Diamondbacks owner discusses Jordan Montgomery signing

The Diamondbacks came up just shy of the postseason. Arizona missed out on the final wild-card spot via tiebreaker after the Mets and Braves split Monday’s doubleheader to each punch their ticket. In the immediate aftermath of that disappointment, the club’s owner provided a scathing criticism of one of the team’s biggest offseason moves.

Owner Ken Kendrick appeared on The Burns & Gambo Show on Monday afternoon. Asked about the team’s late free-agent pickup of Jordan Montgomery, the owner both took responsibility for the signing while not holding back with an indictment of the southpaw’s performance.

“If anyone wants to blame anyone for Jordan Montgomery being a Diamondback, you’re talking to the guy that should be blamed,” Kendrick said (starting around the 12:45 mark). “Because I brought it to (the front office’s) attention. I pushed for it. They agreed to it. It wasn’t in our game plan. … And looking back, in hindsight, 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.”

It’s the kind of public criticism that an owner rarely levels at a player who remains on the roster. Montgomery’s $25M deal contained a vesting player option for the upcoming season. That was initially valued at $20M, and the veteran pushed that to $22.5M by reaching 18 starts. He’s certainly not going to walk away from that sum after this season, so he’ll at least go into the offseason on the Arizona roster.

Montgomery’s 2024 campaign was very underwhelming. He allowed a 6.23 earned run average through 117 innings while striking out a career-low 15.6 percent of batters faced. Montgomery had an ERA above 5.00 in every month from May onward. He lost his spot in the rotation late in the year when Ryne Nelson outperformed him for the fifth starter job. 

Montgomery stepped back into the rotation with Nelson on the injured list in the season’s final couple of weeks. He allowed three runs without completing five innings in either of his final two starts — games that Arizona dropped in Colorado and Milwaukee, respectively.

Kendrick certainly isn’t alone in being frustrated with Montgomery’s performance. It’s nevertheless surprising to see an owner publicly call a free-agent signing “a horrible decision” while that player is still on the team.

General manager Mike Hazen conducted his annual end-of-season news conference on Tuesday. As one would expect, the GM took a more diplomatic tone when asked about Kendrick’s statement. Hazen began by stating that as the leader of baseball operations, he is “ultimately responsible to say no … or yes to a lot of things” (relayed on X by Alex Weiner of Arizona Sports). 

The GM called the Montgomery signing “a group process” before stating that he expects better results in 2025. “Whatever myriad of factors went into this year … it didn’t work out. It didn’t work out, but I also think next year is going to look a lot different,” Hazen concluded.

The GM’s comments are far more typical in these kinds of situations. Even if the Montgomery signing was driven by ownership, Hazen isn’t likely to take a public jab at Kendrick. 

One can debate how sincerely Hazen expects Montgomery to rebound, though it’s hard to imagine he won’t improve to some extent. Before this season, the 6-foot-6 lefty had been one of the more consistent pitchers in MLB. He posted a sub-4.00 ERA with 30+ starts each year from 2021-23. Montgomery’s late signing deprived him of normal spring training.

In August, Montgomery opined that former agent Scott Boras “kind of butchered” his free agency. That’s presumably a reference both to the one-year guarantee that fell well shy of expectations and his late landing in the desert. Montgomery changed his representation within weeks of signing with Arizona.

Kendrick’s comments figure to further create speculation that the D-backs could try to trade Montgomery this offseason. That’d probably have a goal for the front office in either case. They’re not going to find anyone willing to take on his entire salary, but the Snakes could try to explore an undesirable contract swap of some kind. 

Arizona goes into the offseason with a projected rotation of Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Brandon Pfaadt, Eduardo Rodriguez and Nelson. That’s a talented group on paper, but only Gallen and Nelson performed up to expectations late in the year. Pfaadt posted an ERA near 6.00 after the All-Star break, while Rodriguez and Kelly battled shoulder injuries and didn’t pitch at their typical level during the playoff push.