 19. He walked even more, hit six homers in 48 games, and was living on base and stealing almost at will against inexperienced rookie level pitchers and catchers.
The Tigers moved Montilla to Low-A in August, and he absolutely hit a wall, striking out 31.6 percent of the time. On the plus side he continued to walk a ton, posting a 15.2 percent walk rate. That eye for the zone and overall disciplined approach is quite impressive and gives him a decent floor as a hitter. He’s a pesky at-bat with the ability to do some damage already. Montilla was also pretty unlucky, considering that he posted a whopping 33.3 percent line drive rate with a BABIP of just .158. It was also just a 20 game look and doesn’t mean that much yet, but it did expose some issues he’ll have to address.
First is just raw strength. The reedy infielder stands six-feet exactly and is listed at 160 pounds. He’s probably a little heavier now, but there’s quite a bit of projection left for him to get stronger. More batspeed would do his swing wonders. He has a great eye for the zone, but his swing is definitely geared toward driving low pitches and he does need to develop better plate coverage and more raw power.
Secondly, some of that patience looked more like passivity at times in Lakeland. With the Flying Tigers, opposing pitchers had him watching as more strikes were poured in with less mistakes. He settled in after some rough games early on and was better in September and in the postseason, where he was a presence in all phases of his game.
Defensively, Montilla is a smooth, athletic shortstop, playing with quickness and flair and showing off all the tools you want to see. He has the usual fundamentals to keep improving on, but he has the talent to eventually play plus shortstop. He’s still getting reps at second and even dabbling at third base as we and he has a strong arm and throws well from multiple angles. Measuring his throws a little better and developing his footwork will keep him on the shortstop development track. It won’t be a surprise if he and Bryce Rainer are sharing some time in Lakeland at shortstop this season, but it’s not an indictment on either’s defensive abilities.
2025 Outlook
Montilla should start the season back at Low-A Lakeland, and will probably get plenty of run there before advancing to West Michigan sometime this summer. You’d love to see some more power and better plate coverage in 2025. He turns 20 in April, so he’s still young but this season is a big one in terms of showing some strength gains, cleaning up his swing mechanics somewhat and handling the high fastball better in particular.
Montilla has enough present tools to have a good chance of hitting his likeliest outcome as a versatile, light-hitting utility infielder in the end. But he’s young and projectible enough to hope for more. He has the look of a future good defensive shortstop who gets on base, hits 15 homers and steals 20-25 bases. If he can translate his hard contact into more power as he fills out, the ceiling could be even higher. There’s a long way to go, but Franyerber Montilla is talented and he’s just getting started.