PHOENIX — If starting the postseason at home wasn’t too painful for the Arizona Diamondbacks after Sunday’s loss, they did so Monday after their owner pointed fingers and blamed one of their highest-paid players. spent on damage control.
D-Backs owner Ken Kendrick said he was the one who suggested the front office sign free agent starter Jordan Montgomery after starter Eduardo Rodriguez injured his left shoulder in spring training. , he blamed himself.
Kendrick now says he regrets that recommendation, saying the Diamondbacks should not have signed Montgomery, who started 21 games and had an 8-7 record with a 6.23 ERA, to a one-year, $25 million contract. He said there was no.
Kicker?
Instead of blasting Montgomery walking out the door, Kendrick will probably be seeing a lot of him next year. Montgomery has a $22.5 million player option in 2025 that he plans to exercise.
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“Let me say it the best way I can: If anyone wants to blame Jordan Montgomery for being a Diamondback, you’re the one to blame,” Kendrick said Monday on the Burns & Gumbo Show. We’re talking about it,” he said. , I warned them and they agreed to it.
“That wasn’t in our game plan. You know when he signed, right at the end of spring training. Investing that money was a terrible decision.
“From a talent standpoint, this was the biggest mistake of the season, and I was the culprit.”
This was one of the strongest accusations against a player by an owner since the days of George Steinbrenner and Hall of Famer Dave Winfield nearly 40 years ago.
Montgomery was signed too late to pitch in spring training, but he struggled for most of the year. He was removed from the starting rotation in August and returned in September.
In fact, Montgomery didn’t want to pitch in Arizona in the first place. He waited for a contract offer from the Texas Rangers but did not receive one, and early in the winter he turned down a four-year contract offer from the Boston Red Sox. In the end, he accepted the D-backs’ offer and fired his agent, Scott Boras.
Now, six months later, everyone is mad at each other.
Kendrick accused either Atlanta or New York of needing a sweep in Monday’s doubleheader, and was frustrated that the D-backs missed the playoffs by one game, forcing both teams to play in a twin bill. Shots were fired into the commissioner’s office. These were make-up games after games in Atlanta were postponed last Wednesday and Thursday due to Hurricane Helen.
He called it a “colossal blunder” that could have been prevented and said MLB should have had both teams play a doubleheader last Monday, when both teams had the day off.
Kendrick said, “It’s unfortunate that MLB didn’t advocate more aggressively for the game to be held sooner.” “That decision would have changed the way this week played out for a lot of teams, including their players. I think they’re both at a huge disadvantage… in some cases with top pitchers. And they’re running out of bullpens. They’re going to be in the postseason, and that’s when they’ll have the best players.”
However, while Kendrick lamented the impact the Hurricanes may have had on their postseason chances, the players thought it almost immoral to use that as an excuse.
“So people are losing their lives and their homes,” ace Zac Gallen told reporters Monday. “So it’s tone-deaf for me to get mad about natural disasters when people are worried about other things.”
Amen.
Kendrick didn’t hide his disappointment, but criticized coach Tory Lovullo and general manager Mike Hazen after the D-backs finished with an 89-73 record, the same as Atlanta and the Mets, but lost in the tiebreaker. There wasn’t.
“For any of us, at least for me, it’s not for me to say the coach did a bad job this season or the general manager did a bad job this season,” Kendrick said. .
The D-Backs’ attendance rose to 2.3 million, the most since 2008, but it’s unclear whether missing the playoffs will reduce their franchise-record $175 million in annual salary.
Kendrick, who paid former D-backs starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner $14 million this year, has made no secret of the fact that he wants Montgomery out for $22.5 million.
“Will we be in a position to compete financially next year?” Kendrick said. “I think the answer is basically, yes. … We have a core of players that are coming back and I think that leaves us in a position to be very competitive next season. It’s not cheap to make it happen.”
The D-backs’ entire starting lineup, along with their rotation, is under contract except for first baseman Christian Walker.
“There’s a lot of unknowns here, there’s a lot of uncertainty. There’s a good chance it will land here, but there are also unknowns,” Walker told reporters.
And now there’s another unknown.
If Walker returns and happens to struggle, could he be Kendrick’s next victim?
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