|
It’s rare to hear Major League Baseball owners criticize each other in public given their opaque world of sealed financial records and rare media availability.
Yet once in a while, the curtain is pulled back on their business and personal animosities.
Last month, Colorado Rockies owner Dick Monfort criticized the San Diego Padres for their spending. The once low-spending Padres have been doling out dollars like a large-market club in the last three years.
“What the Padres are doing, I don’t 100% agree with, though I know that our fans probably agree with it,” Monfort told the Denver Post’s Patrick Saunders. “We’ll see how it works out. … It does put a lot of pressure on you.”
Monfort’s issue is that the Padres are upsetting the traditional order of things. As theScore examined, the Padres and the Texas Rangers are the only teams that were outside the top 10 spenders from 2003-14 to have moved into the top 10 over the last decade. In showing rare upward mobility, the Padres aren’t staying in their lane.
“But it’s not just the Padres, it’s the Mets, it’s the Phillies,” Monfort said. “This has been an interesting year.”
New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, whose personal wealth dwarfs almost every other MLB owner, recently fired back.
“I’ve heard what everyone else has heard: that they’re not happy with me,” Cohen said.
“I’m not responsible for how other teams run their clubs,” he added. “I’m really not. That’s not my job. And there are disparities in baseball. We know that to be true. I’m following the rules. They set the rules down, I’m following them.”