Colorado Rockies news and links for Monday, February 3, 2025
Last week, Mac Wilcox wrote about former Colorado Rockies players who could find themselves in the team’s managerial seat. Mac cast a wide net in his survey, but I’d like to spend a bit of time teasing out Charlie Blackmon’s possible candidacy. As I was watching his media availability at Rockies Fest, I thought, He may well be the Rockies future manager.
Renee Dechert
Of course, no one — not even Blackmon — probably knows yet if that will happen, but now that he’s a special assistant to the general manager, it’s worth taking a moment to tease out the possibilities.
He’s got experience — a lot of it
Blackmon spent his career — all 14 years of it — as a Colorado Rockie. If there’s anyone who knows the system and the changes it’s seen since the better times of 2017-2018, I’m not sure who it will be.
I won’t rehash all of Blackmon’s carer here since Evan Lang did a pretty terrific job of that in last year’s “Ranking the Rockies.” But I do want to add a couple of notes in terms of Blackmon as a potential manager.
First, it’s easy to forget that Blackmon started as a pitcher. While that hasn’t been his focus in many years, he would come into a managerial role understanding both the pitching and hitting sides of the game, which would give him an advantage over many candidates.
Second, he was, for a while, an elite player — as in he’s a four-time All-Star, two-time Silver Slugger, and one-time winner of a batting title. Fans have wanted the Blake Street Bombers back, and Blackmon would seemed positioned to help make that happen — with a side of pitching experience.
Photo by Adam Glanzman/MLB Photos via Getty Images
In short, as a player, Blackmon has the on-field bona fides for a managerial job.
He uses data and tries to solve problems
Back in 2020, when Nick Groke was at The Athletic, he wrote “Inside the Rockies new idea to finally cure the Coors Field hangover.” It was an account of Blackmon’s attempt to take on a lingering problem of home-road splits. Here’s how Groke described the situation:
Blackmon was adamant in his displeasure, frustrated less by his road numbers than by what seemed like limited options for improvement. He gathered his coaches in an office at Yankee Stadium and laid out all of the issues.
He worked with Rockies coaches to create a strategy:
Blackmon devised a plan to speed up his adjustment on the road. He wanted to reset his strike zone sights, to feel what a hard slider or an elevated fastball might look like later that night. Instead of waiting for an at-bat or a game or even longer to tell him how to read pitches, he wanted to accomplish the same in a batting cage.
He started using a pitching machine that could duplicate pitches with high spin rates and velocity, a three-rotor machine he could tune to mimic that night’s pitcher. If Blackmon was set to face Clayton Kershaw at Dodger Stadium, he could tune the machine for 12-6 curveballs and deep-diving sliders. If it was Madison Bumgarner in San Francisco, he could dial up sweeping fastballs.
As the Rockies record and the numbers reveal, the approach has not been especially successful, but at least Blackmon tried to address the issue. Moreover, he called the coaching staff together to work on solving the problem.
Photo by Kyle Cooper/Colorado Rockies/Getty Images
This seems to me the kind of initiative and problem-solving that would be key to an effective manager. And, again, who better to address the Coors Effect than someone who lived it for 14 years?
Here’s another example, again from Nick Groke’s reporting. This nugget was embedded in an article about Bud Black’s lengthy baseball career. Below is the relevant passage:
By Charlie Blackmon’s count, Black is nearly unassailable with in-game decisions. In his pitching days, in the four games between his starts, Black studied a game and its variables, known and hidden. He managed in his head along with Dick Howser in Kansas City and Baker in San Francisco. Blackmon does the same thing from right field with the Rockies.
“All the time,” Blackmon said. “When you gain more responsibility, like a manager does, you have more and more people like me and everybody at home who think they know what’s going on. And they get to second-guess every time something goes wrong. That’s the beauty of responsibility. And when things go right, you just kind of pass it off as, ‘Oh yeah, that was what I would have done.’ And when things go wrong, then it’s like, ‘Oh, I would have done it differently.
“When I think along with the game and try and think about what I would do, what’s the best thing to do in this situation or that, a lot of times Buddy lines up with what I thinking is the best thing to do. And if we differ, it’s usually because I’m wrong.”
For those readers who are ready to see the end of the Bud Black days, this is probably a poor recommendation. For me, I’m more interested in the fact that Blackmon has been trying to think like a manager for years. He has, in other words, been practicing.
He’s familiar
Dick Monfort’s aversion to trusting those from outside the Rockies organization is well documented. However, if anyone is familiar to the Rockies, it’s Charlie Blackmon, which necessarily gives him an inside track.
Moreover, just from a public relations standpoint, fans love Charlie Blackmon. Bringing back a fan favorite would probably buy the Rockies front office some positive vibes from a frustrated Rockies fandom.
And Blackmon has shown he’s a master public relations person. Look, the beard and the mullet and “Your Love” aren’t just a series of coincidences; rather, they’re a carefully constructed brand. You may argue that this isn’t part of a manager’s job, but a good manager, in addition to mediating between the front office and players also serves as a liaison with the press and fans. That person also needs to give thoughtful and considered answers to questions.
Blackmon’s history suggests he could do all of this.
Closing thoughts
No one knows if this will happen. Blackmon’s advisory job with the Rockies next year is designed to let him work throughout the organization to see what he’s interested in. But Schmidt stressed that getting to know young players working through the Rockies system would be a central expectation (like, say, someone who might be their future manager?).
Photo by Kyle Cooper/Colorado Rockies/Getty Images
It’s also difficult to see someone who loves baseball as much as Blackmon does be satisfied with scouting or player development. He seems like someone who wants to keep wearing the uniform, watching batting practice, sitting in the dugout, and working with MLB players.
Blackmon has been clear that he values the time he is spending with his family right now, so this would not seem like an imminent promotion. But it’s something to watch.
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Baseball is coming
It’s happening!
Reader, baseball cannot get started soon enough.
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Down on the farm
Look for the Hartford Yard Goats to try out some new uniforms this season.
Just tell me where I can buy a jersey.
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Yesterday was the annual Northern Colorado Friends of Baseball Breakfast, which means Monfort answered a few questions from reporters. According to Patrick Saunders, Monfort did not have much so say, though he is positive about the Rockies defense in 2025, saying that there is a possibility it will be “the best in the history of the game.”
Top 10 Center Fielders in Major League Baseball for 2025 | Just Baseball
Joey Peterson ranks Brenton Doyle sixth among MLB center fielders. I think when the season ends, he’s a top five CF.
Diamondbacks sign former division rival utility player on minor-league deal | Venom Strikes
The Hampster is back on the wheel! Garrett Hampson has signed an MiLB contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks. (Very here for a foot race between Hampson and Corbin Carroll.)
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