GOOD: Billionaire Diamondbacks Owner Ken Kendrick Still Owes Jordan Montgomery $22.5M Next Year

MLB Trade Rumors - Jordan Montgomery exercised his $22.5MM player option with the Diamondbacks, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (X link). There was never much doubt on this decision, though Montgomery stands as one of the top trade candidates of the winter.

This isn't really surprising news by any stretch of the imagination but still worth revisiting because Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick absolutely fucking HATES Jordan Montgomery. 

Some background:

Monty pitched on the Rangers in 2023 after being traded from the Cardinals. Monty was very good for the Rangers pitching to a 2.79 ERA over 60 innings along with 5 postseason and a World Series championship over Ken Kendrick's Arizona Diamondbacks. 

Monty then entered the winter as one of the bigger free agent starting pitchers in an admittedly weak class. He was represented by Scott Boras and many anticipated he would get over $100,000,000. 

Instead, he didn't sign until 2 days before Opening Day when he got a 1-year $25M contract from the Diamondbacks with a vesting option that provided another year in 2025 at $22.5M if he made at least 10 starts in 2024. That's kind of a mouthful so read it back again slowly. A small amount of concentration will help you realize that's just about the worst vesting option in the history of professional sports. 

Monty missed all of spring training last year, opened the season in AAA, then promptly went to the big league club where he'd get his shit pumped for 21 starts and a 6.23 ERA. It was a cataclysmic disaster, particularly when you consider the Diamondbacks lost the 2023 World Series. Many thought they were a good rotation arm away from repeatable success because of their roster and youth, etc. So that becomes their big target at the same time they're paying Madison Bumgarner $21M a year to be fucking terrible. 

So they sign Monty at the 11th hour, surprising everyone. But the bigger surprise is just how bad Monty was in 2024. There's plenty of reasons to debate, but also no room to argue just how much he sucked - so much that Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick decided to take public responsibility 

“If anyone wants to blame anyone for Jordan Montgomery being a Diamondback, you’re talking to the guy that should be blamed,” the owner said after the team narrowly missed the playoffs. “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.”

The immediate reaction to these comments? Take if fuckin easy Ken. 

But then it became clear that he was intentionally trying to alienate Monty out of his option. Even though it was vested and protected and guaranteed. He still wanted Monty to look at the Diamondbacks and say Not worth the $22.5M because the owner said mean things about me publicly. And honestly there's enough pussy baseball players out there for that to work on, but not South Carolina Gamecock Jordan Montgomery. Say all the mean shit you want, he's still picking up his option whether you like it or not. Whether he sucks or not, and whether you hate his guts to the moon and back. However you want to position your unmitigated disgust for Jordan Montgomery, it doesn't matter because the contract's guaranteed. 

The reason this is awesome is because most owners are money grubbing whores that would sell any fanbase down the river for a double digit growth year. Screw them sideways and that includes Ken Kendrick's bush league efforts to indirectly push Monty out of town. 

In other news, these are the ownership groups that are very good: 

- Dodgers

- Maybe the Rangers

 

- Phillies 

- Maybe the Braves but it's publicly traded and that's lame

- Maybe the Astros

- Padres

- Steve Cohen

Who am I missing? I don't think the Yankees count but I can be persuaded otherwise. The fact Aaron Boone has a job for life makes me disqualify them on stupidity but I can't say for certain. 

PS - I have Tom Ricketts ranked 13th out of 30 which is absolute trash