@MarkKnudson41
Strike One: Dick Monfort and the Colorado Rockies front office had to say something. Unfortunately, they didn’t say the right thing.
Local and national media have had a field day with what was said and not said during the press conference that was held last week to discuss/explain/justify the trade of Nolan Arenado to the St. Louis Cardinals. It didn’t go well.
Then again, it had zero chance to. Rockies Nation had already decided that this was the worst trade in modern sports history. One former National League GM told me it was the worst deal he’d seen in the past three decades. Gulp.
How DO you explain that? The Rockies brass – Monfort and General Manager Jeff Bridich – picked the wrong approach. They decided they would A) put it on Arenado for wanting out of town and claiming they didn’t understand why, B) saying they believed he was going to opt out at the end of 2021 and leave them with just a single first round draft pick as compensation, and C) trying to prop up the batch of five players – one middle relief pitcher and four nondescript prospects – that they got in return. Monfort told the media that he thought “Jeff did an incredible job” in getting the deal done…a deal that includes sending the Cards $50 million.
The evidence does not back up that claim.
There was not much mention of the business side of the deal. That’s probably because most fans don’t want to hear anything about the financial troubles of millionaires, and Monfort is sensitive to that. But the facts of the matter are that this was a business driven deal, and it had to be. And being honest and explaining that in front of all those cameras would have been the better tactic. Honesty is the best policy, right?
As some of us continue to keep going back to, the Colorado Rockies – and all other MLB franchises – lost $100 million in 2020. Pause and think about that for a second. $100 million. How many businesses could withstand that and keep operating? Yes, there are big league franchises – like the Cardinals for example – that can and have. But if you look around baseball right now, there are only a select few franchises that are adding to their roster/payroll this winter. The majority are in survival mode…like the Rockies. This is not a franchise with bottomless pockets, regardless of what the misguided perception is.
Arenado’s contract – he will make about $35 mil this season and for the next several – simply became cost prohibitive for the Rockies. It wasn’t when he signed it, and it wouldn’t have been had the world not fallen into the pandemic-driven recession. But things are dramatically different now. And it’s no one’s fault.
That being the case, it would have been better for Monfort and Bridich to just come clean to the media. Say something like this for instance:
“Hey, this day sucks. We HATE that we had to trade a future Hall of Fame player in his prime. We are going to miss him terribly. But given what our industry in general and our franchise in particular has gone through the past year, we didn’t have a choice. We had to move that salary for the long term health of the franchise. We analyzed it from every angle, including getting loans, raising prices, and other things, and in the end, we concluded that what was best for our organization was to move this contract in the hopes that we could regain some solid financial footing sooner rather than later. We remain committed to returning to the post season as soon as possible and bringing the World Series back to Coors Field.”
A simple, honest statement like that would still have been a bitter pill for a lot of followers of the team. They don’t want to hear that the money-printing operation at 20th and Blake can’t afford something. But the fact is that Colorado does not have the same kind of lucrative local broadcasting deal that the Dodgers have, and when you can’t but butts in the seats, you’re gonna lose your…well, you know.
Feelings can’t change facts.
As things stand, with an ownership that has limited resources, the Rockies could no longer afford their best player. They probably can’t afford their next best player, either…so don’t be shocked if another business-driven trade takes place prior to the trade deadline. It sucks, but it’s the current reality. Keeping Nolan for this season – and he wasn’t going to opt out and give up his phat contract – would have still cost them that $35 mil. Since they’re paying the Cardinals in increments, and not a lump sum, they’re actually saving money this year. (Still, having to pay St. Louis anything to take your best player off your hands is ridiculous, but that’s what happens when you make deals out of financial desperation.)
They didn’t get much in return for Arenado, and that part really sucks, too. It was a terrible deal for the Rockies and it probably won’t be the last like it. But if Rockies brass has just been honest in their explanation, the truth could have set them free.
Strike Two: In times like these, those charged with being mouthpieces for a losing franchise find themselves under a red hot microscope. Spokesmen, public relations folks and others are often put in very difficult positions.
To their immense credit, the Rockies didn’t do that with the Arenado trade. The Owner and GM took the microphones and didn’t leave it to underlings. That was the right thing to do.
That didn’t take all the heat off of the team’s radio and TV announcers, folks that are regularly on social media promoting all that this good with the team that employs them, in and out of season. That’s part of their gig.
The Rockies broadcast team includes some very talented professionals, including Drew Goodman, Jeff Huson, Ryan Spilborghs, Jenny Cavnar, Cory Sullivan, Jack Corrigan and Mike Rice…along with support staff. They are equal parts journalists and PR folks. They have to give you the facts, yes. But they also have to put a positive spin on things. After all, they work for the team.
Still, fans wanted them to go on Twitter, etc and put the team on blast for what was (correctly) viewed as the Cardinals picking the Rockies pockets. They were supposed to add their anger and frustration to that of the followers of the team. Why wouldn’t they come out and rip this deal like the rest of the media types?
Because they can’t.
Back in the day, radio and TV broadcasters worked directly for the stations. The stations made the decision on who got the play-by-play gigs, etc. That’s not how it works now. All local broadcasters are approved by the teams. Here, the Rockies have ownership stakes in AT&T SportsNet and KOA Radio. The Rockies brass has the ultimate choice in who calls the games and gets the plumb assignments.
Goodman, for example is often the target of viewers who think he’s not critical enough of Rockies players. The fact of the matter is Drew is a very knowledgeable baseball man. He’s been doing this for a long time. He knows what he’s watching, good and bad. He does offer constructive criticism when it’s warranted, but he does not throw up his hands and gripe about a guy who just made a killer error, threw a terrible pitch, or swung at strike three in the dirt. Those are things a fan would do…and yes, fans often want the announcers to say what the fans themselves are feeling. Maybe in the old days, that could happen some. But the days when Harry Carey could bad mouth struggling Chicago Cubs players on the air are loooooong gone. Listen to any local broadcast, and what you will hear is exactly what you get out of Coors Field: Facts, constructive criticism, and promotion for the team. That’s the business now.
Next time you want to criticize Drew or Jeff or Spilly for not being hard enough on the Rockies, ask yourself this simple question: Could you publicly bad mouth your employer and keep your job?
When the team is struggling – and right now, the Rockies are a sinking ship – the announcers are judged even more harshly than normal. Right now, the Colorado broadcasters are stuck between a Rockies and a hard place. Keep that in mind before you complain that they aren’t voicing your frustration loud enough.
Strike Three: Lost in the off season of million dollar losses is the fact that Colorado chose to keep hitting coach Dave Magadan for another season. While not on the same scale as paying St. Louis $50 mil to take away your best player, it still a bad decision that’s hard to understand.
Magadan had a successful 16-year big league career, hitting .288 for seven teams. He began coaching in 2003. The Rockies are his fifth team.
The team’s sagging fortunes can be directly tied to an offense that hasn’t produced consistently, even in the hitter-friendly confines of Coors Field. Following two consecutive play-off seasons, the Rockies replaced Ron Gideon with Magadan for the 2019 season. He was fresh off a three-year stint with Arizona that saw the Diamondbacks offensive production decline all three years. He was fired after the 2018 season and hired by the Rockies shortly thereafter.
He has not proven to be an improvement.
A franchise that has led the National League in team batting average 10 times in the past 20 years was fifth in team hitting during the truncated 2020 season. It seemed worse than that.
While other clubs are looking for new approaches and doing some outside the box hiring when it comes to hitting coaches, Colorado remains locked in the old school approach. The World Series champion Dodgers, for example, eschewed the old in favor of a guy named Robert Van Scoyoc. He had zero big league experience as a player. He didn’t even play much in college. He began mentoring hitters during the off season in 2013, when he gathered notoriety for his success working with J.D. Martinez. The Dodgers hired him prior to the 2019 season. Van Scoyoc’s use of analytics and new teaching techniques has paid tremendous dividends. Despite playing in notoriously pitcher-friendly Dodger Stadium, LA has become a frightening offensive team. Last season, the Dodgers led the National League in slugging percentage and were second in OPS (On-base Plus Slugging.) The Rockies were 17th and 18th respectively.
The Rockies and Dodgers had almost the same exact team batting average (.257 and .256), but the Van Scoyoc approach obviously produced better results in terms of actual offensive production. The Dodgers led the National League in runs scored. The Rockies were 15th.
The Rockies have been very slow to embrace new methodologies, especially in the area of analytics. While the Dodgers have as many as 26 people working in their analytics department, the Rockies essentially don’t have an analytics department. Maybe something as simple as replacing an old-school hitting coach with someone who brings in new ideas could begin to push the franchise that can’t spend money like the big boys forward in another direction. That won’t be as costly as another mid-level free agent.