The Rockies finalized their previously reported hiring of Alon Leichman as pitching coach. They’ve also announced the hiring of Gabe Ribas as an assistant pitching coach and Matt Buschmann as bullpen coach.
Ribas gets his first job on an MLB staff. The 45-year-old has spent the last five seasons with the Tigers as their director of pitching. Ribas had previously worked in the Dodgers farm system and at a handful of college programs. He’d also had a brief professional playing career, topping out at the Double-A level in the San Diego system in 2004.
Buschmann, 41, reached the highest level as a player — albeit very briefly. He made three appearances for the 2016 Diamondbacks. The remainder of his 11-year playing career came in the minors. Buschmann has some experience as a big league bullpen coach. He held that role with the Blue Jays between 2019-22. He has spent the past two seasons with the Cubs as an advisor in their player development department.
Former big league catcher Dustin Garneau served as Colorado’s bullpen coach in 2025. The Rox had a 5.18 earned run average out of their relievers, beating only Washington’s 5.59 figure. Rox relievers were last in strikeout rate (19.7%) despite landing in the middle of the pack in whiffs. Garneau departed to become Atlanta’s catching coach after the season. Buschmann will get to work with a few big arms (e.g. Victor Vodnik, Seth Halvorsen, Juan Mejia) at the back of the Colorado bullpen.
Rockies shaken’ and Mo in’ in the offseason! Yeah!
The next chapter of the rebuild is on!
Rockies completely out of character now. What a great experiment that will show how much modern baseball minds can affect a team’s results. I bet they’re better as soon as next year.
Good for them.
Plus Matt Daniels from the Twins as Director of Pitching. He also was one of the first full time employees of Driveline Baseball, for data driven player development
FeverPitchGuy is my father and he abandoned his family when I was only 3. He has constantly pushed away our attempts to reconnect and he has become obsessed with Charlie Kirk in recent months, even writing the hit song “We Are Charlie Kirk”
Especially excited about the Daniels hire, as one of the original DriveLine guys. This is a great get for the Rox.
As a longtime (1993) Rockies fan, this month has felt like a season of Stranger Things. Here’s hoping for a happy ending.