Owner Dick Monfort passed the torch. That is the only reason this might work.
The Rockies are a joke in baseball, but they finally held a news conference that did not require a laugh track.
Monfort insisted he will let son Walker Monfort and new president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta run the team.
Please make this case, because we are going to hold you to it.
“I think they are sort of pushing me out. Doesn’t it feel that way?” Dick Monfort said Thursday. “Much has been said about what I do and don’t do. I am here to support Walker. I am here to support to Paul. We have to have the resources. I am not as bad as everyone thinks I am. I do care. I care about winning. I care about the entire staff that work here. I defend them.”
For the past seven years of Monfort’s reign, the Rockies have come across as cheap, incompetent, loyal to a fault and strangers to logic.
Thursday, they left their alternative reality. At least that is the hope.
That the acknowledgment of failure will provide a path forward. That the chain of command will give DePodesta freedom to do his job while reporting to Walker, who will answer to his father only to get expense reports approved and resources allocated.
This is not as simple as cleaning up a mess. This is climbing out of the abyss. The franchise has reached the playoffs four times over the past 25 years, and the on-field success was largely achieved despite the people who keep the profits.
It is why everyone is skeptical that Dick will step aside. Why everyone remains suspicious that Walker is qualified or will have the courage to stand up to his dad, allowing DePodesta to execute his vision.
It is a strange feeling to walk out of a news conference and believe the person who hasn’t worked in baseball for a decade is more qualified to make this work than the people who hired him.
It is up to the Monforts to prove us wrong.
Dick has empowered Walker to put his stamp on this franchise, encouraging him to do things differently, starting with hiring an executive from outside the organization.
Walker’s business card says that he is the executive vice president. Is it a title? Or in practice?
That is the lingering question. There were subtle indications Thursday that Walker has power.
It came in his opening remarks. He owned the organization’s colossal failure. The next time Greg Feasel, the man he replaced, does that publicly will be the first time. Walker pointing a finger in the mirror permits the the Rockies to act like a professional franchise again after not one, not two, but three consecutive 100-loss seasons forced significant leadership changes.
“We all know it’s been a tough stretch for the Rockies, to say the least. And there are no excuses for that. Nothing will be accepted except progress going forward,” Walker Monfort said. “To our fans, we know you are frustrated. We know you are tired of seeing words, you want to see action. Paul is the first move, and there will be many more to come. We hear you and feel your passion.”
This is baseline stuff. Business 101. But accountability has been so foreign for so long that it was jarring and refreshing. Let’s be clear: The Rockies get no respect, and deserve none either. They must earn the trust back of fans who watched the 2025 squad became a national punchline.
That team represented a perfect storm of what happens when a franchise cannot draft or develop, refuses to see players as assets and believes it can field a 25-man roster of homegrown prospects. Not even the Dodgers can do that, and they do everything better than everyone else.
In DePodesta, the Rockies hired a grown-up. His resume features a remarkable hole — a 10-year unsuccessful sojourn with the Cleveland Browns — but his intelligence and humility make him a million times more likely to succeed than former general manager Bill Schmidt.
DePodesta helped pioneer analytics in baseball. The Rockies could not figure out how to roll out a wireless network in the press box during the 2007 World Series. That, in a nutshell, captures their relationship with technology over the past two decades.
DePodesta will change that. And most encouraging, Walker wants him to. Knows it must be done. And it will require more external hires.
“He’s 52 years old and worked in sports his whole career. I do think we changed our approach with him,” Walker Monfort said. “We are not going to just bring in one (new person). We are bringing on others. If there are things that are missing from him not being in the game the last 10 years, the plan is for him to bring in people to supplement that.”
DePodesta provides knowledge, conviction and the common sense to take his share of responsibility for the disastrous Deshaun Watson trade in Cleveland.
But, none of his skills will matter if Dick Monfort continues running interference.
While the last several years proved that Schmidt and Feasel were awful at their jobs, Monfort made them worse. He nixed trades. He failed to spend on infrastructure — video technology, scouts, better minor league coaches, data analysts — that pays dividends at the big league level. He fostered a no-consequence culture.
Listening to DePodesta, it is hard to believe he would have taken this job, even if his days with the Browns were numbered, if he believed Monfort was going to continue in this type of role.
There is also this: Monfort volunteered that he was going to be busy with other things, likely as a hawk as the owners and players attempt to hash out a new collective bargaining agreement with the current CBA expiring on Dec. 1, 2026.
Whether it results in a salary cap or not could go a long way in determining Monfort’s stomach to remain an owner.
Given the Rockies’ struggles and the avalanche of criticism he has received, Dick told me before the 2024 season he was unsure if Walker wanted to take on a significant front office role or inherit the team.
But he talked with pride on Thursday as he glanced over at his son after the news conference.
This certainly felt like the realization of a long-held dream.
But it will only be one for the rest of us if it means Dick is gone, leaving the baseball decisions to Walker, DePodesta and his new staff.
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