The Rockies have announced an unexpected front office shakeup, but will apparently not be making any upper-level additions from outside the organization for the time being. General manager Dan O’Dowd and senior VP of major league operations Bill Geivett — long the team’s brain trust — have resigned from their posts, as Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports first reported on Twitter.
In their place, Jeff Bridich has been promoted to the general manager seat after previously serving as senior director of player development, as initially reported by MLB.com’s Thomas Harding (via Twitter). While a young, fresh voice at the highest tier of baseball operations offers the hope of jumpstarting an idling franchise, it remains to be seen whether new operating philosophies and improved results will follow.
Colorado now becomes the third NL West organization in recent months to find a new GM, though both of their division rivals underwent broad external searches to find their new leadership. The Padres replaced Josh Byrnes with former Rangers executive A.J. Preller, while the Diamondbacks displaced Kevin Towers in favor of player agent Dave Stewart.
O’Dowd had been ensconced atop Colorado’s baseball decisionmaking structure since the fall of 1999, when he was hired as the club’s general manager. Many of the team’s highs and lows have come under his watch. The failed signings of Denny Neagle and Mike Hampton were early mistakes, but O’Dowd put together the talent that led the Rockies to deep postseason runs in 2007 and 2009. Ultimately, though, the club posted winning seasons in only four out of fifteen seasons under O’Dowd.
That less-than-inspiring track record provided the impetus for a front office restructuring in 2012. Though O’Dowd retain his general manager title and position atop the authority structure, he ceded some authority to Geivett, who had joined the Rockies in 2000. As his title reflects, Geivett was placed in charge of running the club at the major league level. Indeed, he made his office in a room adjoining the clubhouse, a situation which seemingly led to some tension. Though it is somewhat difficult to know where to assign credit and blame, the club had a hit-or-miss record on recent trades and signings. The Justin Morneau deal, for example, has already been a clear win, while the Boone Logan signing looks worse now than it did when inked.
Ultimately, the move represents a shift from a recent report from Harding (and many others before it) that made significant change seem unlikely. Both Geivett and O’Dowd reported to owner Dick Monfort, who has an extremely active role in the organization, which operates without a president. Monfort did say over the summer that he held Geivett responsible for the team’s performance. But as Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post reported recently, internal discord has arisen over (among other things) the level of Monfort’s involvement in baseball decisionmaking.
It remains to be seen what decisionmaking structure and processes the Rockies will employ with Bridich now in the GM seat. He becomes just the third general manager in the club’s history. His predecessor, O’Dowd, had been the fourth-longest-tenured GM in the game.
As Harding explains, the 37-year-old had been in charge of the club’s player development system since the fall of 2011 — a role that made him, in the words of Saunders (Twitter link), “O’Dowd’s right-hand man.” Per Harding, Bridich came to Colorado in 2004 as manager of minor league operations. He became senior director of baseball ops in 2006, a role that involved transactional and contractual matters including arbitration. Prior to joining the Rockies, Bridich had a stint in the commissioner’s office after graduating from Harvard, where he played baseball as an undergraduate. Click here for an interesting recent interview with Bridich, regarding his work in player development, from Brian VanderBeek of the Modesto Bee (h/t to Saunders).
Photo courtesy of Brian VanderBeek/The Modesto Bee.
Looks like even the Rockies execs know a sinking ship when they see it.
What will the new GM do with Tulo and CarGo?
Nothing, if he has any sense
They should be traded if they can get their value back. The team is so far away from the playoffs.
Tulo won’t be traded. Gonzalez has a better chance, but I don’t think he will be either. As bad as they were last season, they fielded a really talented offensive lineup. If Tulo and Cuddy didn’t get hurt, CarGo didn’t have by far the worst year of his career and they had anyone that could pitch, I think they would have been substantially better.
I think it’s been shown throughout the years that getting anyone who can pitch is much easier said than done for Colorado.
Ubaldo was the only pitcher that ever resembled anything like a stud that they’ve ever had that I can remember. I would be curious to see how an actual starting rotation (like this year’s A’s) would fare in Coors.
Depends on how many breaking balls they were thinking about throwing.
Everyone that plays for the Rockies in the thin air of Denver becomes “really talented offensively”.
This year Justin Morneau got his career back on track.
if Tulo wants to go, he will be traded. the team is still not ready to contend for a title and Tulo just might want to go East.
Tulo needs to get healthy now before they can trade him. Cargo needs to bounce back. They waited too long to trade both those players.
I anxiously await the inevitable flood of comments from total homers insisting that the new GM trade them to the [Yankees/Red Sox/Dodgers/Angels/Cubs] in exchange for [*Insert Handful of Middling Prospects and/or Washed Up Veterans*].
Oooh! CarGo and Tulo to the Mets for Nieuwenhuis, Tejada, Flores, Lagares, Niese, and Wheeler!!!!
Uh, I don’t think you can really be a homer for someone else’s favorite team, Mr. Yankees fan.
Don’t you mean “CarGo & Tulo to the Yankees for Drew, Headley, Capuano and Ichiro”?
Edit: And throw in Chris Young as an added “bonus”
BJ Upton for Tulo straight up. Trade Gattis for Chris Sale and move Tulo to catcher.
Now this is what I’m talking about!! I appreciate your candor, Mr. Mendoza!
Brilliant loony homerism! :->
Examples of what to expect:
Tulo/CarGo to the Red Sox for Shane Victorino, Will Middlebrooks, Allen Craig, Brandon Workmanand OR the right’s to Ryan Dempster’s contract (but certainly not both!).
Tulo/CarGo to the Yankees for Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia, some Derek Jeter “Re2pect” merch, and Austin Romine.
Tulo/CarGo to the Dodgers for Andre Ethier, Brandon League, Dan Haren, Justin Turner, Dan Mattingly’s mustache (it’s around that clubhouse somewhere, likely in a plastic sandwich bag), and Chris Withrow.
Tulo/CarGo to the Angels for Josh Hamilton, Hank Conger, Joe Smith, Cal Towey and an autographed Troy Glaus jersey.
Tulo/CarGo to the Cubs for Edwin Jackson and a case of Old Style tall boys.
LOL at the Cubs proposal. I wouldn’t trade a car that goes for Edwin Jackson, let alone CarGo.
That’s exactly the point.
Tulo AND CarGo to the Tigers for Don Kelly, our entire bullpen, Zeke Carrera, and the right to pay Prince Fielder the rest of his money!
Oh, and since they probably want a shortstop, they can have Andrew Romine. I guess. But that’s pushing it.
Tommy’s got this game on lockdown, y’all…
Tulo for Gardner, Greene, Warren, Severino, Murphy and Judge
This article confuses me. In the headline and lede it says Jeff Bridich will be named GM yet in the third paragraph the story goes on to say that Colorado will be the third NL West organization to search for a new GM. Is Bridich’s new promotion as GM only interim?
Is 2 different timestamps.
They originally released the gm, then later announced they fill from within.
Ah, at the time of my comment the time stamps hadn’t been added in.
Sorry, I missed that detail in editing the post from its initial version, before the report on Bridich emerged.
Bridich has been announced as the permanent GM.
Though my preference would have been for them to hire a team president — a giant reason this team is so terrible is because they never replaced the late Keli McGregor — and then hire a permanent GM from outside the organization, this is still the best news to come out of 20th & Blake in years!
Sounds like rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic if you ask me.
It’s always fun to play “what ifs…” and the one I always come back to with the Rockies is the 06 draft. What if they had taken longoria with that 2nd pick? Imagine Tulo and Longo on the left side of the infield.
You mean on the DL
Boom
No, I had it right the first time – the left side of the infield. Where longoria has averaged 161 games over the past two years and has only had one significant injury inflicted season. And Tulo, who produces more in a quarter of the season than most SS’s do all year.
Please fire Weiss
I was scrolling down the main page quickly and read it as:
“Jeff Bridges named Rockies GM”
Anyway, congrats to The Dude!
Well now! Let’s see how he “abides.”
“Jeff, this trade was terrible.”
“Well, y’know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.”
That sure was unexpected.
I thought it would happen years ago.
Maybe one of the owners children told him that Todd Helton doesn’t play for them anymore.
Not that it matters to most but Brian VanderBeek writes for the Modesto Bee not the Sacramento Bee. The link the article takes you to is to his employer
Thanks for pointing that out. Not sure where I got that from.
Still no reason to look outside the organization. Sigh.