The Diamondbacks officially introduced Jordan Montgomery at a press conference yesterday, with Montgomery, agent Scott Boras, and several team officials answering questions from the Arizona Republic’s Nick Piecoro, Alex Weiner of Arizona Sports, and other media. D’Backs managing general partner Ken Kendrick said that the club initially checked in on Montgomery early in the offseason but weren’t eager to meet the asking price at the time. As Montgomery’s stay in free agency ended up stretching almost to the very end of Spring Training, GM Mike Hazen and assistant GM Amiel Sawdaye started to explore the idea of re-engaging with the southpaw, and negotiations both started and ended within just a few days’ time.
The two sides agreed to a one-year, $25MM contract with a $20MM vesting player option and opt-out clause covering the 2025 season. Boras said Montgomery had some longer-term offers but “Jordan’s edict to me was, ’I want to play for a competitive team. I want to make sure that I’m there and if I have to take something short-term to play for a competitive team, I will.’….It resulted in I think a deal that served our purposes in the short term and certainly served Jordan’s competitiveness needs and put an evaluation on I think his performance for this year and potentially next year that was appropriate for what he’s done.”
From Arizona’s perspective, adding Montgomery boosts payroll to a team-record $168MM for 2024, yet Kendrick and team president/CEO Derrick Hall are comfortable with the extra spending in order to keep the team in championship contention. While Hall hinted that the D’Backs might need another lengthy postseason trip to sustain a higher payroll into 2025, Arizona’s run to the World Series last year already provided enough of an extra revenue boost (both in ticket sales during the playoffs and more tickets already sold for this season) to justify more of all-in push in 2024.
Some other items from the NL West…
- Walker Buehler will throw four or five innings in a Triple-A rehab start on Sunday, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register and Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times). Sunday’s outing will be the first of four rehab starts for Buehler, as per the team’s current plans, though things remain fluid as the Dodgers want to be as careful as possible in managing Buehler’s return after undergoing Tommy John surgery in August 2022. Buehler is already well beyond the normal 13-15 rehab window, though obviously not every recovery process is the same for every pitcher, plus this was also the second TJ procedure of Buehler’s career. If all goes well at Triple-A, Buehler should be on track to be part of the L.A. rotation before April is over.
- “I do feel like we are on the right track,” Rockies owner Dick Monfort told the Denver Post’s Troy Renck, with Monfort citing his team’s up-and-coming core of young talent and his ongoing trust in GM Bill Schmidt and manager Bud Black. Colorado has had only five winning seasons since the Monfort family bought the team in late 2005, and things seemed to bottom out last year when the Rox lost a club-record 103 games. Still, Monfort believes in the “organic” strategy of relying on homegrown prospects and only mid-range payrolls, as Monfort is critical of the revenue disparities among Major League franchises. Denver fans have themselves long been critical of Monfort’s approach due to the lack of on-field success, and Monfort has frequently come under fire for his perpetually over-optimistic view of his team’s fortunes and the Rockies’ reliance on long-time employees. While Monfort admitted that he worries about being too loyal at times, he noted that when looking to replace former GM Jeff Bridich, he wasn’t impressed by external candidates’ plans to fix the team. “They would tell me how to win at altitude and everything they mentioned, it would not have worked, or it’s all things we have tried. I think in any business you have to have people you can trust, and I trust [Schmidt and Black],” Monfort said.
If Monfort thinks that losing 16-1 and 7-3 is “on the right track,” I’d hate to think what constitutes being on the wrong track! Good grief! Dick Monfort before he dicks you!
Anybody want to go see Walker Buehler pitch in Tacoma on Sunday ???
Maybe you can find out what “things” are “still fluid.” I mean, I really worry about those fluid things. They can be big trouble.
Busy. I’ll have to take a…rain check!
“ Boras said Montgomery had some longer-term offers but “Jordan’s edict to me was, ‘I want to play for a competitive team.‘“
Right.
Yeah, I think this is what annoys people about Boras the most. It’s the constant attempts at spinning everything as if they were controlling the market still. So many people would respect him more if he just said, “Yeah, we thought we were going to get 6/$180, but nobody is paying.”
This is exactly what rubs most of us the wrong way where Boras is concerned. He is every bit the used car salesman he’s accused of being. The man is probably dying to wear a plaid jacket, loud tie, a pair of Haggar action slacks, and a pair of white patent leather shoes.
I think he’s more like an old-fashioned chemist trying to sell potions. He has the magic elixir for everything that ails you! But the plaid jacked, loud (stained) tie, Haggar slacks, and white patent leather shoes definitely fit the bill.
solar – Y’all are making me feel like I need a new wardrobe. LOL
Haha, see now I can’t get the image of Jack Warden out of my head from the movie used cars. And just like in the movie the owners said of Boras’s asking price … That’s just too F….ing high!!
Great movie! Early Lenny & Squiggy sighting.
Giant – Little known fact about the actor who played Squiggy: He was heavily involved in MLB, and not just as a fan of the Pirates.
He was a minority owner of the Portland Beavers.
He was a scout for the Angels.
He was a scout for the Mariners.
And he was a member of SABR.
Right Scott. Whatever you have to tell yourself man. If Montgomery really had a preference for being on a competitive team vs length of contract he would have signed in January. Competitiveness of the team only became a consideration when it was apparent that no one was going to give him a long term contract.
KingKen
Sorry I hit such a sensitive spot in your psyche that you had my amusing post deleted
Suffering – Did y’all notice the change in wording? Earlier in the week it was “longterm offers” ….. now he’s saying “longer term offers” which means longer than the one-year guaranteed contract he got.
In Boras-speak that means he had 2-year offers … if they even existed at all. (no teams were named, no teams confirmed it either).
Yeah, I noticed.
Honestly, I don’t begrudge Boras trying to get the most money he can for his players. I hate his tactics of spin, spin, spin. If Montgomery truly cared about winning the most he’d be in a rotation by now, and would have made his first start, or be preparing to do so today.
He just wanted to play on a team where he can be one of the top players with a weak pitching staff so his outrageous salary is justified
I am very grateful to share a division with the Rocks
The Buehler hype is officially dead. I don’t trust that he will stay healthy for the rest of his career.
So what about Ohtani’s long-term health? That’s two elbow surgeries for him now too!
Montfort wasn’t impressed with the candidates?? I can only imagine what they thought of him, zero division titles in their existence, lopsided idiot trades (see Nolan Arenado), poor drafting, poor player development, letting players walk without qualifying offers (Jon gray, etc..), extending players based on loyalty instead of performance, a generally lost and directionless franchise….
If Monfort wants an education on accountability, he should meet with Bill Parcells. No truer words ever spoken in sports than when Parcells said, “I am my record.” Most everyone in sports get this concept except you, Dick. Moral victories are not a baseball statistic.
“Moral victories” are losses that you try to convince yourself feel good because you did it the “right way.” Losses are losses.
Montfort is a business man who has surrounded Coors Field with great food, drink and shopping. Whether inside the ballpark or at the adjoining McGregor Square fans(people) flock to the area. They will rank in the top 10 in attendance and that’s what is most important, the revenue. They have some decent young talent as position players, but they cannot develop pitching, nor did they address that in the off season at a high level.
Interesting that you use the phrase “high level”, as many have said that the high altitude in Denver is the reason for their pitching woes.
So go to Coors Field for food, drink, and shopping, but skip the baseball? Hard pass.
Love – That’s exactly what Red Sox ownership said a few months ago, that people will buy Sox tickets for “The Fenway Experience”.
@FPG What’s the Fenway Experience? Lol. I go to a RS game at least once a year and know the area well. You couldn’t pay me to stick around Landsdowne St. after a game. It’s also the same thing for YS in the Bronx. I also never drive to either stadiums. The Coors Field surrounding area is a much different vibe.
YBC – It’s pretty much Fenway’s history, only Wrigley compares to it. There’s some traditions such as Sweet Caroline and the festive Yaw …. err, Jersey Street pre-game.
Yankees have their traditions too, the YMCA and roll call. Shame they stopped Cotton Eyed Joe, similar to Baltimore’s Thank God I’m A Country Boy.
The only thing that truly sets Fenway apart from all other parks, the Monster seats …. still a great experience, if you can afford it.
No they are not skipping the games by any means. The people that attend are spending money at places I mentioned and then going into the ballpark. Just as Dick Monfort planned.
They may not be paying much attention to the game, but they are indeed going into the ballpark.
Doesn’t say much for Rockies fans when they’d rather go to a restaurant than have a winning baseball team.
There are plenty of bad teams out there and owners will always try to make things sound rosy, but I think Monfort is the only one so genuinely delusional that he thinks they are actually on the right track when they’re in fact getting worse.
Monfort looking at the Rockies as a dollar first, don’t invest into player development, poor scouting investment equal poor quality on the field. It is going to be a long year for the Rockies in the NL West, after watching the first two games against the D’Backs all I can say is it don’t look good for the Rockies to not lose more than 103 like last year.
Redsox already have enough.600 pitchers. No Ty on montgomery
Judging pitchers by winning percentage? What is this, 1950?
Coors Field is an outstanding stadium. The restaurants and bars surrounding Coors Field are awesome. Denver sports fans are among the best in the country. Denver has everything needed to be one of the best baseball cities in MLB with one big exception… Dick Monfort.
At least they have a competitive NFL team to root for…oh wait a minute…
Well there’s always the Nuggets I guess
Avalanche.
Except for that darn airport. Landed on Thursday got to my car on Saturday! LOL.
Colorado, St. Louis, Oakland, Washington, and the Chicago White Sox will be in a dog fight to secure the best odds of drafting first next year.
That will go hands down to the Rockies. They have the Dodgers, Padres and Giants in their division. All teams that improved in the off-season. Plus the Rockies have probably one of the worst pitching staffs in baseball,
The Rox also have to deal with the defending NL Champs who have throttled the Rox twice already and run out one of the best starting rotations in MLB – Gallen, Montgomery, Kelly, Rodriguez and Pfaadt.
Well, it remains to be seen how much and how well the fragile Rodriguez will actually pitch this year. After having his best season in his walk year, predictably.
Here’s a list of analytics personnel employed by each MLB team. Guess where the Rockies are?
google.com/amp/s/www.denverpost.com/2023/09/28/roc…
In the eyes of the typical analytics-hating MLBTR reader, this will be seen as favorable to the Rockies.
I’d say the “typical” MLBTR readers loves the analytics game, until they see it played. Then it’s all the manager’s fault.
The Rockies might be in 105+ loss territory this season, They remind me of the Astros about 10 years ago, but without the same talent coming up that Houston had.