The Arizona Diamondbacks aggressively looked to bolster a roster that reached the 2023 World Series last offseason, and some of those moves paid dividends and others fell flat. Jordan Montgomery finished 2024 clearly in the former bucket, especially if you ask D-backs owner Ken Kendrick.
Sluggers Eugenio Suarez, Joc Pederson and Randal Grichuk were terrific additions who contributed to the top scoring offense in baseball.
However, starting pitchers Eduardo Rodriguez and Montgomery did not provide the same value. Rodriguez missed most of the season due to injury, while Montgomery never lived up to the billing. Montgomery finished with 6.23 ERA in 117 innings pitched.
Kendrick joined Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo on Monday shortly after the club learned it would not make the postseason this fall and explained that signing Montgomery right before the start of the season was his idea.
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“Let me say it the best way I can say it: If anyone wants to blame anyone for Jordan Montgomery being a Diamondback, you’re talking to the guy that should be blamed because I brought it to their attention,” Kendrick said.
“I pushed for it. They agreed to it. It wasn’t in our game plan when he was signed right at the end of spring training, and looking back in hindsight, (it was) a horrible decision to have invested that money in a guy that performed as poorly as he did. It’s our biggest mistake this season from a talent standpoint, and I’m the perpetrator of that.”
How Jordan Montgomery ended up signing with the D-backs
Montgomery signed a one-year, $25 million contract with a player option for next season that sits at $22.5 million.
“If anyone wants to blame anyone for Jordan Montgomery being a Diamondback, you’re talking to the guy that should be blamed.”
D-backs managing general partner Ken Kendrick on the signing of Montgomery in the offseason.
Full interview: https://t.co/c9zHhCcebT pic.twitter.com/4wfNmwihSX
— The Burns & Gambo Show (@BurnsAndGambo) October 1, 2024
The left-hander had pedigree, years of dependability as a mid-3s ERA starter who had consistently put his teams in position to win.
Without landing a lucrative long-term deal, he signed with Arizona to pitch for a contending team with an out to try the open market again.
Montgomery called the 2024 campaign the most difficult of his career at a point, even chucking the pitchcom at the dugout wall one night.
He lost his starting role after Rodriguez and Merrill Kelly returned from the injured list in August, and as the D-backs kept Ryne Nelson in the rotation. Montgomery had to fill in when Nelson suffered a shoulder injury toward the end of the season.
The veteran, who produced a 3.48 ERA over his previous three seasons and was a postseason hero for the 2023 Texas Rangers, finished dead last in ERA out of the MLB 140 pitchers with at least 90 innings pitched.
Montgomery was the highest-paid Diamondbacks player on the payroll this season. Rodriguez, who only started 10 games after shoulder issues delayed his debut by more than four months, was second with $14 million. He is signed for the next three years with a club option for a fourth. Madison Bumgarner, who was designated for assignment in 2023, accounted for $14 million in attained payroll.
That’s $53 million, 30.6% of the team’s total adjusted payroll, according to Spotrac. The duo excluding Bumgarner accounted for -1.2 bWAR on a team that won 89 games but missed the postseason by tiebreakers.
Montgomery’s story with Arizona may not be done if he picks up the option despite his owner publicly criticizing the move to get him.
It was a nightmare year, but he will be 32 years old next season and perhaps a more normal offseason and spring training would help him regain his above-average form.
Rodriguez is in this situation for the longer term and will be counted on.
“In fairness, it’s an unknown, but he spent four months on the (injured) list to begin the season. Very unfortunate,” Kendrick said of Rodriguez. “Coming back that far into the season and being productive is very, very difficult. Look at what happened to Kelly. He started out the season great. He went on the injured list, was on it for three or four months and he semi-struggled after he came back, and he’s been a great Diamondback pitcher, right?
“The season was built around a pitching staff that, on paper, was maybe as good as we’ve had in many years. But in reality, an enormous amount was lost to the injured list. … Losers make excuses, and I don’t want to be that. I want to analyze what worked. I want to analyze, and Mike (Hazen) will do this and all the rest of us, what didn’t work and in that category where performance was not what we want. I would expect there will be some changes made.”
Kendrick said after the World Series that the revenue increase from a postseason run gave them the ability to re-invest those funds into the team.
There are no playoff ticket sales, but the attendance went up by 380,694, which was the highest in the league. That factors into the offseason outlook, as Kendrick explained.
“The attendance year-to-year was up about 20%,” Kendrick said. “Our overall revenue from the fan side of the business was up dramatically this year over a year ago. … So are we going to be in a position to financially compete yet again next year? I think the answer is basically yes we are.”
Ace pitcher Zac Gallen, who admitted his own inconsistencies this season, has one more year of team control before he is due a major payday. Kelly has a $7 million club option for 2025. Nelson and Brandon Pfaadt are both pre-arbitration.