Wednesday Rockpile: What necessitates a coaching change? A look at Rockies history

Colorado Rockies news and links for Wednesday, April 16, 2025

In this modern era of baseball, teams have become less callous when it comes to coaching changes during the season. Since 2018, only three managers have been dismissed before the All-Star game, all of which came in 2022. Last season, two managers were dismissed in August, and the other late in September. The vast majority of coaching changes understandably happen during the offseason as teams shift focus to a new year.

As Ken Rosenthal pointed out in a recent article in the Athletic, “Firing the manager when others bear responsibility for shaping rosters and influencing decisions often amounts to blatant scapegoating.”

So what about the Rockies?

Over the last few years, there have been plenty of calls for the dismissals of manager Bud Black, hitting coach Hensley Meulens, pitching coach Darryl Scott, and general manager Bill Schmidt, especially after the rough start to the 2025 season. I’m not here to rehash or call for their jobs, but rather my purpose is to look back on some moments in Rockies’ history when coaching/personnel changes happened.

Managerial Dismissals

Back in 2002, the Rockies were off to the worst start in franchise history at the time, going 6-16 — the worst record in the National League — and sitting eight games back of first place in the division. Feeling the need for change, general manager Dan O’Dowd fired manager Buddy Bell who was in his third season with Colorado, leaving with just one winning season in 2000 and a 161-185 record.

“Quite honestly, we need to start playing the game with more joy and more confidence than we’ve played already this year,” O’Dowd said. “We really need to start building some positive momentum.

Bell was replaced by Clint Hurdle who navigated the team to a 67-73 record the rest of the way that season and had some difficult seasons of his own before the magic of the 2007 campaign. However, just 18 months later after that World Series appearance, Hurdle was dismissed by the Rockies in late May 2009 after the team went 18-28 to start the year, and was replaced by Jim Tracy who led the team to a Wild Card berth.

Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

At the time he was the only manager in Major League history to begin his career with five consecutive losing seasons and not get fired for it. He played an instrumental role in guiding the team through its “draft and develop” mentality but with unreliable hitting, pitching, and defense in 2009, he was dismissed.

“We’re an organization that values stability more than we value change,” O’Dowd told The Associated Press. “Clint is someone who’s been a part of everything we’ve done here. He deserved the benefit of the doubt until it got to the point where we realized we needed to do something.”

Jim Tracy took over as manager and led the Rockies to a Wild Card berth that season, but injuries and general lack of talent plagued the team over the next few seasons and he resigned after 2012 despite having a handshake agreement for a lifetime extension.

Pitching Coach Resignation

Back in the mess that was the 2012 season, the Rockies tried throwing everything at the wall and nothing was taking. The Rockies’ pitching struggles were quantified by a 5.29 team ERA, which includes a 6.36 ERA for starters and a 28-44 record at the end of June.

Earlier that month, the team had decided it was time to try a four-man piggyback rotation model with a 75-pitch limit on the starter. Perhaps taking initiative or just wanting to get out of Dodge, longtime pitching coach Bob Apodaca resigned on June 26, 2012. He was reassigned as a special assistant to the GM, a role he held until retiring in 2020.

After the Rockies fired Jim Wright and Bo McLaughlin in 2014, they did see success with Steve Foster until his resignation after 2021.

Hitting Coach Carousel

Hitting coaches haven’t typically lasted long in Colorado. In 30 years only three coaches have lasted at least four seasons in the position. Most recently, the team “mutually agreed to part ways” with previous hitting coach Dave Magadan after the 2022 season. This year, Colorado ranked 10th in total runs scored of any club in the NL (698) and hit the third-fewest home runs of any NL team (139) along with some less-than-favorable Statcast numbers.

During the four seasons over which Magadan presided over the Rockies’ offense, Colorado’s runs per game, team batting average, and team slugging percentage saw consistent, marked declines. Unfortunately, his replacement hasn’t seemed to have better luck during his three seasons in Colorado.

General Manager

During that 2012 season, owner Dick Monfort had meddled with the front office structure, effectively replicating that episode of The Office when Michael Scott and Jim Halpert became co-managers. O’Dowd essentially became the big-picture guy while longtime assistant Bill Geivett became the day-to-day baseball ops guy with an office in the clubhouse that rubbed people the wrong way. The experiment lasted until 2014 and while he had plenty of failures and successes as a GM, “Dealin’ Dan” resigned after 15 seasons.

He was replaced by Jeff Bridich who also rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. He hired Bud Black after Walt Weiss resigned as manager, citing a poor working relationship with Bridich. He was a polarizing executive across baseball and in Colorado and it came to a head in early April 2021 when he and the Rockies “mutually agreed to part ways” after the fiasco of the Nolan Arenado trade.

Photo by John Leyba/The Denver Post via Getty Images

What’s sparks change?

The common thread among the firings, or resignations, of coaches was the performance of the team. Despite the fact the manager isn’t the one responsible for putting together the team or playing the game, he is the one who becomes the sacrificial lamb to send a message. Hurdle and Bell understood they had to be the one thrust on the sword, as much as they hated the thought of it.

The players certainly have their part to play, they are the ones on the field after all, but having the right men in place to lead them into battle and help them improve is crucial. The Rockies have been in uncharted territory with their performance over the last several seasons and the lack of accountability for leadership has been glaring.

A proactive desire to improve fueled the Rockies’ changes, even if they didn’t necessarily succeed, at least they knew they needed to try something. The changes may not come mid-season, but they need to come before the 2026 season.

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On the Farm

Triple-A: Albuquerque Isotopes 7, El Paso Chihuahuas 2

A four-run bottom of the sixth was the difference maker for the Isotopes in their victory. Albuquerque loaded the bases and Aaron Schunk drew a walk to get the Isotopes on the board. Jordan Beck followed up with a walk to tie the game 2-2 followed by a walk by Ryan Ritter that gave them the lead, but some fancy baserunning chaos cleared the bases.

Bradley Blalock started on the hill, going four innings, and allowing one run on one hit. Sam Hilliard hit his third homer of the season and now has the most Triple-A home runs in Albuquerque history dating back decades.

Double-A: Portland Sea Dogs 7, Harford Yard Goats 5

It was a tough start for Jack Mahoney as he allowed five runs on four hits in just one inning of work, but the bullpen was generally lights out the rest of the way. The Yard Goats responded with three runs in the first but fell short the rest of the way. Kyle Karros, Cole Carrigg, and Juan Guerrero each delivered two hits while Dyan Jorge drove in three runs.

High-A: Spokane Indians 8, Hillsboro Hops 2

Spokane rode 12 hits and a three-run top of the ninth en route to a victory on Tuesday. McCade Brown started on the mound and delivered two innings, giving up two runs. The rest of the staff locked it down and on the night gave up seven hits and struck out 13 in total. Offensively, EJ Andrews Jr. led the way with three RBI during his two-hit night that included a double and a homer. Aidan Longwell, Jesus Ordonez, and Braylen Wimmer also had two hits apiece.

Low-A: Fresno Grizzlies 4, Lake Elsinore Storm 3

A two-run rally in the seventh to come back was all that the Grizzlies needed in their win. Kelvin Hidalgo kicked off the scoring in the first with a solo home run. In the seventh, Roynier Hernandez singled in a run followed later by a fielder’s choice and error at the plate that allowed a second run to score. Notably, the Grizzlies had seven stolen bases on the night. Lebarron Johnson Jr. started on the hill, tossing four scoreless innings. Nathan Blasick notched his third save of the season.

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Affected by Altitude Episode 160: City Disconnect | Rocky Mountain Rooftop

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