Jordan Montgomery was among the finest MLB free brokers available on the market final winter. The veteran beginning pitcher was wonderful after a mid-season commerce to the Texas Rangers, posting a 2.78 ERA in his 11 begins with the membership on the way in which to a World Sequence championship. The group Texas beat to win the World Sequence was the Arizona Diamondbacks. As Montgomery lingered available on the market till Spring Coaching, Diamondbacks proprietor Ken Kendrick noticed a possibility to enhance the group’s rotation and pushed for the entrance workplace to signal him.
The 2024 MLB Playoffs at the moment are set, and the Diamondbacks had been left on the skin trying in. The group was eradicated from the postseason throughout Monday’s electrical double-header between the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets. Arizona one group to comb the double-header to make the postseason, however as an alternative the groups cut up, leaving the D-Backs out the playoffs.
Because the Diamondbacks had been reckoning with lacking the playoffs a yr after enjoying within the World Sequence, Kendrick went on native radio in Arizona and did one thing you not often see from a professional sports activities proprietor: he blamed himself for signing Montgomery.
“If anybody needs accountable anybody for Jordan Montgomery being a Diamondback, you are speaking to the man that must be blamed.”
D-backs managing normal accomplice Ken Kendrick on the signing of Montgomery within the offseason.
Full interview: https://t.co/c9zHhCcebT pic.twitter.com/4wfNmwihSX
— The Burns & Gambo Present (@BurnsAndGambo) October 1, 2024
Right here’s the complete transcription:
“If anybody needs accountable anybody for Jordan Montgomery being a Diamondback, you’re speaking to the man that must be blamed,” Kendrick advised Arizona Sports activities. “As a result of I introduced it to [the front office’s] consideration. I pushed for it. They agreed to it — it wasn’t in our sport plan. You recognize when he was signed — proper on the finish of spring coaching. And looking out again, in hindsight, a horrible determination to take a position that cash in a man who carried out as poorly as he did. It’s our largest mistake this season from a expertise standpoint. And I’m the perpetrator of that.”
Montgomery had by far the worst season of his profession with Arizona. He completed posted a 6.23 ERA and 1.65 WHIP in 21 begins, giving up 149 hits in 117 innings. Yikes.
It seems like participant efficiency has extra peaks and valleys in baseball than every other sport. Montgomery had been a dependable beginning pitcher all through his profession, nevertheless it all fell aside this season. Arizona gave him a two-year, $47 million cope with a participant choice for 2025. That choice stands at $22.5 million for subsequent yr, and he’s sure to select it up.
Might Montgomery bounce again subsequent yr? Certain. Baseball is bizarre like that. It’s simply so uncommon you hear an proprietor throw a participant beneath the bus like this whereas on the identical time blaming himself for the signing.
