The Rockies are leaning towards naming interim general manager Bill Schmidt the club’s permanent GM, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Indeed, Nightengale adds that Schmidt has already been conducting interviews with potential candidates for other important front office positions.
Schmidt has been leading the Rockies’ front office since early May, when he took over on an interim basis after the franchise and Jeff Bridich parted ways. Schmidt has been a fixture in the Colorado organization for more than two decades, leading the club’s draft room since 2000. Certainly, he’s as familiar as anyone with the ins and outs of the franchise.
Rockies’ owner Dick Monfort has been extremely loyal to his top front office personnel. Colorado has had only two full-time general mangers since 1999, when Dan O’Dowd assumed the top role. O’Dowd remained in charge of baseball operations until 2014, when the franchise promoted Bridich (who’d been in the organization for ten years already) to lead the staff until this season.
To be sure, there’d be some merit to removing the interim tag from Schmidt’s title. Colorado’s had some success finding future stars (most notably Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story) during his time heading the amateur draft. And the team has outperformed general expectations since Schmidt took over baseball operations on May 3. After opening the season 10-18, Colorado has gone a respectable 47-48 despite a roster that looks like one of the league’s weakest on paper. How much credit Schmidt deserves for that decent run is debatable, but the team showing some signs of life certainly couldn’t hurt his candidacy.
That said, the Rockies promoting Schmidt to the full-time role wouldn’t be without some backlash. Monfort’s longstanding preference for promoting from within has led to criticism about the franchise’s hiring processes being too insular. Nightengale also reports that Colorado is expected to hire former manager Clint Hurdle in some sort of front office capacity, which would further fuel that criticism.
Moreover, Schmidt’s handling of this past summer’s trade deadline wasn’t without its detractors. Colorado held onto Story, Jon Gray, C.J. Cron, Germán Márquez and Daniel Bard, resisting a more comprehensive teardown. Keeping impending free agents Story, Gray and Cron, in particular, perplexed many onlookers (Story himself included). Schmidt almost certainly had Monfort’s support — implicit or explicit — in mostly standing pat, though, so it’s impossible from the outside to parse out credit or blame among Rockies’ brass for that decision.
If Schmidt gets the full-time position, he’ll have his work cut out for him in rebuilding his front office. In March, Ken Rosenthal and Nick Groke of the Athletic throughly reported a mass exodus among Rockies staffers last offseason. In the intervening months, Bridich has departed, as have assistant general managers Jon Weil and Zach Wilson. Replacing those higher-level executives figures to be a key focus for the Rox in the coming months.
He already had a pathetic trade deadline… Could have dealt both Gray and Story. I don’t care if you want to re-sign Gray. Trade him and bring him back in the off-season.
The part your forgetting is the part where they dont have enough front office people to make educates trades, so of course the long tome draft leader for the club is going to take the comp picks over blindly acquiring prospects he doesnt have enough research on
…but like, as the GM, who is at fault for not having good people around him? He should have hired an experienced assistant GM for the short term.
He was promoted to interim GM on May 3rd, in the middle of the season, after a whole bunch of the staff quit and shortly before the MLB draft. I would imagine he had his hands a bit full.
Enough front office people? A single reader here can acknowledge that type “educated trade”. Monfort will be the downfall of Colorado if he doesn’t get out of the way.
How dare they! They should forget their plan and go with the opinion of an anonymous internet commenter with a long resume of building successful franchises on MLB2k and OOTP. The Rockies might have a different plan than the book says, but they were in the playoffs 2 straight years just a couple years back. If everyone attempted to build their club the same way, nothing would ever get done because everyone would be trying to do the same thing.
@hiflew So what IS their plan Mr. Tries-and-fails-to-be-snarky?
Ask them, it’s not my plan.
Indeed, certainly, moreover, that said, of course, to be sure.
Hence?
Alas, not withstanding, however, furthermore, consequently, for instance.
Not sure how much the Monforts had to do with the trade deadline or whether other GMs were low-balling the Rockies because they were trying to gauge the interim GM’s skills. The bottom line is the deadline performance certainly didn’t look good to people following baseball.
In general, it’s tough to get much feel around a GM’s capability with less than 3 full years in the position, but wouldn’t you suspect the Monforts would want a puppet style GM in the position?
The Rockies could do Mets fans a favor by hiring Sandy Alderson and Zack Scott.
Alderson would never go back to working for another Wilpon-type owner.
Glad they’re recycling those 2020 cardboard fan cutouts and making one a GM in Bill Schmidt.
Horrible upper management. Give credit to Bud Black for the team’s better than expected record. Imagine all the prospects that could’ve been acquired via Story, Gray, etc. Most perplexing was holding onto Cron… no sense.
So tell us about these Prospects the Rockies turned down.
To answer that question would require access to insider information which thickie obviously does not have. Logic and Baseball Trade Values both say that Story, Gray and Cron all have trade value.
Say it with me, Cron had no trade value
But Story, Jon Gray do have value (not to mention Marquez) — and most likely aren’t re-signing with the club. Almost all of their top prospects are low level with 3+ years needed to fine tune. Is 1 comp pick (via Story; can’t imagine that Gray would get a QO and/or would turn it down to equal a 2nd comp pick) enough to hang onto them? Baez got back Pete-Crow Armstrong — COL couldn’t get a similar (or slightly worse) product and/or package for an exiting piece? COL’s farm is in the last quarter of MLB rankings after the 2021 Draft — almost anything would make them better.
There’s trying and not succeeding with a trade — then there’s not trying at all, and leaving your core players confused. COL FO on auto-pilot.
@RunDMC I have to assume the Rockies QO Gray after all of this
@tstats 129 OPS+, 2 WAR so far this year and making either league minimum or $1m (sources differ on Cron’s salary for 2021). Yes he does have trade value.
If a team is willing to hire A.J. Hinch, why isn’t Jeff Luhnow not being considered as a GM?
Cause unlike Hinch who took his suspension quietly and was seen as a minor figure in this aka he didn’t like it but didn’t do much to stop it, Luhnow complained sued and acted like the jerk others said he was and most likely will never get a job in baseball again.
Not sure Hinch can be considered a minor figure. He let his subordinates tell him what they would do and sat by and did absolutely nothing.
Not sure if that’s the type of leadership I want managing my team.
I heard John Coppolella is available too
The package of players he landed for Story, Gray, Cron, Márquez and Bard will set the Rockies up for years to come.
Sorry. Just arrived from an alternate universe.
How was that Pirates / Orioles World Series?
Yeah because rebuilds are always successful. That is why the Baltimore Orioles are currently leading the AL East with the roster they started to rebuild 4 years ago. Some teams might not want to take a decade off of trying to win in order to maybe win then.
LOL
32,000 at the game last night in Coors, playing against the D=Backs, who are awful. That fan base deserves a whole lot better. Leaving the elevation issue aside (and heck. O’Dowd DID get them to the World Series), there isn’t a GM candidate in the universe who wouldn’t want that job, given the revenue potential.
First move trade for Rhys Hoskins
This org will be great under Bill! Hands down! Rotation is set for next 3-5 years! Team meeting s 7 over .500 in last 70 games!
Congrats he was part of finding Story and Arenado, which means he was part of not being able to acquire the other pieces needed to make them consistent winners
And he gave Arenado away for nothing.
Any team that doesn’t consider someone from the Ray’s front office is ludicrous. First place I would start. The best minor league system in baseball!!
When will this organization ever learn?
Schmidt gets the job by default, no one else wants it.
Doesn’t matter who they hire, as long as Monfort is in charge they’re doomed..
They’d be better off just bringing Jeff Bridich back. If they don’t bring in someone from outside everything is just going to stay the same.
Maybe John Mozeliak could be hired away to return near his boyhood Boulder home. I’m ready for something new in St Louis.
Took over in a difficult situation and has the club playing well. Like their nucleus of position players and starting pitching, especially if they can resign Gray. Billy has history of making great comp picks with impact so holding Story makes sense. A great evaluator that will help with future trades. Knows the org and what needs to be done. Would be a very good hire for a myriad of reasons.