This is a different kind of Rocktober, but no less crucial.
This autumn, there are no on-field heroics, no sold-out crowds at Coors Field, no playoff drama. Those memorable moments are in the distant past.
But the Rockies have reached a critical crossroads, forced to make the most significant choices since the team was first assembled as an expansion franchise before the inaugural 1993 season. Walker Monfort, the executive vice president, has been tasked with rebuilding the front office after three consecutive 100-loss seasons, which culminated in an embarrassing 119-loss season in 2025.
And the route he takes will likely determine if this will indeed be a new era, or just a rebrand of the same old Rockies.
“This is one of the most crucial decisions the Rockies will ever have to make,” said Ryan Spilborghs, the former Rockies outfielder, member of the 2007 World Series team, and Rockies TV analyst since 2014.
“They have been put in a position where it feels like they need to rearrange their grandparents’ furniture and remodel the house,” Spilborghs continued. “If you have ever had to do that, you know it’s not easy. It’s not easy to get people to change when they are set in their ways.
“So, to find their next person to head baseball operations, in a short period of time, and allow them to change their world — flip it upside down — requires an incredible amount of trust. It’s like speed dating to get married for life. The decision-making here is monumental.”
General manager Bill Schmidt and assistant GM Zack Rosenthal resigned earlier this month, leaving the Rockies on the clock. And it’s ticking, with the offseason just a few weeks away. Free agency begins the day after the World Series ends. The general managers’ meetings take place on Nov. 10-13 in Las Vegas.
There are currently five teams looking for a new on-field manager, six if you count the Rockies, who have not told interim manager Warren Schaeffer if he’ll have a chance to return. Scheffer, who has not been interviewed, said he expects to know about his future when the new front office boss is hired.
This coming week, Monfort, the oldest son of team owner and CEO Dick Monfort, is expected to narrow his list of finalists for a new head of baseball operations. He’s also creating a new position — a chief revenue and strategy officer — that will be tasked with helping grow the Rockies from the business side to invest more money in data, analytics and strategy. Those are areas where the Rockies have long lagged behind the rest of Major League Baseball.
Looming questions include whether the new head of baseball operations will have genuine autonomy to reshape the team, and if Dick Monfort will step aside to take a lesser role in constructing and operating the team.
“If there ever were a time he would, it would be now,” said a former major league executive, who spoke to The Denver Post under the condition of anonymity because he still works for MLB. “But will he invest in the right people and infrastructure to go along with the autonomy? That’s probably the bigger question.”
According to a recent report in The Athletic, Colorado has interviewed at least three candidates to head a revamped front office: Toronto Blue Jays executive and former Houston Astros general manager James Click, Kansas City Royals assistant GM Scott Sharp, and Cleveland Guardians assistant GM Matt Forman. It’s not known what other candidates the Rockies might have interviewed.
Spilborghs, who hosts a national radio show for SiriusXM’s MLB Network Radio and has also worked as an analyst for Apple TV’s Friday night baseball coverage since 2023, is well-connected throughout baseball. He said he has not learned of any other candidates.
“Walker and the Rockies have done a good job keeping this search quiet, keeping things close to the vest,” Spilborghs said.
Thad Levine, who has ties to the Rockies, has been speculated as a possible candidate, but he’s not known to have interviewed with them. Still, he remains the No. 1 choice for Matt Holliday, the former Rockies All-Star outfielder. Holliday has a vested interest in the Rockies’ future success because his son Ethan was drafted by them with the fourth overall pick of the MLB draft in July.
“I love Thad Levine, but I don’t know if he’ll get an interview,” Holliday said. “But I don’t know why he wouldn’t.”
Levine worked under former Rockies GM Dan O’Dowd from 1999 to 2005 before becoming the assistant GM of the Rangers and later the GM and senior vice president of the Twins. He left the Twins after the 2024 season. During his eight years in Minnesota, the Twins won three AL Central titles and earned four postseason berths.
Holliday said that whoever the Rockies pick, the team needs a dynamic new voice.
“I’m hoping that they hire somebody who has a vision of what it’s going to take to turn this around,” Holliday said. “I’m hoping they hire a person with a plan to improve player development. I want them to bring on coordinators within the (farm) system that can really coach and develop.
“First and foremost, I’m hopeful for a head of baseball ops that is given the reins to set up a system like some of the other mid-market organizations, which seem to be functioning at a high level.”
Holliday is referring to organizations such as the Brewers and Guardians, which have been perennial playoff teams in recent years despite ranking in the bottom half of the MLB in terms of payroll.
Near the end of the season, Schaeffer was asked to provide an example of a step the Rockies need to take to catch up to other teams.
“We need information that the players are provided with in terms of how to get better and prosper at this level,” he said. “We can do better.”
Holliday concurred: “If you are not going to be out in the free-agent market signing big-time players, you have to come up with a holistic approach to getting better. Whether it’s R&D or analytics, whatever other organizations are doing, Colorado seems to have been left behind. That’s what I hear when I talk to other people about how Colorado compares to other organizations. I’m hoping the funding, the freedom given to whoever is next, and the ability to set up a great staff will take this organization back to where we all want it to be.”
Given the Rockies’ track record — seven consecutive losing seasons and just five playoff appearances in 33 years — and the challenges and vagaries of playing baseball at a mile above sea level, the job of rebuilding the franchise might seem undesirable for many. Spilborghs, however, believes that leading the offices at 20th and Blake is a highly coveted job.
“I have talked to virtually every organization for the past couple of years,” Spliborghs said. “A lot of executives have asked me about the Rockies. They ask me what’s going on. Then I ask them, in turn, what they think of the situation. I cannot tell you how many of them have told me, ‘That’s my dream job.’ ”
Why would that be the case?
“Because of the location, the fan base, and being able to build from scratch,” Spilborghs continued. “Though their eyes, from their vantage point, having the chance to revamp, reempower, and reengage, it just seems so enticing.
“If you are any sort of person who likes to run toward the fire instead of running away from it, this is exactly where they want to go.”
Spilborghs added that he hopes the Rockies are taking enough time and have scouted enough candidates for the job.
“There should be a line of candidates out the door who want to present and want to show you what they would do in Colorado,” he said. “I would assume that the list of executives is very robust, or at least it should be.
“But the thing is, there might be people that the Rockies might not be asking because they think they might not be willing to come to Colorado. Whereas, really, it’s quite the opposite. If you call them, they would come.”
Several rival managers have said that the Rockies, run the right way, could become a formidable team to contend with, especially at Coors Field.
“I have always admired the Rockies’ ability to develop position players,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said last spring. “Guys like Charlie Blackmon, (Trevor) Story, Nolan Arenado, D.J. (LeMahieu) and CarGo (Carlos Gonzalez). … They made Coors such a tough place to play.”
But the Rockies, fielding an anemic offense and failing to build a dynamic roster, have not posted a winning record at home since 2022.
“Coors has to be the home-field advantage that it can be and has been in the past,” Holliday said. “The Rockies should know the pros and cons, and what works and what doesn’t at Coors, better than anybody else. It should be the greatest homefield advantage in the sport.”
Ethan Holliday, just 18, likely won’t make his big-league debut for at least another two years. But his dad hopes that the critical decisions the Rockies make now will create a brighter future — one that will change the way the franchise is perceived around the league.
“I hope this is a chance to hit a home run on a hire that gets the organization turned about and heading in the other direction,” Matt Holliday said. “I’d like it to become an organization where other teams look at what the Rockies are doing and say, ‘Wow, they really flipped this thing on its head in a hurry, and now they are kind of a model organization.’ That would be my hope.”
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