The guy everyone's calling cheap this week handed Corbin Burnes a six-year, $210 million contract nearly three years ago. Hold onto that before you decide Ken Kendrick is slashing the Diamondbacks' payroll because he hates spending money.
On October 2, Kendrick went on the radio and said Arizona's 2027 payroll will come down from the north-of-$198 million it ran in 2026, that it won't be "at the same level." The team had just finished 86-76, third in the NL West, two games short of a playoff spot, missing October for the third year running. Cut spending right after that and fans have every right to be furious, figuring another owner is using a lousy season as cover to pocket the savings.
That read doesn't survive contact with the actual contracts.
Listen to what Kendrick is describing. "If you go look at those contracts that are expiring, we have some very significant contracts that are expiring with, unfortunately, players that made little or no contributions to the team," he said. He's talking about Zac Gallen, who posted a -1.7 bWAR while carrying roughly a $16 million payroll hit. He's talking about Lourdes Gurriel Jr., who made $13 million, put up a .544 OPS, and got released in September with a $5 million buyout still owed. That's dead money finally coming off the books, and a payroll that drops because of it hasn't gotten cheaper in any way that matters on the field.
The man letting these deals expire is the same man who created them. Kendrick personally drove the payroll up after the 2023 pennant. He took ownership of the Jordan Montgomery disaster in public, flat out: "If anyone wants to blame anyone for Jordan Montgomery being a Diamondback, you're talking to the guy who should be blamed." You don't get to be the aggressive owner who signs Burnes and chases veterans like Gallen, then get branded a tightwad the first winter those bets come off the books. He spent, and it didn't work. Walking away from money already wasted is just accounting.
That still leaves Kendrick one obligation he can't wriggle out of. He has said, repeatedly and on the record, that this isn't about profit: "The money that is there from the revenue we take in, we're gonna reinvest in the team." That's the promise he has to keep. If the savings from Gallen and Gurriel go back into real major-league talent this winter, this offseason is ordinary baseball and the anger is misplaced. If they don't, if that $40-to-50 million just evaporates while the roster treads water, the cheap label everybody reached for this week turns out to be right, just a few months early.
The bill for getting it wrong is already visible. Attendance at Chase Field has declined for two straight years and sits well below capacity. Nobody is going to keep paying full freight to watch an 86-win team get quietly cheaper. Kendrick knows that, which is why he keeps promising reinvestment to anyone who'll point a microphone at him.
The cheap-owner verdict is wrong today. Kendrick spent big, missed, and is cutting loose the misses. The only person who can turn that verdict true is Kendrick himself, and he'll do it the moment the reinvestment talk turns out to be a radio line instead of a free-agent signing.
