DBacks’ owner Ken Kendrick says World Series run is due to learning from past mistakes

ARLINGTON, Texas — It was around this time two years ago, at an annual end-of-season meeting with his baseball leadership team, that the Diamondbacks’ Ken Kendrick opened the discussion of their just completed 110-loss campaign.

“I said, ‘Well, look guys, it’s been a rough year,’” Kendrick recalled, “‘and the truth of it all is that none of us deserve to have our jobs.’”

It might have sounded like the prelude to a firing, but what Kendrick did next was something he might not have done a decade ago. He did nothing.

For years, Kendrick, the managing general partner of the Diamondbacks’ ownership group, had cycled through general managers. But that time, in 2021, he opted not to make a change — not with General Manager Mike Hazen or manager Torey Lovullo.

“As you do this over the years, you learn from the mistakes you made,” Kendrick said on Thursday from Globe Life Field, where his Diamondbacks were working out ahead of the start of the World Series. “We’ve certainly had our share of those.

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“I was quicker to judge in the past than I am now because I have gained perspective on what it takes and what the challenges are and how things don’t always go like you would wish them to. I think sticking with this group, who we have had, really, a strong commitment to, was the right thing, and I’m glad we’ve done that.”

The moment feels like a big one for Kendrick. It was nearly 20 years ago that he became the point man of the leadership group after then-managing general partner Jerry Colangelo was ousted. At the time, in 2004, the Diamondbacks were swimming in red, literally paying the price for the World Series they won a few years earlier.

For many fans, Kendrick was a villain while Colangelo, who brought Arizona what remains its only major sports championship, was a martyr.

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But now here is Kendrick, nearly two months removed from his 80th birthday, his team suddenly, improbably, on the verge of matching Colangelo’s accomplishment.

“For me to get into those comparisons wouldn’t really be fair,” Kendrick said. “The time and circumstances of the early days of the Diamondbacks and the organization that we now have are really way, way different.

“I inherited a team, it’s not well-remembered, I took over when the team lost over 100 games. So that early success wasn’t being sustained for a variety of reasons. We had to start from ground zero and rebuild. I had a different mind-set on how to operate and I felt it very, very important to create an atmosphere of financial stability, and then hopefully competitiveness. The financial stability was easier to achieve than the success on the field is.”

The organization has challenges ahead. It has uncertainty on the television front following the demise of Bally Sports Arizona. Chase Field, a ballpark in its 26th season, is in need of an update.

But for the first time in a long time, the Diamondbacks appear to have a lot of things going for them. They have a club that is four wins away from a title. They have a roster brimming with young talent. They have relatively little in the way of burdensome contracts. They have a front office led by Hazen that is respected throughout the industry. The future appears bright.

“The idea of having a successful team, a successful franchise, is sustaining success at a level,” Kendrick said. “That is what we’ve been trying to do and I think we’re at a place where, at least it looks like, we have an opportunity to compete for hopefully some time to come.”

Kendrick said it is “most likely” that Major League Baseball continues to broadcast Diamondbacks games. Diamond Sports Group reneged on payments to the club — believed to be in the neighborhood of $60 million a season — earlier this year.

“With the way the model of cable television is evolving, I think we’re going to be taking a step back in terms of television money for a period and then hopefully a step forward,” Kendrick said. “That’s still a work in progress.”

As for the ballpark, he said the organization is still hoping for a “public-private partnership” to upgrade the facility, adding the team is “prepared to spend significant ownership dollars.”

He said the World Series run has created unexpected revenues that will allow the team to increase its payroll, which sat somewhere in the $125-$130 million range this year.

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At that meeting two years ago, Kendrick said he was not trying to fire a warning shot to his leadership group. He was trying to say they were in this together. As in any disastrous season, there were calls for change, particularly with Lovullo, whose team was playing a mistake-riddled brand of baseball.

“I was saying, ‘It isn’t Torey’s fault,’” Kendrick said. “The manager is a focal point. (But) all of us contributed to us not being as successful as we wanted. And now I think we can say that all of us contributed to getting us here and I am glad we stuck with all of those guys.”

Back in Phoenix, Kendrick said the smiles are a little bigger on the faces of everyone he sees each morning at his neighborhood coffee shop. He said he feels a little more popular than before.

“I’m still not popular enough that anybody has wanted to buy me coffee,” he joked. “If we win, maybe I’ll get a free coffee out of it.”

Kendrick admits to being as surprised as everyone else about where his team is sitting today. He liked the talent his organization has collected but figured it needed time to mature.

“I’m very excited that these young guys have made us all as proud as we all are,” Kendrick said. “I’m thrilled to be here. It’s really a dream come true for, really, all of us, to be fair. It has been a long time coming. I think it’s a great situation for our entire community.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: DBacks’ owner Ken Kendrick: World Series run ‘a dream come true’