The Rockies propped up the NL West division last year with a 64-98 record, their fourth-straight losing season and eleventh in the past 13 campaigns. Yet despite only modest additions this winter, owner Dick Monfort believes the team can play .500 ball this season.
“We have a lot of talent, a lot of good things are going to happen, and I think they are going to start happening this year, and I think we can play .500 ball,” Monfort told a crowd at an event in Colorado (via the Denver Post).
It’s hard to see an obvious pathway to the Rockies finding 17 or more wins to get them over the .500 marker this year, particularly in a division with a number of strong teams. A lot of Monfort’s optimism came from the fact that the Rockies have four prospects – Ezequiel Tovar, Zac Veen, Adael Amador and Drew Romo – that feature in MLB Pipeline’s top-100. Tovar is likely the team’s starting shortstop this year, but it’d be a stretch to think any of the other three could be expected to make any meaningful impact in 2023. The team will also hope to have Kris Bryant available for more than the 42 games he appeared in last year, so there are some reasons to be a little more optimistic about the team than a year ago.
With that being said, it’s hard to see the Rockies making much of a dent in the competitive NL West. The Diamondbacks appear to be a team on the rise with an exciting crop of young players. The Giants missed out on a big signings but have made enough additions to think they’ll at least be somewhat competitive this year. The Dodgers again look like one of the best teams in the league, while the Padres have had another aggressive off-season and will be playing for a championship this season. That aggression from the Padres this winter, which saw them land Xander Bogaerts on a $280MM deal, drew comments from Monfort.
“What the Padres are doing, I don’t 100% agree with, though I know that our fans probably agree with it. We’ll see how it works out. I look at the Padres and they have a really talented team, but they have some holes, too. They’ve got three, maybe four starting pitchers, and then they’re sort of like us. They have [Joe] Musgrove, [Blake] Snell and [Yu] Darvish, so I don’t know. They have spent a lot of money and they will have to spend a lot more if they want to keep [outfielder] Juan Soto. But it does put a lot of pressure on you. Yes, it does.”
On the flipside, the Rockies have had a far quieter winter. They’ve re-signed Jose Urena to a $3.5MM deal, and brought in reliever Pierce Johnson on a $5MM pact. They also acquired young power-hitting outfielder Nolan Jones in a trade for infield prospect Juan Brito, as well as Brent Suter, Connor Seabold and Nick Mears via minor trades or the waiver wire. There was chatter about them potentially shifting infielder Brendan Rodgers for a starting pitcher, namely Miami’s Edward Cabrera, but it never eventuated. They were also heavily linked to the center field market earlier in the off-season, but no move materialized there either.
“We needed a true left-handed center fielder and [Brandon] Nimmo would have been great, but the (Mets) weren’t going to let him go. So we really didn’t address the center fielder situation. But we believe we have probably three legitimate center fielders coming up, and the one thing you don’t want to do is box yourself in. If [prospect Brenton] Doyle goes off, you want Doyle to be in center field. We didn’t really want to box somebody in. So we were really looking for a one-year guy,” Monfort said.
As things stand, it seems the Rockies will be largely running it back in 2023. They aren’t expected to make any significant moves for the remainder of the off-season, and as such it’s hard to see them finishing any higher than fourth in the division. The development of Tovar at shortstop could be an exciting story to follow this season, but it might be a year or two before the team’s other top prospects are ready to impact the major league roster and help push the Rockies back towards contention.
Yep, the Padres need another SP, preferably a really good one
This may be the biggest clown show interview of all time
I seriously cringed reading it. Why even bring up and compare your team to the Padres? And then say you’re a couple of starters short? Go throw some money at Michael Wacha. Naah. Fans will keep rolling into Coors Field anyway and line Monfort’s pockets.
You know, I disagree with you. Monfort spends ok, they just spend stupid.
One thing to remember. There are always surprises and disappointments and this year there might be even more due to the unbalanced schedule. I’m not saying the Rox will be better but some will be and who knows, one division. (not likely though the NL West). might have a division winner UNDER .500.
The Rockies payroll is roughly 15th out of 30 teams, similar to the St. Louis Cardinals. It is not the amount that the Rockies spend, it is their mistakes on big ticket transactions like Kris Bryant and Ian Desmond.
Kris Bryant signing there has always seemed to me like the cool kid sitting at the lunch table with the nerds. He should have signed with a better run organization.
They’re reactionary. Management decides on some late big signing to grab headlines when they should either make serious attempts at the big names or focus on extending young talent and dumpster diving for high ceiling/low cost players.
Kris is no longer cool though.
They didn’t see that. Bryant’s health was in question before they signed him.
A better run organization would only pay him the 19-20M AAV he is worth. He went for the money and Montford was stupid enough to give it it to him.
Dewey, good points about surprise teams and the new schedule. But the Rockies? They are in a low tier of NL competence, roughly similar to the Marlins. Heck the Pirates seem more likely to be the surprise team this year.
On paper, there are six teams in the NL with stacked rosters. After that comes the Brewers, Diamondbacks, Cubs. I just don’t see the Rockies competing for a wildcard, even if a playoff team gets in sub .500.
abc, an owner has to dream and remain positive if he wants fans to pay. I did say it was unlikely for the Rox. Pittsburgh can. Many laugh at Cherington’s moves but some are dictated by ownership. He made some bad free agent moves in Boston but also contributed heavily to their 13 and before successes.
I agree Dewey. I think ALCentral most likely to have below 500 winner although I think it’s most likely that Cleveland wins around 85 games this season (or perhaps the Twins?)
No division will have a below .500 winner. The guardians are a team that is built to play better without the extreme shifts.
The only clowns are padres fans aka fans for 1 year
No llores my friend us older fans have been around since Moores dismantled the 98 roster in 99 and when I still had my Ryan Leaf jersey.
Ryan Leaf…the great white hope. Modern day Todd Marinovich.
It takes some real cajones to critique other teams when you’ve had 11 sub .500 seasons in 13 years.
Agreed. I live in the Denver area. WHile I am a Phillies fan, I feel terrible for the Rockies. They have an attractive ballpark that is an absolute great place to take in a game and they have passionite fans. The Rockies fans dieserve much better than they are getting.
Truth is, Monfort doesn’t care. Due to the all the transplants in the area, he sells out almost every time a rival or a mjor market team comes to town ( Padres, Dodgers, Giants, Cubs, Mets, Phillies, Cardinals, etc.). Half the home games are already close to sold out every year without Monfort lifting a finger. He has no motivation to improve this team. It really is sad and I just feel for their fans.
Ditto for the Marlins. They rarely sell half the seats like Rox but they don’t care. Trying to compete for $1.99 and they get enough TV money to keep ownership happy.
Of course Monfort doesn’t agree with the Padres approach – he doesn’t want to spend more than he has already. Plus, when a team like SD does this, it makes the other owners look bad, because it shows that any of them could do this if they really wanted to. It might cost them in profit, but is owning a sports franchise supposed to be an investment or a hobby?
This is the real truth right here. Since Ray Kroc died, Padres fans have been told that they are a small market team and can only support a payroll in the bottom 3rd of the league. Number 27 media market. It’s a Navy town, not a corporate hub. Too many transplants. We’ve heard it all, and it’s all bull.
When the Mets, Dodgers, or Yankees spend, other owners can cry to fans about how unfair it is, about the size of LA and New York giving those bad guys an advantage. But the Padres? If the Padres can spend, your team owner can spend. More team owners should be facing these questions.
Owning a sports team is far more lucrative than other investments. The Braves (fairly big spenders) saw their payroll go from $150m in 2021 to $190m this year, but their profit went up $100m! And that doesn’t include any appreciation of the value of the franchise.
Every owner can do what the Padres are doing.
The Padres owner’s primary concern along with the Mets is not profits. It’s a different ball game today on and off the field. With big e-companies laying off staff and advertising down, reckless spending is not good for the league. I for one will not be subscribing to MLB unless it’s again free through T-Mobile. It’s already less of a value due to Amazon and Apple buying games.
Somewhat true but not accurate for smaller market teams like the A’s or Rays.
Still, it’s hilarious when some propagandized minion jumps to an owner’s defense babbling about capitalism.
If you do the math, the A’s and Rays could easily handle $150 million payrolls just between their cut of national tv contracts and the competitive balance pot. Those two allotments added up to about $180 million this year.
Every team has that plus 52% of local revenues.
Some spend it. Some pocket it.
They could, but both are in need of new stadiums, They’re currently trying to accumulate capital to that end. Once they do get new parks, their spending should go up. If it doesn’t, then that criticism will be more correctly deserved.
@tad2b13 in theory yes but look at the fraud the Marlins pulled off with their new stadium
Montford could certainly spend like the Padres and be rewarded for it. The Reds, Pirates and obviously Tampa/Miami cannot.
Why would it make the Rockies look bad? Padres can spend and spend and spend and they still ain’t going to win anything which is a colossal failure. Fans should criticize teams for spending and not winning but they aren’t smart enough to do that.
Must have missed them going to the NLCS last year. That is winning. Now they added Xander, Tatis is back, Soto for the whole year….pretty sure they’ll win quite a few games.
What did they win?
Interesting comments from the Rockies owner on the Padres. There isn’t a team that doesn’t have a hole. The Rockies have like twelve and the Padres have like two. Maybe worry about you…
Monfort is an idiot, but he’s not wrong about the Padres. Preller’s went for it multiple times and has yet to make it to a World Series, let alone win a divison.
But at least he’s trying
I understand, but the reason they’re spending all this money is to win it all, not to just try. Again Monfort is an idiot, but he even has a more recent WS appearance than San Diego.
Are you sure about that?
Padres where a few games away from the WS
Close only counts in horseshoes. Ask older Sox fans who went through misery before 2004.
I’m from San Diego we have never won a ship. Chicago has won something
AJ Preller is not the one going for it. He’s the one you see at the table dealing the cards, doing what he is told and/or allowed to do.
It’s all Peter Seidler. The public profile is relatively low while the passion to win is white hot. He’s really something else.
He has the same drive as did Mike Ilitch.
While their circumstances were different I see the same fateful outcome. The present Padres “win window” will be closing soon and you get the feeling that winning it all will elude him. I don’t see him ever giving up but will he have the time?
2023 and 2024 are the Padres peak. Making it to the NLCS the year prior is more impressive than winning a division and not making it to the NLCS.
I am just happy he didn’t predict 94 wins. At least .500 ball is somewhat reasonable.
So true. And why show your face at an event where your aspiration is .500?
I don’t ever remember the owner of a team that was not in a rebuild hoping their team will flirt with .500 in the coming season. If that’s the goal here, maybe the Rockies SHOULD just tear it down and start over.
How are they not rebuilding? It is possible to rebuild without trading EVERYONE away. Their likely new starting SS is 21. There are also players at 1B, DH, and RF that are young as well. Just because it worked for the Astros doesn’t mean it is the only way to do it.
“I don’t agree with what the Padres are doing because I’m paying St. Louis $21 million this year so they can play our MVP third baseman.”
No way they win under 94!
Rockies owner sounds upset the Padres are making him look bad by trying to assemble a winning team. He probably should have kept those thoughts to himself.
WideWorldofSports;
Your reaction and post is why I believe what Mr. Monfort said – and if he was responding to a question – is why I believe these snippets were taken out of context.
I don’t think he’s been a very good owner, but this is just piling on.
He’s a terrible owner. Disagreeing with what the Pads are doing is fine though. Just not coming out of his mouth.
He has no real strategy to build a consistent winner. He’ll spend but it’s not done in a smart manner or go through peaks and troughs of payrolls like other small market teams do In their competitive window.
If mark attanasio came out and said this—-id be totally fine.the Rockies haven’t built a FO that can compete & he’s especially screwed being in the ALW where the other FO’s have. & have 3 teams with a lot of money to spend.
Rockies are in the NL West.
It’s a billionaire hobby if you aren’t trying to win why buy a team? Why would anyone buy a team to lose money?
A Steady income stream.
Bob Nutting has never owned a baseball team to win games. Fewer of those will exist with current purchase prices but there’s still a few floating around. Less Loria’s and more Peter Seidler’s is a good thing
Take away Soto, Machado, Bogaerts, Tatis Jr and their lineup is just like ours!
Also take away Musgrove Snell darvish hader and Suarez too!
Actually Suarez is probably no better than Bard but Hader exists on that demon team too
“We can play .500 ball” and that’s great because at least we’re not the Padres who spent a lot of money and “it puts a lot of pressure on you.” Watch us because we don’t spend money so there’s no pressure or winning.
The Padres didn’t even win 90 games last year. Slow your roll. It’s not like they are winning 100+ games every year. The Padres have only finished over .500 1 time since 2010. And I am not counting 2020 simply because that season didn’t last long enough for the Padres to fall apart at the end.
Same time frame, Rockies finished over .500 twice. So maybe you should realize that the Padres are more in the boat with the Rockies than with the Dodgers.
Their theft of Pierce Johnson really showed they’re in it to win it…
You wonder how much $$$ MLB Teams really make on TV Revenue and other MLB preofit splits. Are some owners getting Greedy.
You don’t have to wonder. The Braves and Blue Jays are owned by publicly held corporations so their books are open.
Jays don’t sell top dollar for tv rights since it’s going in to the other hand of the org
Before last season every team made a minimum of $100mm via their tv deals and revenue sharing
True, what are their numbers in the debit column?
When an owner says, “I think we can play .500 ball,” he’s furious MLB took away his joy of tanking hard by implementing a lottery system.
Estne nihil sanctum?
MLB is a shadow of its former self.
I would comment on the owner’s name, but I don’t want the post to get flagged.
.500 ball should not be an admirable goal coming from an owner. The Rockies have no direction and the more you watch the more you realize the postseason runs of 2017-18 were an aberration
He doesn’t need a goal. Rockies are perennially top 10 in MLB attendance. Sign a star player or two every decade and call it a day. He’s the poor man’s Arte Moreno.
He is on crack if he thinks they win 81, 61 is more like it. The only way 81 happens if all the rookies turn out to be studs.
@Arty Ziff agreed. An owner bragging that they can get to .500? Everyone knows the person with the biggest stake will oversell. So this guy’s “shooting for the moon” prediction is .500? They will be lucky to win 65.
Remember that freeland extension? Why? Just why
One of the delusional franchises in all of pro sports as to their talent level versus everyone else. It’s like they live in their own little bubble.
Did he, as the owner of a team, really come out and say to his customer base, the fans, that they would agree with what their division rivals are doing? Then double down on that gut punch by saying they weren’t looking to add more than a stopgap CF because a guy with 9 games of experience in AAA might go off?
If the team improves at all, it will be because the schedule is more balanced now and they have to play fewer games against the Dodgers and Padres
The Padres had to halt season ticket sales the demand was so high.
So, if you spend and win the fans will show up.
Yep, fan fest next week also is expecting 150k+…
Gonna be nutty
How many people where allowed inside?
Delusional and incompetent.
Craven Moorehead > Dick Monfort
“The Dodgers again look like one of the best teams in the league“…
Uh, why? I swear people just regurgitate this narrative every year. Their window is all but closed.
Whatever success the Dodgers do have, I expect Dave Roberts to ruin their season in the playoffs
Old guy 58-
I feel exactly the same as you do regarding Dave Roberts.
Probably because the dodgers have won 10 out if the last 11 division titles.
Funny how continued success builds higher expectations.
Funny how that amounted to nothing significant. Hang the banner for regular season wins…
I don’t know if the window is “closed” but its definitely closing. On paper this is probably the weakest looking roster the Dodgers have had since Don Mattingly took over the team.
Dodgers are going to be fine they have a good farm system and will probably sign next year’s free agents.
The Dodgers are still a very good team, but I think this season they will be retooling their roster and trying to rebuild the left side of their infield.
They won’t be like Genghis Khan or Charlemagne this year, meaning they won’t be everyone’s daddy.
A decade of playoff failure = everyone’s daddy? Make it make sense.
Why do people think two weeks in October is more important than six months prior when determining how good a team is? October baseball is luck.
loser mentality, congrats. nobody cares about (or remembers) the regular season. that’s why there isn’t a trophy for it. hope this helps.
also: I’m sure “luck” is why the Astros keep making the World Series. it’s almost…as if…you need to be great to win the WS…
No, useless garbage usually doesn’t help anyone.
just say “I don’t have any good points to make” & keep it moving. typical dodger fan crybaby mentality.
You know, I actually appreciate Monfort for being quasi realistic. I mean, the Rockies will struggle to be anywhere close to .500, but at least he’s not telling the fans he expects them to compete for the wildcard unlike the Giants regime who talks big and comes up short repeatedly and then tries to gaslight fans that their product is actually a contender.
And as good as the Padres line-up is, Monfort isn’t telling lies. The Pads have Darvish and Snell, who each have had their ups and downs, and Musgrove who’s been consistently good but after that trio? It’s a bit iffy. Normally I’d blast an owner for talking smack about another team in the division spending and then telling his fans he hopes his team can be .500 but… you know… on the scale of 1-10 dumb things Monfort has said and done, I kinda am okay with all of this.
Someone then slaps Monfort and says why the hell are we here? 500 ball for the @#$! sake?! Get out then!
If you read the interview in Denver Post, he goes on to say this about how many top 100 prospects are on the rockies farm:
“We had four of them, but I kid you not, there could have been 15,” Monfort said.
The Padres are going all in an by like 2026 it might look bad but at least they did something and if everything goes wrong they then can just do another rebuild.
Montfort is really just doing like nothing.he isn’t really super cheap either, he is just kinda spending something to remain like a 76 win team (although last couple years were worse).
I would actually prefer them properly tanking 2-3 years instead of doing all those threading water moves including failing to trade story and gray and only getting a comp pick.
The rockies actually have some positives:
1) good fanbase
2) owner who at least is willing to pay a middle of the road payroll and not a pirates, marlins or As Situation
3) good amateur scouting of hitters in the last 10-12 years (just look what homegrown hitting stars they had)
But then there is a lot of negative too
1) owner who doesn’t have a clear direction and kinda tries to stay in the middle in a very tough division
2) related to 1 a free agency signing strategy designed to stay kinda mediocre
3) not enough investment into international players
4) not enough spending into coaching and analytics. The rockies would actually need to spend more than other teams on that stuff considering that their park is so unique, they would need to be cutting edge in coaching and analytics plus technology to solve the hardships of coors like pitching there or hitters road hangover.
The task is though in that division and park but Montfort is not doing enough either.
Seidler wants team to be top 5 payroll in perpetuity, so my guess is that they will be just fine in 2026
Doesn’t matter if you spend every year. Eventually you have too much deadweight on your payroll and you have to spend like the Mets to win.
The padres have spent a ton of money but also drained their farm system. You have to have cheap replacements come in and that’ll ultimately be SD’s downfall. But if they win a title in between—I think no one will complain.
Not sure you can say that will be their ultimate downfall just yet. We’ll see how youngsters Campusano, Morejon, Lopez and Rosario do this year at ML level.
The investment they’ve made in scouting at all levels has paid dividends and enabled them to reload quickly. Drained? By end of season they will again have 4-5 prospects in MLB top 100 (Merrill, Lesko, Snelling, Lizarraga, Zavala, Mazur). Before trading for Soto we heard claims about how depleted their farm was, people then didn’t know about Wood and Susana but they were major pieces with the greatest upside of all the prospects in that trade. Abrams and Gore were nice prospects that were great contributors to the ML roster last year – they swapped them for 23 year old Soto. As long as Pads continue to reload and excel at developing prospects with trade value, I’d expect them to remain quite viable, even via trades with some FA acquisitions as well.
I’m a fan of a NL rival, and it’s looking to me like the Pads will be a force for many years, as Monfort said about pressure, “Yes, it does”
He is a very bad owner. Over values every player he has and doesn’t get anything for an expiring contract. The fans need to not show up this year or nothing will change. How they handled the Arenado trade tells you everything you need to know.
There were in a difficult situation with Arenado. Instead of paying the Cardinals a lot of money to get E. Montero and Gomber, they should have basically offered to trade Arenado for an unknown prospect but thrown in no cash. I really doubt Montero will be good enough to justify that cash. Then they could have told Arenado we tried to accommodate your trade request, but nothing worked out and kept Arenado until he opted out. The back-breaker was signing Kris Bryant and before that Ian Desmond. Aside from KB’s health, he is more valuable at 3B and not too valuable in LF.
Yeah they could have just kept Nolan and then tagged him with the QO when he opted out.
The contract dump was enough. The Dodgers, Giants, and Padres have all gone absolutely berserk with spending… even the Dbacks are remaining middle of the pack with a some good young talent. Arenado wasn’t going to carry them through, they either needed to match the spending or clear the payroll and use the money to lock in young talent.
And then they signed Bryant….
Rockies won’t contend for anything until Monfort sells the team.
It’s always good when the owner says “I think we can play .500 ball.” Wow.
pwndroia;
Think of how you and most posters on making comments here would have jumped on him if he said he thought the Rockies could contend to win the NL West this year and at worse be positioned for a Wild Card spot.
The DBacks have been crummy for years also, now everyone is bullish on them because they have a nice core of young players. I’m keeping an eye on them, but the DBacks have done this a number of times the past 10-12 years.
Face it – the Dodgers are going to contend every year; the Padres are buying themselves contention; and the Giants should be able to buy themselves contention but their FO (and manger) is full of eggheads that outsmart themselves because they don’t understand fundamental baseball.
I wouldn’t have jumped on him. It’s okay for him to say that but what is he going to do to make it better? What’s the solution? That’s where the Rockies don’t always follow through.
In their short history, I can’t name on ace on the mound that they’ve had in Coors. Yeah, people say it’s hard to pitch in Coors but they actually haven’t had too many good pitchers period. That comes from management, not the excuse of the field location. Ubaldo Jimenez is arguable but can’t think of many others.
The Padres have been helped by the fact that the Chargers left town. Now they are the only major pro sports team in a metro area of over 1 million people.
3 million people live within 25 minutes of Petco Park
Well hey, it’s good to have faith in your guys, even if nobody else does.
Imagine having an owner who says .500 is a measure of success. Then imagine that same owner suggesting his team that looks like about a 72 win team can achieve that. I truly feel bad for you, Rockies fans. You deserve better.
Let’s get real for a few minutes here. ALL of the major league teams are “good.” If that weren’t the case, the poor teams would never win and the elite teams would never lose. Differences in the various teams become more apparent as the season grinds on. The Rox are at a practically insurmountable disadvantage, both from playing all their home games at a high altitude and from being the worst team in probably the best division in baseball.
Horrible interview. Much better to say you like your core and some young talent that’s about to make an impact.
Why would anybody be critical of what the Padres are doing? No team can go out and buy a World Series with a guarantee. But you either try and give it your best, or you don’t. Machado, Soto, Bogaerts, and Tatis Jr might be the best 4 hitters together in any lineup that we’ve seen in a while. Teams like the Rockies and White Sox are not even trying at all. The competitive balance of the sport is being ruined, but it is in part because some owners with money hoard rather than spend (like Reinsdorf for one), not just that some teams are spending a lot more. MLB is about competition, and only a handful of teams are even trying to compete. Like maybe 1/3 of the league.
Manfort needs to do the good fans of the Rockies a favor and sell the team. Maybe a race horse is more his speed. As a SD native and lifelong Padres fan I have been through the 100 loss seasons, the fire sales, the Trader, the Gunslinger and others trading off future stars and using high draft picks on total busts. Now we have an amazing owner who wants to give the city of San Diego a very competitive team looking for the whole enchilada. And we are excited and happy to support. The dude should be paying attention to what’s happening. AJ needs to pull one more rabbit out of his hat and we’re ready to start this mission. It’s going to be a great ride. Play ball!
Padres have a great ownership, the complete opposite of the Rockies and White Sox. Even if they don’t win it all, they will have an exciting team that has a legit chance. Anything can happen in the playoffs, teams can do just about everything right and still not win, there are so many good teams in the NL especially. I mean LA, Padres, Braves, Mets, and Phillies are all pretty damn good, Cards decent as well, even if a couple of those teams might be better than others. They are all pretty solid. In the AL it’s basically Astros, Yankees, or Jays… the rest are just pretenders, I can’t picture any team other than one of those 3 winning the ALCS in 2023.
The goal of the regular season is to get to the postseason. The winner of the postseason isn’t necessarily the best team, it’s the team that gets the hottest during that time frame.
Last year, the Mets won 101 games and really should not have had to play in the wild card series against the Padres. But they went ice cold in that last regular season series against the Braves, then dropped two of three to the Padres. and got themselves eliminated. So it doesn’t really matter who has the “best team” on paper. If you’re good enough, you’ll be there year after year and eventually win a championship or three.
DrDan, I 100% agree. The problem for the Padres though is I think their window is small. I’m not sure they’ll be there year after year, a couple seasons down the road. People are understandably critical of the Dodgers’ lack of moves this season, but they still have a better chance, given their farm, to be there, year after year.
Being a perpetual top 5 payroll team, as is Seidler’s intention, should keep their window open long term no?
Being a top 5 payroll is no guarantee. There’s the risk of getting into a situation similar to what the Angels were in. Teams just cannot load their roster up with FAs and expect to win. Teams need a balance of homegrown guys and FAs.
I’m not a Padres fan, but them winning a WS would be something I’d like to see. But the way Preller has depleted the farm I worry that’s something a long way off if they don’t win one soon.
But reality is that 14 of last 15 WS winners had top 7 payrolls, in MLB $ wins, as unsavory as that may be
Sure, a top payroll increases your chances, but again, it’s no guarantee. Last season the Red Sox had the 6th highest payroll, and finished last in the ALE, 24 games behind. The White Sox had the 7th highest and missed the PS. In 2021 the Angels had the 7th highest payroll, and finished 4th in the ALW. Spending money only works when its supplementing. It’s not an end in itself.
It’s no guarantee of course. Only one of the high payroll teams win a WS each year. But you suggested the Padres window of contention being brief, and that’s not supported by payroll commitment from ownership, nor every level of long term investment the team is making in drafting/developing young talent. I’m agnostic as a Padre fan, my wife is more diehard, but it looks like they will be contending for quite some time.
I don’t buy that they are all making squillions out of their baseball team. The evidence suggests otherwise. Also don’t blame them for treating their team as an individual business that needs
to stand alone. I don’t see a duty or moral obligation to fans to prop it up with other capital.
For me, Siedler shouldn’t be used as a
benchmark. I’d suggest he would have a sense of
mortality that’s more acute than the average baseball billionaire. If I had that medical history,
I’d be hanging the expense and getting through my bucket list as quickly as possible as well.
In short, let people spend there money however they see fit. They all have their reasons.
Just what every fan wants to hear – “maybe we can play .500 ball this season.”
Dick Monfort needs to sell the team. The most dysfunctional FO and ownership in baseball.
I think he is right.
Those costs are paid by the customer….us.
Stupid billion dollar contracts for baseball is just wrong. Yes. They are entertainers but they leave nothing intrinsic.
People are on here trying to push the idea baseball players should be paid like this.
The costs are put onto us, the fan.
I think.the Ivy Leaguers brought an attitude of disrespect toward the fan. We’re pigeons. We’ve seen teams just write off 10-20 Million dollar contracts ……
We pay that.
Baseball was a blue collar sport that is becoming elitest….the rest of us can just go…f….
Baseball is still a “blue collar” sport. Very few players get those really huge contracts, and most professional ballplayers don’t even earn minimum wage for playing every day.
What a loser Lol I feel for Rockies fans. Loved my time 5 years in denver
What an entitled thing to say from Manfort…instead of seeing why fans are much happier when you invest in your team…Manfort wants teams to stay status quo while his pockets gets lined up deeper and deeper.
Now that his team is the only team in the division that doesn’t spend as much as the other 4…he starts crying foul.
News flash…if you don’t want to invest in your team…don’t buy a team and then take it out on your fans and the team…you JOKE of an owner. Ante up…you greedy, entitled person.
No need to upgrade the team when the stadium keeps selling out. He shouldn’t be talking about other teams, just keep your mouth shut and keep raking in the profits.
I don’t agree with the criticism of Monfort saying they could be a .500 team. Being .500 isn’t the goal, but it would be progress. He’s being realistic for once, in that 17 additional wins would be a huge step in the right direction.
I also agree with him on the Padres. This season, I think they should have looked to improve the rotation, but instead added to their already good-hitting team. And I think they’ve put themselves in a tough spot looking a few years ahead. What if Machado and Soto both leave? Preller has really thinned out the farm, so their replacements will need to come from the FA market.
If they win a WS in the next year or 2, then it’s a success. But if they don’t, then it’s going to be difficult for them to be competitive, without much talent being promoted from the minors. No team wins solely from filling out the roster with FAs.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not anywhere near in agreement with how the Rockies are run. I think Monfort is a little delusional. But I think the criticisms being about reaching them .500 and his thoughts on the Padres, are misplaced.
If Machado and Soto both leave (not likely) then all that $ goes towards signing other stars. They will just keep reloading like all the other big payroll teams do. This is not a short term venture by Seidler, as so many seem to want to believe.
Mahado and/or Soto leaving is just as likely as them re-signing, maybe more so. Barring something catastrophic, Machado will opt out. Soto is a FA after next year. If either one, or both wanted to, say, play in NY, they’re gone if they can get the offer they seek. Can SD match or beat what Steve Cohen is willing to offer?
SD made the largest offer to Judge, but he wanted to stay in NY. Teams cannot make a player sign if he wants to go elsewhere. Having the money to sign guys isn’t any guarantee. Look at the Giants and the money they were willing to spend.
I think it’s clear, what we’ve seen has become SOP in SD. So I do agree this is long term. But, it takes more than just signing FAs. Teams need to be a balance of homegrown guys and FAs. The SD farm is pretty depleted now, so relying on FAs to a greater extent is a long term problem.
I agree in principle but if it’s the Padres we’re talking about then one can’t ignore the tremendous success they’ve had in drafting and international signings from deft scouting. They are again reloading their minors affiliates and that gives them the trade value necessary to bring in the likes of Darvish, Snell, Soto. 3 years ago folks were saying the same thing, how depleted they were in the minors, then look what happened? The contender they are today is as much the success of their A-AAA as it is the increased payroll.
If people were saying 3 years ago people that their farm was depleted, then those people have no idea what they were talking about. In 2019 they had the #1 ranked system. Now, after all of Preller’s deals, the most recent ranking has them at 28th.
No matter how good a team is at scouting and signing international FAs, it’s going to take more than a couple years to restock the farm. Guys signed this year won’t see MLB for 4-5 years from now. So that payroll commitment just isn’t going to be enough.
Other teams that have a commitment to payroll, like the Dodgers Yankees, and Mets, have much better farm systems (2nd, 12th, and 14th respectively). Plus, excessive payroll can cost a team draft picks
At some point every team decides they need to reset the lux tax. SD is no different. We’ll just have to agree to disagree about how long their window is open. We’ll see in a couple years which of us is correct.
Yeah, only time will tell
Actually, a few of us Padres fans have been around since Nate Colbert, Dick Selma and an end-of- his career Willie McCovey. We have seen the good, the bad and the ugly with the Friars.
I don’t fault Dick Monfort for being candid. He is saying what a lot of other mid-market owners are thinking about the state of a sport where the ownership of teams is being assimilated by deep-pocketed hedge fund principals. Where I sense he goes off of the rails is when he envisions his team being .500 and expressing comfort with that mediocre goal.
I like the Rox and really am impressed with their passionate fan base. They deserve a winner and knowing that their team in still in the thick of the division race after Memorial Day. Unfortunately, neither Monfort nor his front office team have any strategy to build and maintain a championship roster.
Does Colorado use Bally sports? I can’t believe how the owners are about to use that, rightfully so kind of lol
As a Padres fan, he’s right that they have an incomplete roster but wrong about spending.
“incomplete” is relative though, how many teams have Joe Musgrove as their # 3 starter, Hader as their closer, and this lineup:
Tatis
Soto
Machado
Bogaerts
Carpenter/Cruz
Cronenworth/Carpenter
Kim/Cronenworth
Nola/Campusano
Grisham/Engel?
Pathetic Dick, but cheers to another mediocre season
Monfort sounds exactly as clueless as you’d expect.