After being traded to the Milwaukee Brewers at the trade deadline last season, Montas was mostly effective. He allowed three or fewer runs in eight of 11 starts and increased his strikeout percentage from 18.9% with the Cincinnati Reds to 28.6% with the Brewers.

However, it's hard not to call Kodai Senga an ace, given that his 1.47 ERA is the best in all of baseball right now. But in that case, it initially seemed like the Mets might be without their ace for some time after Senga suffered a hamstring strain while covering first base in the sixth inning of the Mets' June 12 game against the Washington Nationals.

The important step now for Senga and the Mets is to ace this recovery process, in a way they didn’t with either of Senga’s rehabilitations last year. In both instances, it appeared he and the Mets were not on the same page at times. Questions about Senga’s next steps or his ultimate timeline were met with shrugs more often than with other players.