Bud

Black

The Rockies have played terrible baseball so far and own a league-worst 7-33 record, so the move is definitely justified, though it would have made much more sense after Saturday night’s shellacking at the hand of the Padres. Third base coach Warren Schaeffer will take over as the team’s interim manager for the duration of the 2025 season while Clint Hurdle will function as the team’s interim bench coach.

Former manager Clint Hurdle, who had been working in the organization as a special assistant to the general manager, will fill in as the club’s hitting coach for the remainder of the season. It’s not a surprise that they would try to shake things up as the Rockies sit at 3-15 on the season and their 52 runs scored ranks dead last in all of baseball, a full nine runs lower than the next lowest team in the National League.

Black will manage the Rockies for a ninth season. The 67-year-old has more wins than any other skipper in the club’s history; even with a record of just 537-657 over the first eight years. It’s not likely that W-L gets any better in 2025.

This will be Black’s seventh season managing in Colorado. The team won 87 and 91 games in his first two seasons, but the past four years have all produced sub-.500 records, bottoming out at 68-94 last year. Of course, that’s not really Black';s fault, and, fortunately, wins and losses aren’t really what Colorado baseball is all about.

The Rockies also announced that Warren Sheaffer has been promoted to the major league coaching staff as a third base coach. Meulens replaced Dave Magadan as Colorado’s hitting coach after serving as the Yankees’ assistant hitting coach this past season. He served as the Giants’ hitting coach for nearly a decade from 2010 until 2019 -- helping them to three World Series titles -- before a one-year stint with the Mets prior to his arrival with the Yankees.

It’s being called a mutual parting of ways after a 68-94 season that saw the Rockies post a combined .225/.284/.337 slash line on the road. Colorado has also reassigned third base and infield coach Stu Cole to a minor league position. Bud Black will stay on as manager, as previously announced, and the Rockies are also retaining bullpen coach Reid Cornelius, first base coach Ron Gideon, assistant hitting coach Andy González, assistant hitting coach P.J. Pilittere, bench coach Mike Redmond, and pitching coach Darryl Scott.

The Rockies have yet to make an official announcement, but the news has been confirmed by multiple beat reporters. Black was just about to enter the final guaranteed year of his previous three-year contract, so this ensures that he won’t be a lame-duck. Still, 2022 isn’t likely to be an easy year for the Rockies. Black has a 349-359 record (.493) over five seasons at the helm in Colorado, and the club has finished well under .500 each of the last three seasons while also shedding a number of standout players.

González had worked with the team’s minor leaguers for the past seven seasons, while Piliterre previously had the same title with the Yankees. Colorado also announced the hiring of Reid Cornelius as bullpen coach to replace Darryl Scott, who has been elevated to pitching coach.

The 55-year-old Foster had been the team’s pitching coach since 2015. The Rockies are hopeful that Foster will remain in the organization, possibly as director of pitching operations. Bullpen coach Darryl Scott has been elevated to pitching coach.

The Rockies gave the job to Schmidt after former GM Jeff Bridich and the team parted ways back in late April. A new face in the front office would seem to make sense for a club badly in need of re-tooling, but the Rockies aren’t typically known for making sensible decisions.