Rockies Have Crucial Opportunity in Front of Them

Rockies Have a Great Opportunity in Replacing Bill Schmidt

Hiring from Within

The Rockies, more than anyone, love hiring from within. The Rockies have not hired from outside the organization for their GM role since 1999. Dan O’Dowd was hired in 1999 after previously working with the Baltimore Orioles and the Cleveland Indians. O’Dowd remained in Colorado for 15 years, overseeing the team’s only World Series appearance in 2007 and a postseason appearance in 2009. But the Rockies also lost a lot under O’Dowd. In his tenure, he went 1,129-1,302.

Jeff Bridich replaced O’Dowd on October 8, 2014. He took over following a 66-96 record in 2014, the club’s fifth straight season without a postseason appearance and fourth straight season finishing at least 14 games below .500. Bridich had been with the Rockies since 2004, working in various roles, including director of baseball operations and senior director of player development. Bridich oversaw the first consecutive postseason appearances in 2017-18 in franchise history. But he also signed Ian Desmond to an ill-fated five-year, $70 million deal in 2016. Most egregiously, he traded franchise star Nolan Arenado to the St. Louis Cardinals for essentially a cup of coffee in February 2021, along with $50 million for the Cardinals’ services.

Another Familiar Face

The Arenado deal proved to be the end of Bridich’s tenure. He resigned in April 2021. But the Rockies figured a familiar path was the right move again. They hired Schmidt, who was brought in by O’Dowd in 1999 and oversaw the Rockies’ scouting department for years before eventually becoming the GM. Hiring from within can make sense and can be an easy choice for a quality organization that does not want to do an extended outside search. But when the Rockies began hiring from within, it was following tenures mostly filled with losing and mediocrity. Why hire from the same front office repeatedly when clearly a new voice is needed? This is a symptom affecting the Rockies for the past twenty years that sorely needs a cure.

Bring in an Outsider!

Although Schmidt needed to go, he got the Rockies on the right track at the trade deadline. He helped to jumpstart a long-needed rebuild and finally embraced the youth movement. There is hope that this string of right decisions could somehow continue for the Rockies. Rockies’ owner Dick Monfort finally said what everyone has been saying about the Rockies for a while now.

“As with any transition, Bill’s departure allows our club to seek a new leader of our baseball department, experienced in areas where we know we need to grow within the operation. A new voice will benefit our organization as we work towards giving our fans the competitive team they deserve.”

That statement is something many Rockies fans felt they would never see from Monfort. It is a relief to see. But it remains to be seen if his actions will follow his words, and a new voice will indeed finally be hired. The priority with a new voice has to be analytics, one of the “areas,” Monfort said, the Rockies need to grow within the operation. Considering the immense difficulty of playing at altitude, the Rockies need analytics more than almost any other team in MLB, arguably. But for years, they have been behind the times, with a bare bones analytics staff.

Rockies Need to Get with the Times

In June, The Athletic interviewed several prominent former Rockies about the current state of their former club. Following Colorado’s last postseason appearance in 2018, DJ LeMahieu signed with the New York Yankees. He mentioned the gap in analytics between the Rockies and New York to The Athletic.

“I think they’re a little behind, for sure,”. “That doesn’t necessarily translate to wins and losses. It’s not like I’m going to point to that and say that’s the reason. But I think (joining the Yankees), it was like, ‘Wow, they’re really, really on top of things here.’ That was, like, one of the biggest surprises.”

Lemahieu’s comment just confirmed what everyone in baseball already knew about the Rockies. For years, they have been the laughingstock of MLB, known for their perplexing decisions that go against the grain. A rival executive reportedly talked to The Athletic in 2021 about the island the Rockies are on compared to the rest of the league.

“They are one of the weirdest front offices to deal with. (We’re) never really close to being on the same page on any concept we talk about. My feeling is they’re very insular.”

No Matter Who’s in Charge, a Huge Challenge Awaits

Schmidt heard the criticism about the Rockies being outliers and behind in analytics. Both O’Dowd and Schmidt were quoted this season talking about how it’s really easy for baseball people to offer solutions from the outside.

O’Dowd said to MLB.com in March: “There are a ton of baseball people who you’ll talk to who will have answers and solutions and, ‘Why don’t they do this?’ and ‘Why don’t they do that?’”. “And I’m telling you, until you walk in the people’s shoes who are actually attempting to do it, it’s just really hard to quantify and wrap your arms around.”

Schmidt spoke very similarly in an interview with The Athletic in May, shortly after manager Bud Black was fired.

“It’s easy to sit back, but until you’ve experienced it and really understand what goes into it, these are challenges we have to try to overcome,”.

There is no doubt the Rockies’ job is one of the hardest in the majors. Whoever takes over as the Rockies’ new GM will have a huge undertaking in front of them. The Rockies have some young talent, but are coming off the worst season in franchise history and are still years away from contention.

O’Dowd and Schmidt definitely knew way more about the challenges they face every day compared to outsider perspectives. But this is a results-based business, and the results have not been there for a while now. Perhaps O’Dowd and Schmidt are right, and a new voice will struggle just as much as they did trying to figure out how to win in Colorado. But the Rockies have gone to the same well for 20+ years, and the positive results have been few and far between. It’s more than time to try something new.