The Rockies simply can’t afford to keep up with the Joneses

Dick Monfort is a rich man, but he doesn't have as deep a pockets as most MLB owners, a reality that puts his team at a disadvantage

BY JAMES MERILATT

Feb 3, 2021, 1:04 PM

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On Tuesday, watching Rockies owner Dick Monfort meet with the media for an hour to answer questions about the team trading Nolan Arenado to the Cardinals, it was hard to not be depressed. Not just because the greatest player in the history of the franchise was no longer going to be in purple pinstripes, but because the lopsided deal that shipped him out of town has become par for the course.

The Rockies make mistake after mistake, but don’t have the financial wherewithal to buy their way out of them, like the Dodgers, Red Sox and Yankees. They don’t even consider big-money free agents, something Monfort admitted won’t change in the future. And trading away homegrown stars in order to replenish a downtrodden farm system has and will be a part of the franchise’s plan.

Ugh.

This is all because the owner doesn’t have deep enough pockets to operate the team in any other manner. That’s not Monfort’s fault. It’s just the reality.

Monfort has an estimated net worth of $700 million. That’s a lot of money in almost every conceivable walk of life. But among owners of Major League Baseball teams, it is the equivalent of living on the wrong side of the tracks.

That’s why the Rockies actually have to turn a profit. They can’t operate in the red.

Most of their revenues come from the gate – ticket sales, concessions, etc. So playing games in 2020 with no fans in attendance due to the coronavirus pandemic meant the franchise took a financial bath in 2020.

That’s one of the reasons why the Rockies had to trade Arenado. The All-Star third baseman was set to earn $35 million in 2021. The club couldn’t afford that amount of money. So instead, they traded him away and agreed to give the Cardinals $50 million via deferred payments during the time Arenado is in St. Louis. In other words, they’d rather pay $50 million spread out over five years than $35 million in a six-month span.

The other reason the Rockies had to trade away their best player also had to due with financial constraints. Jeff Bridich spent more than $280 million on 12 free agents that didn’t pan out. The general manager couldn’t spend any money to replace those poorly performing players until those bad contracts were all off the books.

That’s why the team made no significant moves in recent offseasons. They had to ride it out with Daniel Murphy, Wade Davis, Jake McGee, Bryan Shaw and other flops. That angered Arenado, as he was frustrated by having to play multiple seasons with the same underperforming teammates.

That’s not going to change. The Rockies spend money – they had the 11th highest payroll in MLB in 2019 – but they haven’t done it wisely. And they don’t have deep enough pockets to buy their way out of those mistakes. They have to ride them out.

This makes for a fairly hopeless situation for Rockies fans. They’re stuck, rooting for a team that is fighting with at least one arm tied behind its back.

Colorado can win. They made the playoffs in both 2017 and ’18. But it takes a perfect storm of good fortune for that to happen.

They have to get great performances from young, relatively cheap players. And their stars have to stay healthy and avoid a down year.

That doesn’t happen very often. That explains why the team has never won a division title and has only made the postseason five times in 28 years.

During that entire time, Monfort has been a part of the process. He was a minority owner of the team when it was founded, became vice chairman in 1997, became one of the two primary owners in 2005, and took over as chairman and CEO in 2011.

To be fair, his tenure hasn’t been all bad. The Rockies made it to the World Series in 2007. Their ballpark remains a gem, despite being the third-oldest stadium in the National League. And the party deck, while often scoffed at, was a stroke of genius.

But the sports world has changed in the past three decades. It was once a playground for the rich. Now, it’s an exclusive club for the uber-wealthy.

Monfort was in the first group. He’s not in the latter. As a result, his team can’t really compete, at least not on an annual basis, with those owned by multi-billionaires.

The neighborhood has gotten too rich for Monfort. He can no longer keep up with the Joneses.