Warren Schaeffer is getting his shot to help turn around the Rockies.
The club is expected to announce Monday that the 40-year-old Schaeffer will be retained as manager of a team facing a daunting rebuild in 2026. Schaeffer was named interim manager on May 11, replacing veteran Bud Black, who was fired after the Rockies began the season with a 7-33 record.
Under Schaeffer, the Rockies went 36-86, finishing with a 43-119 record.
Although Colorado’s record was among the worst in Major League Baseball history, several Rockies players said at the end of the season that they appreciated Schaeffer’s communication skills and attention to detail, and hoped he would return.
Retaining Schaeffer is the third significant move the Rockies have made this year. In June, Walker Monfort, the oldest son of owner Dick Monfort, was promoted to executive vice president. Earlier this month, the club named Paul DePodesta as president of baseball operations.
Schaeffer’s first job in the Rockies organization was as the hitting coach for Short-Season Tri-City (Pasco, Wash.) in 2013. He kept climbing the organizational ladder. He managed the Asheville Tourists from 2015 through 2017 and Double-A Hartford in 2018 and ’19.
He was tabbed to manage Triple-A Albuquerque for the 2020 season, but it was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He managed the Isotopes in 2021-22. In November 2022, the Rockies promoted him to their major league coaching staff as third base and infield coach for the 2023 season.
Schaeffer was born and raised in Vandergrift, Pa., a former steel mill town. He attended Greensburg Central Catholic High School. As a senior, he hit .554, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette named him its East Player of the Year. Harvard and Princeton recruited him, but he chose to chase his baseball dreams at Virginia Tech.
He was a starting shortstop all four seasons for the Hokies, slashing .292/.351/.402 as a senior. Colorado, hoping for a diamond in the rough, selected him with the 1,143rd overall pick. He was a college senior with a degree in history and a minor in English, with dreams of playing in the majors. He signed for $1,000.
But Schaeffer never made it. He climbed as high as Triple-A, playing for the Colorado Springs Sky Sox in 2010-11. Overall, he slashed .214/.273/.285 in 461 minor league games, with nine home runs and 137 RBIs.
Wanting to stay in baseball, he decided to turn to coaching.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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