Arizona had wrapped up its season but the team's playoff hopes still hung in the balance. Whether the Diamondbacks advanced to the postseason depended upon the outcome of a Monday doubleheader between the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves. If one team swept the other, Arizona was in. If the Mets and Braves each won a game, the Diamondbacks were out.
The Mets won the first game, but the Braves won the second. Tuesday, Diamondbacks brass gathered for a final press conference, still cycling through the five stages of grief.
“It was a slow death," Lovullo said. "It was awful."
Lovullo and Diamondbacks general manager Mike Hazen did not sugarcoat what happened this year — Arizona blew it. The Diamondbacks entered the season fresh off a surprising and energizing trip to the World Series, poised to secure back-to-back playoff berths for the first time in two decades. They'd spent handsomely to upgrade the roster, running a franchise-record payroll in the range of $175 million.
Late into the season, that investment appeared to be paying off. A win over the Mets on Aug. 28 completed a torrid run in which the team went 30-10. By one account, the Diamondbacks at that moment had a 96.5% chance of making the playoffs.
But down the stretch, they crumbled. Jostling for a playoff wild-card spot with the Mets and Braves, the Diamondbacks dropped five of their last seven games. The pressure of holding on to a playoff spot may have gotten under the team's skin. “It definitely creeped up on us," said designated hitter Joc Pederson. "We didn’t play the same baseball we would have hoped and did all season."
The Diamondbacks were in a similar spot last year, fighting like hell to hold on to a playoff spot down the stretch. This year, though, a brutal road loss to the Milwaukee Brewers ripped out their hearts. Arizona led that game 8-0 in the third inning but wound up losing 10-9. "We had a couple days where I think we were hung over" after that loss, Lovullo said. Arizona also dropped its next two games.
That one game made a world of difference. The Diamondbacks, Mets and Braves all finished with 89-73 records, but the latter two each earned head-to-head tiebreakers over Arizona during the season. After the Monday doubleheader, the Braves and Mets jumped on planes to head to their playoff series, while the Diamondbacks packed their belongings.
Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo called watching his team get knocked out of the playoffs "a slow death."
Kevin C. Cox \ Getty Images
More talent not enough
If how the season ended was especially sour, it's partly because Arizona was a better club than the one that won the National League pennant a year ago. The Diamondbacks improved their record by five games in 2024 and led the major leagues in scoring. "This team is more talented than last year’s team," Hazen acknowledged, although he said that's cold comfort the day after losing a playoff spot. No one gives out trophies to the most talented team to miss the postseason."The investment in this team was made to go the playoffs, and that didn’t happen," Hazen said. "It’s hard for me to look at this right now any other way than that.”
The 2024 season was a chance to give the Valley a sustainable winner, a team capable of making the playoffs on a yearly basis. But it's not a completely lost cause. The Diamondbacks drew 2.3 million fans to Chase Field, their highest season attendance since 2008. While key players like Pederson and Christian Walker are set to hit free agency, star Corbin Carroll and much of the roster's core will return. Lovullo will be back, too, despite a vocal and reactionary segment of the fanbase calling for his dismissal.
Also likely to return is starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery, whom the team signed just before Opening Day to a one-year, $25 million deal. Montgomery struggled mightily, and in a Monday interview on Arizona Sports 98.7, team owner Ken Kendrick blamed himself for bringing Montgomery on board.
"In hindsight, a horrible decision, to have invested that money in a guy that performed as poorly as he did," Kendrick said. "It was our biggest mistake this season from a talent standpoint. And I’m the perpetrator of that.”
The problem Kendrick maligned a player who is likely to still be on the team next year. Montgomery holds a $22.5 million option for next season, which he'll probably exercise. When asked about Montgomery on Tuesday, Hazen deftly dodged any controversy.
"That was a group process" to sign the pitcher, Hazen said. "I understand why we made that decision at the time, and I believe that Jordan Montgomery is going to have a better year next year."
There's no dodging how the season ended for Arizona, though, and Hazen didn't try. A few hours after his press conference ended, the Mets stepped to the plate in Milwaukee against the Brewers for their first playoff game. The Diamondbacks should be there, he knows. Instead, that's where Arizona's playoff hopes sustained a mortal blow.
"We should be in Milwaukee," he said, "and we’re not."
