The San Diego Padres have broken the bank in recent years to acquire various players like Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts and to keep guys like Fernando Tatis Jr.
But the organization’s spending wasn’t a strategy that suited Colorado Rockies owner Dick Monfort well.
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Colorado Rockies owner Dick Monfort walks off the field before the St. Louis Cardinals game at Coors Field on August 9, 2022 in Denver.
(Dustin Bradford/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Monfort, who is about to start his 26th season in charge of the NL West team, expressed his frustration with the way the Padres were going about their business. San Diego has the third-highest payroll in baseball and reached the NLCS last season.
«That puts a lot of pressure (on us),» Monfort said at a Rockies community event over the weekend, via the denver mail. “But it’s not just the Padres, it’s the Mets, it’s the Phillies. This has been an interesting year.
«I don’t 100% agree with what the Padres are doing, although I know our fans probably agree. We’ll see how it works out.»
Rockies owner Dick Monfort celebrates the opening of Play Ball Park, an interactive baseball festival, at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver on July 9, 2021.
(Hyoung Chang/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
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«I look at the Padres and they have a really talented team, but they also have some holes. They have three, maybe four starting pitchers, and then they’re like us. They have (Joe) Musgrave, (Blake) Snell and (Yu) Darvish, so I don’t know. They’ve spent a lot of money and they’re going to have to spend a lot more if they want to stay with (outfielder) Juan Soto. But it puts a lot of pressure on you. Yes, it does.»
With the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants running the division in recent seasons, the Padres acquiring a wealth of talent and the Arizona Diamondbacks building potential stars from the ground up, Monfort assured fans in the audience that Colorado can play «.500 bal .»
«We have a lot of talent, a lot of good things are going to happen, and I think they’re going to start to happen this year, and I think we can play .500,» he said.
Kris Bryant of the Colorado Rockies watches from the sidelines against the Cubs at Wrigley Field on September 16, 2022 in Chicago.
(Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
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Colorado signed Kris Bryant to a seven-year, $182 million deal before the 2022 season. He only played in 42 games last season. The team hopes that Germán Márquez and Kyle Freeland can lower their ERAs in 2023.