Dave Roberts on Bud Black’s Firing: ‘Not the Manager’s Fault’

Despite a 9 – 3 victory over the San Diego Padres on Sunday, the Colorado Rockies proceeded with the firing of manager Bud Black. The decision followed a devastating 21 – 0 loss in the previous game.

With a 7 – 33 start to the season, the team is on track to earn the worst record in MLB, coming out of their third eight-game losing streak of the 2025 season. 

While Black’s dismissal doesn’t come as a surprise to many, it still carries a sense of disappointment, given the significant impact he had on the team in previous seasons. 

Close Friend and Former Colleague Stands by Black

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who worked alongside Black on the Padres’ coaching staff from 2011 to 2015, expressed regret over his friend’s firing, noting his deep respect for the once-successful manager. 

“I’m bummed. I’m disappointed. I don’t think Casey Stengel could change the outcome of that ballclub and that’s not the manager’s fault,” Roberts said in a report from CBS Sports. “But obviously, they felt they needed a change in voice or direction. But for me, there’s not many people that are better than Buddy Black. So, yeah, that’s very disappointing. It is certainly not his doing.”

Roberts voicing his opinion that not even one of the best baseball managers of all time could fix the Rockies really shows just how bad the team is and how there’s almost no way to pull them out of the slump they’ve been stuck in this year. 

Prior Success Before Recent Struggles

Black took over as the Rockies’ manager in 2017, leading the team to postseason appearances in both 2017 and 2018. However, since then, Colorado has struggled to even approach a winning record, let alone make the playoffs. Over the past two years, the team has lost more than 100 games each season, a feat that had never occurred before. 

However, it is not the manager’s fault, as Roberts commented. 

The Rockies rank at the bottom of the league this year, hitting just .219 and posting a league-worst 5.77 ERA. They also sit second-to-last in OPS at .646. Offensively, the struggles are clear, no player is batting over .290, only two are hitting above .250, and outside the hitter-friendly environment at their home turf, Coors Field, no one has more than six home runs. 

So when Roberts says there’s not much a manager can do to turn this team around, he has a point, no one is likely capable of making the kind of impact needed to reverse the course of their season. Still, given how disastrous this year and recent seasons have been, the Rockies didn’t have much of a choice but to fire Black.

Black, 67, was in the final year of his contract and was widely expected to retire at the end of the season after nine years with the Rockies. Instead, Colorado made that decision for him, bringing his time with the team to an early end. 

More than a Mentor 

When the baseball manager was fired by the Padres in 2015, Roberts replaced him for one game. Roberts has since gone on to manage the Dodgers, bringing them two World Series Titles and is on path to the Hall of Fame. 

This isn’t the first time Roberts has shown admiration for Black, who has been both a mentor and a close friend to him over the years. In fact, Roberts selected Black to join his coaching staff for the 2021 All-Star Game when he managed the National League, a clear sign of the respect and regard he holds for him.

Third-base coach Warren Schaeffer has been instituted as interim manager of the Rockies, with Clint Hurdle replacing bench coach Mike Redmond, who was also let go. 

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