State of the Position, Mid-Season 2025: Manager and Coaching Staff

Time will tell if Schaeffer loses the interim tag or if the organization goes in another direction

The historically bad 2025 Colorado Rockies look very different than they did when the season began in a three-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays.

With this in mind, the staff at Purple Row felt it would be useful to revisit the “State of the Position” series that we run in March as a season preview.

We’ve also asked authors of the spring pieces to re-evaluate their earlier remarks with an eye toward the trade deadline.

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What I said in March

This season was starting — just like the nine before it — with Bud Black as the head coach. After inking his three-year deal in 2019, Black seemed to be lined up to get one-year deals in perpetuity.

The fact that he took the Colorado Rockies to the playoffs in 2017 and 2018 seemed to matter more than anything that happened from 2019 onward. In 2017, the Rockies earned a spot in the win-or-go-home Wild Card game, but lost to the Diamondbacks. In 2018, the Rockies beat the Cubs in the Wild Card game before being swept by the Brewers in the NL Divisional Series. It was the first time in team history Colorado had qualified for back-to-back postseason berths.

The losses started to pile up in 2019, but it didn’t seem to matter. It got worse, and it didn’t seem to matter. Colorado had six losing seasons, including back-to-back seasons with 100-plus losses. Black’s job still didn’t seem in jeopardy.

I was clearly in the camp that nothing would change until Black decided to retire.

I was wrong.

Black entered the season as the longest-tenured manager in Rockies history, the winningest manager in organization history and the third-longest tenured manager in Major League Baseball. With the Rockies loyalty mentality and insular nature, there didn’t seem to be anything that would make Dick Monfort change his mind about his manager.

However, with a 3-15 start that was making national news for its awfulness, a minor change happened on April 17 when the Rockies dismissed batting coach Hensely “Bam Bam” Meulens, who was in his third season with Colorado. Even more surprising, the Rockies named Clint Hurdle as the new hitting coach for the rest of the season. The former Colorado manager and then assistant to general manager Bill Schmidt would now be in the dugout with Black.

After the Rockies played 40 games, earning a 7-33 record that was the worst in baseball, Black was fired, along with Mike Redmond, who had been Black’s bench coach for all nine seasons.

The season started with this coaching staff followed by how many years they have been in the role:

• Manager: Bud Black, 9th season
• Batting coach: Hensley Meulens, 3rd season
• Pitching coach: Darrell Scott, 4th season
• Infield and 3B coach: Warren Schaeffer, 3rd season
• Bench coach: Mike Redmond, 9th season
• 1B coach: Ron Gideon, 9th season
• Bullpen coach: Dustin Garneau, 1st season
• Assistant hitting coach: Andy González, 4th season
• Assistant bullpen catcher/Game Planning Manager: Kyle Cunningham, 7th season

By May 11, Black, Meulens and Redmond were gone. Black finished his tenure with a 544-690 (.441) record in his 1,234 games as Colorado’s manager.

I was surprised because I never saw it as a possibility when the season started.

But I never imagined a start as bad as this one, either.

Where the Rockies are now

The manager

Former infield and third base coach Warren Schaeffer was named Colorado’s interim manager and managed his first game the next day on May 12. After two years as a Rockies coach and 10 as a manager and coach in the Rockies’ minor league system, including managing the Isotopes from 2021-22, Schaeffer got his first MLB manager gig. At 40, he’s just five years older than backup catcher Austin Nola and six years older than Kyle Farmer and Tyler Kinely.

As Purple Row’s Renee Dechert wrote in May, Schaeffer has key philosophical beliefs that mark his style including caring about and developing relationships with players, communicating, and setting benchmarks to measure improvement. He’s got more of a Ted Lasso vibe than a rule by fear or authoritarian reign. For instance, Schaeffer established the practice of pre-game meetings to “emphasize what was done right and account for what was done wrong the previous game.” It’s a chance to highlight the good and grow confidence, while also using stories to learn from failures.

Schaeffer also seems more into analytics and more willing to use data and conversations to put players in situations where they can succeed. One example of this is talking with Brenton Doyle and deciding together to move the center fielder out of the leadoff role, which he did not care for.

Schaeffer has made it clear, too, he’s more “high energy” than Black,

So far, the team’s progress under Schaeffer isn’t vastly different than it was under Black. There is a slight improvement in some areas, as Schaeffer has now managed 16 more games than Black did this season.

I compared the managers at Schaeffer’s 40-game mark when he hit the milestone on June 26. Here is an updated version of those comparisons at his 56-game mark.

Schaeffer’s most memorable moment came on June 29 against the Brewers when he was ejected over an outrageous strikeout call against Tyler Freeman, who was also tossed.

What stood out was that Schaeffer not only stood up for the quick dismissal of one of his players, but also that he stopped mid-rant to remove the contents of his mouth because he was worried about spitting on the umpire.

It was a noteworthy first ejection in Schaeffer’s career. It wasn’t that rare for Black to be ejected, as he did it 13 times in his nine years in Colorado.

The coaches

When Schaeffer was handed the reins, Hurdle was moved from hitting coach to bench coach, and assistant hitting coach Andy González shifted to third base coach, taking Schaeffer’s old position.

Photo by Joe Sullivan/MLB Photos via Getty Images

Schaeffer’s former coaches in Albuquerque were called up to the big leagues as Triple-A Hitting Coach and former Rockies catcher Jordan Pacheco and Minor League Hitting Coordinator Nic Wilson were named hitting coaches.

Here’s how the Colorado staff looks now:

• Interim Manager: Warren Schaeffer, 1st season
• Interim bench coach: Clint Hurdle, 1^st season this round (also hitting coach under Buddy Bell from 1997-2002)
• Pitching coach: Darrell Scott, 4th season
• Hitting coach: Jordan Pacheco, 1^st season
• Hitting coach: Nic Wilson, 1^st season
• 1B coach: Ron Gideon, 9th season
• 3B coach: Andy González, 1^st (3 prior as assistant hitting coach)
• Bullpen coach: Dustin Garneau, 1st season
• Assistant bullpen catcher/Game Planning Manager: Kyle Cunningham, 7th season

Changing the coaching staff midseason is tough. Instead of being able to establish new practices, set the tone, and have a whole spring training to work out the kinks, Schaeffer and his staff are adapting on the fly. Even though many coaches have been with the Rockies and/or the organization for years, things are different when a manager changes.

Everyone has to learn their new roles. One example to demonstrate this challenge is that the coaching staff under Schaeffer has challenged nine plays and won three of those challenges. Black’s staff, the core of which had been together for nine years and Black himself had managed for 18 years, challenged 10 plays, seven of which were overturned.

The staff faces the daunting challenge of turning around a plummeting franchise, which would be hard for anyone.

The future

With Schaeffer and Hurdle having interim tags, it basically means that everyone else does, too. With the trade deadline approaching, Rockies fans are curious to see what kind of moves the front office makes, what Monfort decides to do with General Manager Bill Schmidt and what kind of messages those moves, or lack thereof, make about the future of the franchise. It could also have a big impact on the roster Schaeffer has to work with.

It’s possible that the Rockies could see a familiar face join the coaching staff or front office down the road as well. With the Rockies drafting Ethan Holliday in the first round of the MLB Draft earlier this week, it’s possible a reunion with former Rockie great and Ethan’s father, Matt Holliday could be on the horizon.

Closing thoughts

Schaeffer is 56 games into his interim role and has 66 games remaining this season. He doesn’t have an easy job. It could be hard for the most seasoned of managers to produce quality with the roster the front office has constructed. Time will tell if Schaeffer can do enough to prove he can help the Rockies improve to earn the job for next season.

It is the Rockies way to stick with who they know. After all, Hurdle got his managerial job when Buddy Bell was fired midseason and held the position for the next nine years (2002-09). Fifteen years later, Hurdle is back in the dugout.

On the other hand, if the Rockies put up the worst record in the Modern Era, that will be hard to ignore. Schaeffer wouldn’t deserve much of the blame, but a historically bad finish could ruin his opportunity.

It’s something to keep in mind as we move to the end of the 2025 season.

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