The last thing Arizona Diamondbacks fans wanted to hear after missing the playoffs is their owner confirming the team's payroll won't be the same.

Ken Kendrick appeared on AZ Sports' Burnes & Gambo Show to discuss the state of the team after their 86-76 season.

Had the D-backs been in the American League, they would've made the playoffs with relative ease. Instead, they're stuck in the National League West and missed out on the playoffs on the final day of the regular season.

There's no doubt Arizona had chances to punch its ticket to the postseason, and not even a six-game winning streak from Sept. 19-25 was good enough to get the job done.

Now, Kendrick is stuck taking a step back and looking not just at where this team was in 2026, but where they'll be in 2027 and beyond.

This team has a few massive contracts on the books, none more notable than former Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes.

It feels like the team rushed his return this year, and that's why he was stuck going on the Injured List again and missing his final scheduled start.

Who knows what would've happened if Burnes started that game, but it's not like this team is blaming his $210 million deal for why they missed the playoffs.

According to Spotrac, the D-backs were 11th with a total payroll of $198,216,609 this season.

Taking a brief look ahead, they fall to 12th in 2027 with a total payroll sitting at $177,225,000.

For reference, the league average in '26 was $183,472,670.

"Looking at what our payroll is going to be, I will say the following. It will not be at the same level. It'll be a lower payroll than we had this year," he said.

Baseball owners are interesting people, to say the least, but at the end of the day he has a job to do, and there are a million reasons as to why this team's payroll will shrink next season.

For now, all D-backs fans can do is trust the process and hope it doesn't set them back any further.

Remember, this is a team that hasn't made the playoffs since they made it to the World Series, so it'd be nice to make a confidence-boosting splash in the offseason, but it doesn't seem like that will be the case.

Obviously, the biggest question on everyone's mind currently is whether or not there will even be a season in 2027.