The Rockies are concluding one of the worst seasons in MLB history. They’ll come up just shy of 120 losses and are the only team since 1900 to be outscored by more than 400 runs. It led the historically loyal organization to fire manager Bud Black after a 7-33 start to the season. They’ve gone 36-84 under interim skipper Warren Schaeffer.
Walker Monfort, son of Rox’s owner Dick Monfort, was promoted to executive vice president in June. The team announced at the time that chief operating officer Greg Feasel would step aside at the end of the season. The team did not make any in-season changes to the baseball operations staff, yet that could happen in the next few weeks.
Buster Olney and Jesse Rogers of ESPN reported on Thursday that the Rox are “likely” to make changes to the front office. That may extend to the top of baseball operations. Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post wrote a couple weeks back that “it appears likely that (GM Bill Schmidt) will be fired or reassigned” at season’s end.
Schmidt has led baseball operations on a full-time basis since the 2021-22 offseason. He inherited a below-average roster from previous GM Jeff Bridich, but the results have gotten progressively worse. They lost 94 games during his first season and have lost 100+ games in each of the past three years — the first such seasons in franchise history.
No team has a worse record than Colorado’s 231-415 mark over the last four years. Schmidt had been in the organization for more than two decades before ascending to the GM role. He has been in the charge of the team’s amateur drafts since 2000. The Rox had brief runs of success during that time — highlighted by the National League pennant in 2007 — but only have five postseason appearances in a franchise history that dates back to 1993.
Whether they make a change atop baseball operations or not, the Rockies will need to decide whether to stick with Schaeffer as their permanent manager. They’re also likely to see the departure of one of their longest-tenured players. Germán Márquez made what’ll probably be his final start as a Rockie this evening. The impending free agent gave up six runs over 4 1/3 innings and took the loss. He finishes the season with a grisly 6.70 earned run average over 26 starts.
Márquez had much better seasons earlier in his career. He had a pair of sub-4.00 ERA seasons at Coors Field in 2018 and ’20 while securing an All-Star nod in 2021. Márquez has spent nine-plus seasons in Denver but is unlikely to return in free agency. Saunders wrote this evening that Colorado doesn’t intend to re-sign him.
The righty reflected on the run after making his final home start last weekend (link via Thomas Harding of MLB.com). “It was very, very emotional. It may have been the last game that I throw as a Rockie at Coors Field. I don’t know,” he acknowledged. “I was thinking about that the whole game. This is my home. I’ve been here for my whole career. I feel happy. I feel free here. But it’s baseball, and I need to see what’s going to happen.”
Márquez might well have been traded at this summer’s deadline had he not been placed on the injured list with biceps tendinitis in late July. The Rockies were more willing sellers than they’d been in previous seasons. They traded Ryan McMahon, Jake Bird and Tyler Kinley while at least hearing teams out on controllable relievers Seth Halvorsen and Victor Vodnik. They ended up holding both late-game arms.
Vodnik finished the season as the closer. Halvorsen went down immediately after the deadline with a mild flexor strain. That ended his season, but the fireballing righty has progressed to throwing off a mound as he prepares for the offseason (via the MLB.com injury tracker). He’s an unlikely offseason trade candidate coming off a season-ending elbow injury when he’s still under club control for five seasons. If he’s healthy, he’d have a good chance at beginning next year as the closer.
Schmidt drafted the players that produced 100+ loses. He must go.
The only path I see this team having success with is to fill the lineup with big boppers at every position but CF and SS.
Try to outscore your opponents, because you won’t get the pitching to hold them to a low score.
You can win 18-15 or 14-12, but it is a W in the standings all the same.
I don’t even think you need boppers. Instead stack the order with bat control guys. Hitters that can spray it all over the field and kill pitchers with singles and OBP. Take advantage of the enormous park.
Ground ball pitchers with solid infield defense.
They’ve tried that for years. Problem is, sinkers don’t sink as much at altitude. People think the problem with pitching in Denver is curves and sliders. It’s more fastball movement. FB’s tend to go straight as an arrow.
Yes. Contact hitters could hit big at Coors and survive on the road. The Rockies have hit 204 on the road this year. That’s inexcusable.
It’s extremely hard to win in any ML town. When you add in all the problems associated with playing at Denver’s altitude it’s even way harder. I realize there are only 30 teams in MLB to manage or head up the front office, but anyone who accepts one of those positions is most likely setting themselves up for failure.
Please stop calling them the Rox.
There’s only Red Sox and White Sox, there’s no Rockie Rox!!!
Hearing teams out on Seth Halvorsen? I wonder how those conversations went.
Rockies: What type of offer could you make for Halvorsen?
Other teams: None. Not even remotely interested.
No Rockies probably denied all offers because their vision on future is delusional and they probably think they’re making the playoffs in 2026
That’s only if they extend Marquez like they did Freeland, for way over market value. Need that devastating 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation. But, it’s the team punching itself in the face.
When ownership tries to make it a family business, hires the siblings and relatives to keep the overhead low you have the beginnings of a poorly run organization. The Rockies are scouting for wins, instead of scouting for their ballpark they play in to get the wins. Select the players that fit the ballpark, the Rockies have the biggest outfield in acreage 2.3 acres, they need to draft contact hitters and speed with athleticism, use the ballpark to the Rockies advantage. They don’t need to fill the lineup with a high strikeout and power offense. Do what the Brewers do, put the ball in play pitching and defense with speed, the Rockies are trying to out power their opponents at the plate. As far as pitching find pitchers that keep the ball on the ground, good control. But all in all, total ownership is the problem with the Rockies, and it don’t look like the thinking and the attitude of hiring front office people from outside the organization is not going to change until the change of ownership happens for the Rockies. Just promoting the personal that has brought them the worse organization in baseball year after year will not change overall future of the Rockies.
Rockies have been doomed since signing a no show Bryant. It’s hard to win when your highest paid player and supposedly best player is not playing. Not to mention that money could have gone to 2-5 other guys who could be doing alot more than Bryant has. The front office is a mess and we all know how ownership is. I’m still hoping the Waltons buy them like they did the Broncos because they spend money with VERY deep pockets. After the last 3 years I don’t think it can get any worse but it’s the Rockies and it’s been a ride to say the least.
Maybe, MO will go back to Colorado.
They can’t fire the owner and he is the biggest problem.
They draft early on every year and their prospect pipeline gets to MLB and SUCKS. Condon and Cargill gonna be different?
Drafting and development abyss. Owner is a delusional moron. No pitcher will sign there.
Still draws big crowds. Gotta starve that owner out.
Honestly, the NBA and NFL to a lesser extent understand that low spend/bad image owners drag down the overall product and move them out. MLB finally gets rid of Angelos and Wilpon after decades of dispshittery, and forces the A’s to abandon the hostile People’s Republic of Poopland. Good work. Now do Monfort.
Man, what do you even do as this franchise? Seems like they had things figured out for a bit, had good enough pitching and great offense when they made their series run but they’ve operated without any plan. Helplessly promoting from within and sticking with the same tired and washed talent because they’re willing to stay.
Hopefully Dollander isn’t doomed. He looked like a capable starter on the road and awful at home. Paying bums like Sentenzela, Marquez, and Freeland out of desperation doesn’t help either. Not to mention Kris Bryant. They should go barebones and build it all back up.
I don’t think Monfort will sell. He has a cash cow and although previously a top 10 team in attendance now in the middle of the pack, he still makes bank. McGregor square and all of the shops, bars and suites more than make up for empty seats. I wish he would though and the new owners clean out the FO.
I like the OF of Beck, Doyle and Moniak. Freeman needs to move to 2b. Goodman and Tovar are solid. Consistency at the corners for a whole year is concerning as those positions need to be strong bats. Dollander, Brown and Gordon can bring the heat and that’s great for road games. Those are HR pitches at Coors. Off speed pitches need to be part of their arsenal. Bryant has never played long enough as a Rockie to say missing him hurts the team. It’s just a costly payroll mistake that will have to play out.