The Colorado Rockies were expected to make an announcement this week regarding the teamâs open General Manager position. However, recent reports indicate that an announcement will not happen as soon as expected after all.
The club announced back on October 1st that the replacement for long time General Manager Bill Schmidt would come from âoutside the organization.â That alone indicted a shift in approach for an organization that had not gone outside for a high profile front office hire since bringing in Dan OâDowd from Cleveland to be the new General Manager in 1999. New Team President Walker Monfort â the son of team Owner Dick Monfort â promised an extensive search that would be focused on executives from more successful mid and small market franchises that the Rockies would attempt to emulate.
Colorado, which posted the worst record in team history and the worst record in Major League Baseball last season at 43-119, fired long time Manager Bud Black in May and replaced him with third base coach Warren Schaffer on an interim basis, with no noticeable on-field improvement.
Walker Monfort was promoted in August to replace retiring Team President Greg Feasel, who had been with the organization since itâs inception in 1993.
As the Rockies GM search was narrowed down, it was expected that the team would be deciding between Clevelandâs Matt Forman, the Guardians Executive VP/Assistant GM and Arizonaâs Senior VP/Assistant GM Amiel Sawdaye to become leader of the Rockies baseball operations. However, itâs no longer certain that either man is still under consideration.
Itâs been confirmed that former Rockies relief pitcher Adam Ottovino, who was active as a player as recently as last April with the Boston Red Sox, has been in contact with Colorado in pursuit of the front office position. Ottovino, who spent all or parts of seven season as a Rockies reliever, is 39 years old and obviously has no prior front office experience.
Itâs not known if the Rockies have any other General Manager candidates in mind at this time.
Colorado has only employed four General Managers in their three decades long history as a franchise. Original GM Bob Gebhart held the position from 1992 â 1999. He was replaced by OâDowd, who held the job until he was replaced by Jeff Bridich in 2014. When Bridich was ousted in May of 2021, Schmidt, the teamâs Director of Scouting since 1999 was elevated to the GM position.
During Schmidtâs tenure, the Rockies had only made one marquee free agent signing, inking Kris Bryant to a seven-year, $182 million deal in 2022. Bryant has been injured for the majority of his time in Colorado during his first three seasons and has produced a -1.5 WAR over the four seasons.
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