for the remainder of his career. Montañez batted over .300 for the first time in his career in 1974 (.304). Made expendable after the Phillies claimed Dick Allen off waivers from the Atlanta Braves one week earlier, he was traded to the San Francisco Giants for Garry Maddox on May 4, 1975. San Francisco Giants Though he was batting .286 with the Phillies at the time of the trade, he ended the season with a .302 batting average for the second of his three consecutive seasons batting over .300. He also collected a career high 101 runs batted in between his two teams, and emerged as one of the league's top fielding first basemen, leading the league first basemen in assists for the first of three times in his career (1975, 1976 and 1978). Atlanta Braves For the second season in a row, Montañez found himself changing teams in the middle of the season when the Giants sent him to the Braves with Jake Brown, Mike Eden and Craig Robinson for Darrell Evans and Marty Perez on June 13, 1976. As a result, Montañez played in an unusual 163 games. At the time of the trade, Montañez had appeared in sixty games for the Giants. He then appeared in 103 games for the Braves, bringing his total to 163 games in a 162-game season. He was named first baseman on The Sporting News NL All-Star team. The Braves lost 101 games in 1977, and Montañez was selected as the team's sole representative at the 1977 All-Star Game. He went 0 for 2 in his only All-Star game. New York Mets Montañez was dealt by the Braves to the New York Mets in the first four-team deal in Major League Baseball history on December 8, 1977 that also involved the Texas Rangers, Pittsburgh Pirates and a total of eleven players changing teams. The Mets also got from the Rangers Tom Grieve and Ken Henderson who was sent to New York to complete the transaction three months later on March 15, 1978. Adrian Devine, Tommy Boggs and Eddie Miller were traded from the Rangers to the Braves. The Rangers received Al Oliver and Nelson Norman from the Pirates and Jon Matlack from the Mets. The Pirates acquired Bert Blyleven from the Rangers and John Milner from the Mets. Montañez found himself, again, on a last place team as the 1978 Mets narrowly