Thad Levine Isn't Only High-Profile Name Rockies Should Target for GM Job

If Levine isn't going to be the guy for the Rockies, then I think Andy McKay is the next-best choice.

Not only is he working in an advanced front office under Jerry Dipoto for the Seattle Mariners, but he also previously worked for Colorado as their minor league peak performance coordinator from 2012-15, which at least gives him some familiarity with the organization.

Of course, the Rockies need a massive overhaul when it comes to how they do things. So having familiarity shouldn't necessarily be a determining factor one way or another. But it helps that McKay has previously worked to get minor league players in this pipeline ready to compete at Coors Field.

McKay has been with the Mariners since 2015 working under Dipoto, and he recently was promoted to vice president and assistant GM. The next step for him is to run a front office, and that could be with the Rockies.

Dayton Moore

Colorado needs someone who can be successful despite not having a large spending budget. And that could be exactly what Dayton Moore provides them after the success he had with the Kansas City Royals a decade ago.

Hired as the Royals' general manager in 2006 after working his way up the scouting side of things elsewhere, he made some aggressive trades that created the foundation for the team reaching the World Series in 2014 and winning it in 2015.

There are some concerns about Moore since Kansas City didn't have a winning season under his leadership following the 2015 campaign before he was dismissed in 2022. But the 58-year-old is an interesting option for the Rockies.

Jon Daniels

A criticism of Colorado has been that aren't aggressive enough. Even during this stretch of historically poor play, the organization has been hesitant to move their best assets to acquire future pieces for this rebuild.

Jon Daniels doesn't seem like he would have a problem with that. While he might have changed from his earlier years when he was the youngest GM in MLB history with the Texas Rangers and was wheeling and dealing, he committed to a full rebuild in 2007 and ushered in major success.

From 2008-2016, they won the division four times and went to the World Series twice. A lot of that was manufactured by Daniels, who wasn't shy about making aggressive trades to reshape his roster. But he fizzled out after that and was fired in 2022, only to see his former team win their first-ever championship without him in 2023.

Billy Eppler

Perhaps the most controversial name who was brought up by Saunders is Billy Eppler, since he is someone who could be a good fit with the Rockies, but could also flame out in spectacular fashion.

Colorado hired Eppler as a scout in 2000, which was his first job in Major League Baseball. He left after 2004 to join the New York Yankees in a move that kickstarted his front office career. And after multiple interview attempts for GM jobs, he finally was hired by the Los Angeles Angels in 2015.

Things didn't go well for him there, though. Despite having Mike Trout and acquiring Shohei Ohtani, Justin Upton, Anthony Rendon and others, the Angels didn't make the playoffs under his leadership. That prompted Los Angeles to dismiss him after 2020.

He got another shot with the New York Mets when they hired him to become their general manager in 2021, but he resigned from his position after an MLB investigation revealed he violated league rules regarding the injured list when he placed non-injured players on the IL to clear up roster space.

His inability to have success running a team combined with that Mets fiasco makes him an unlikely candidate in Colorado, but he's a high-profile name to keep an eye on.

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