Rockies Do Not Expect Major Changes For 2015

Barring a last-minute change of heart from owner Dick Monfort, the Rockies are not prepared to undertake significant changes to their front office, reports MLB.com’s Thomas Harding. Likewise, that decision-making group seems set to try to build a contender while relying primarily on the same major pieces that remain under team control.

Senior VP of Major League operations Bill Geivett spoke with Harding on the club’s roster. “We like the team that we have,” he said. “When the majority of them are out there, we feel good about our chances. At the same time, we look at next year and we know our pitching staff, we need to improve, and we need to be able to score runs on the road.”

While not surprising under the circumstances, Geivett indicated that the team has no intentions of dealing its two biggest stars (and two biggest contracts) shortstop Troy Tulowitzki and outfielder Carlos Gonzalez. “If we’re going to win, they’re going to need to be part of it, too,” he explained.

Geivett said that the club’s focus was on improving a pitching staff that was among the least effective in baseball last year. “We need impactful starting pitching,” said Geivett. “We’re not going to check his ID. We don’t care how old he is. We don’t care how much time he has. In order to compete against the teams we play with, we know starting pitching is essential.”

Those comments certainly seem to indicate that Colorado will not be concerned with the future in looking for arms for 2015. At the same time, the club is reportedly not preparing to increase its payroll, and current commitments seem to leave fairly little to spend. Adding another starter would obviously help, given the massive uncertainty that permeates much of the team’s rotation (to say nothing of the bullpen), but it it is far from clear that such an acquisition — in and of itself — would make the team a likely contender.

Geivett himself has a lot riding on the coming season. Monfort made clear recently that he holds Geivett responsible for the product that takes the field at Coors. On the other hand, as Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post recently reported, internal team sources are frustrated with the owner’s own intrusion on baseball decision-making.