Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick on Monday dolled out criticism that owners don’t usually point so bluntly at their own players. He called the signing of starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery a “horrible decision” but blamed the addition on himself.
It left D-backs general manager Mike Hazen and manager Torey Lovullo to pick up the pieces Tuesday.
Montgomery, by the way, still has a player option for next season that he will likely exercise after posting a bloated 6.23 ERA in 25 games. By making 21 starts last season, his 2025 option would pay out $22.5 million, per Spotrac.
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Hazen told Wolf & Luke on Tuesday that he feels “fairly confident Jordan Montgomery is going to have a better season next year.”
Question is, is that with Arizona?
“The personnel decisions, the players that come on the team is not my decision,” Lovullo told Burns & Gambo. “I have a seat at the table. I don’t know who the five starters will be next year. I will speak on behalf of what Jordan Montgomery was able to give us throughout the course of the year when he was really, really frustrated.
“He came in late, never got a tailwind, it was just a grinding year for him. By going to the bullpen and accepting that responsibility he kind of saved the momentum of our starters. Because he could have turned around and started complaining about it publicly, he could have complained about it internally. But he took it right in stride and took it as a true professional. … How we get there with Jordan next, I’m not sure, but I know there’s a better version of Jordan Montgomery that’s out there. He’s going to accept the responsibility to what it’s going to take for him to come into spring training next year and be one of our five.”
Why did Ken Kendrick take blame for the D-backs’ signing of Jordan Montgomery?
Hazen said Kendrick’s comments came from a good place. The owner, the GM said, was merely trying to take accountability for a standard decision-making process that includes all of the front office members and ownership.
“I appreciate his words. I do appreciate them,” Hazen said on Kendrick taking the blame of signing Montgomery. “He gives me a very fair amount of latitude to disagree or to kick back on ideas. We throw around ideas at each other all the time, he kicks back on mine. We made this (decision) together. …We wanted to do it. I’ll be honest with you.
“I don’t think we can just shy away from that (big-money) area of the talent pool. It’s what the good teams do.”
Hazen and the D-backs had good reason to spend that type of money on starting pitching.
Arizona got dragged through the playoffs and to the World Series last season with three starting pitchers. The main goal of the offseason that followed was about bolstering that rotation.
The Diamondbacks added Eduardo Rodriguez earlier than Montgomery in free agency, but he got hurt and didn’t return until early August. The Montgomery addition came after the market for him had dried up. He got off to a slow start because of missing a full spring.
The pitcher also dropped agent Scott Boras and criticized how his free agency process went.
All that context led Kendrick to give quite an honest assessment about the Montgomery signing last offseason.
“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 told Burns & Gambo Monday.
“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.”