Jesús Alejandro Montero López (November 28, 1989 – October 19, 2025) was a Venezuelan professional baseball catcher and first baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners from 2011 to 2015.
Signed by the Yankees in 2006, Montero became one of the best prospects in baseball. He debuted in MLB with the Yankees during the 2011 season and was traded to the Mariners for Michael Pineda following that season. After his rookie year in 2012, Montero struggled with the Mariners in 2013 before ending his season with a 50-game suspension for his involvement in the Biogenesis scandal. He spent most of the 2014 and 2015 seasons in the minor leagues. He played in his last major league game on October 3, 2015, for the Mariners. Montero was signed by the Toronto Blue Jays in 2016 and the Baltimore Orioles in 2017 but spent his time on their minor league teams. He signed with two Mexican League teams, Sultanes de Monterrey in 2017 and Generales de Durango in 2018, but was released from both teams.
Montero died after he was involved in a motorcycle collision near Valencia, Venezuela, on October 19, 2025.
On July 2, 2006, Montero, an amateur free agent, signed a professional contract with the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB), receiving a $1.6 million signing bonus. Baseball America considered Montero to be the best player available and the best power hitter in the 2006 international free agent class. In 2007, at age 17, Montero made his professional debut in Minor League Baseball for the Gulf Coast Yankees of the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League. As a result of his performance, the Yankees invited Montero to spring training in 2008, where he hit a home run in his only at bat before being assigned to minor league camp. He spent the 2008 season with the Charleston RiverDogs of the Single-A South Atlantic League, where he batted .326 with 17 home runs and 87 runs batted in (RBIs), with two stolen bases. Montero was named to the All-Star Futures Game, which features baseball's best minor league prospects. Baseball America rated him as the Yankees' second best prospect and best power hitter after the 2008 season.
Montero began the 2009 season with the Tampa Yankees, the High-A Florida State League affiliate of the Yankees. On June 3, 2009, the Yankees promoted Montero to the Trenton Thunder of the Double-A Eastern League. He hit .317 with nine home runs and 33 RBIs in 44 games with the Thunder. Despite having played only a portion of the 2009 season in Trenton, Montero was added to the Eastern League All-Star roster. Baseball America ranked Montero as the third-best prospect in baseball at midseason in 2009. He was named to appear in the All-Star Futures Game for the second year in a row. Montero's season ended prematurely when he sustained a broken finger while catching.
At the start of the 2010 season, Baseball America ranked Montero as the Yankees' best prospect, and as the fourth-best prospect in all of baseball. The Yankees invited Montero to spring training, where Yankees' hitting coach Kevin Long declared him ready for the majors as a hitter, though the team wanted to see improvement on defense. Montero spent the 2010 season with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees of the Triple-A International League. Early in the season, Montero struggled, but he improved after the All-Star break. Montero admitted that he did not spend as much time practicing in the batting cage as he should, and that Alex Rodriguez started fining Montero $100 for every day he didn't work out in the cage.
At the 2010 MLB trade deadline, the Yankees and Seattle Mariners almost completed a deal that would have sent Montero, Zach McAllister, and David Adams to the Mariners in exchange for Cliff Lee. When the teams shared medical reports, the Mariners were concerned by Adams' ankle injury. As a result, they chose to trade Lee to the Texas Rangers in a package centered around Justin Smoak.
Montero was named to appear in the International League All-Star game He finished the season with a .289 batting average, 21 home runs, and 75 RBIs in 123 games. Montero was honored on the International League's Postseason All-Star team, and was chosen as the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Player of the Year.
Baseball America rated Montero as the third-best prospect in baseball before the 2011 season. Montero contended for a spot on the Yankees' 25-man roster in spring training in 2011. Yankees officials believed Montero was ready to be the starting catcher, which would have enabled Jorge Posada to shift to designated hitter, though the signing of Russell Martin allowed the Yankees to be patient with Montero. A spring training injury to Francisco Cervelli gave the Yankees an opportunity to use Montero as Martin's backup, but Montero performed poorly with the pressure, and the team decided it was best for Montero to play every day in the minor leagues, rather than two games a week in the majors. Montero began the 2011 season in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Montero batted .288 with 18 home runs and 67 RBIs for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on the season.
The Yankees promoted Montero to the major leagues on September 1, 2011, as a September call-up. He started his first major league game that night as the designated hitter against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Montero went 0-for-4 but was hit by a pitch and scored the go-ahead run in the seventh inning. He made his first start at Yankee Stadium on September 3, against the Toronto Blue Jays. He went 1-for-3, hitting a single to left field in the sixth inning with two outs for his first major league hit. On September 5, during a game against the Baltimore Orioles, Montero hit his first two home runs of his major league career and the Yankees took an 11–10 victory.
Montero became the first 21-year-old rookie to hit two home runs in one of his first five games since Manny Ramirez in 1993. Montero started his first game as a catcher against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on September 11. Against the Red Sox on September 24, Montero fell a triple short of hitting for the cycle. Montero ended the year with a .328 batting average, which included four home runs and 28 RBIs in 18 games.
During the 2011–12 off season, the Yankees traded Montero with Héctor Noesí for Michael Pineda and José Campos. The Mariners had finished last in runs scored in the past two years and their need for a right-handed power hitter led them to trade Pineda from their depth of top-tier pitching prospects. Yankees' General Manager Brian Cashman said that Montero "may well be the best player I’ve ever traded".
Baseball America ranked Montero as the sixth-best prospect in baseball before the 2012 season. Montero made the Mariners' Opening Day roster in 2012. During the season, the Mariners split his playing time between catcher and designated hitter, and he appeared in a total of 135 games. Despite the high expectations he established with the Yankees in 2011, he was not an MLB Rookie of the Year Award finalist. He finished the 2012 season with a .260 batting average, 15 home runs, and 62 RBIs.
Montero began his 2013 season slowly, with a .208 batting average, three home runs, and nine RBIs in his first 29 games. He was demoted to the Tacoma Rainiers of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League on May 23. As he struggled throwing out baserunners attempting stolen bases, the Mariners played Montero as a first baseman for the first time in his professional career. He struggled offensively with Tacoma, batting .247 with one home run and nine RBIs.
On June 1, it was announced that Montero had sustained a torn meniscus in his left knee. Needing surgery to repair it, Montero was ruled out of any active competition for a period of four to six weeks. On August 5, Montero accepted a 50-game suspension for his involvement in the Biogenesis scandal, by which the Biogenesis of America clinic supplied performance-enhancing drugs to MLB players. After the regular season, Montero returned to Venezuela to play in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League (VPBL). A hand injury that occurred while in a car accident ended his participation in the VPBL for the season.