Colorado Rockies news and links for Wednesday, May 14, 2025
“It wasn’t Bud Black’s fault.”
That phrase keeps getting thrown around by the wider media landscape in the wake of the Colorado Rockies firing their long-time manager on Sunday. They quickly claim that no one could win with this Rockies team, and that the manager can only do so much when those above him have given him bad tools.
Los Angeles Dodgers manager, Dave Roberts, stated, “I don’t think Casey Stengel could change the outcome of that ballclub. That’s not the manager’s fault.’’
Scotty Gange, the sports anchor for 9News Denver — and a transplant from San Diego — said on-air, “Bud Black, it’s not your fault. It’s not your fault you couldn’t win games with this team; nobody could. The lineup is awful. Nobody could win with this team, and firing Bud Black will do nothing… In my mind, firing Bud Black is the worst thing they could have done. I think he’s actually the best thing they have right now, and they let him go.”
Opinions have rained down across social media, all with the same message: not to blame Black.
It’s true, the blame certainly should not fall squarely on the shoulders of Bud. After all, he is not the one on the mound, he’s not the one in the batter’s box, and he’s not the one constructing the team. The players have not performed, and the front office and ownership have not fulfilled their obligations to put forth a winning product.
In the professional sports world, particularly baseball, managers/coaches are the scapegoats for the front office when a team isn’t performing well. You can’t fire all the players and unless the owner makes a drastic decision to fire a general manager, the only option is the person in charge of the on-field team.
In the case of the Rockies, after six straight losing seasons, including back-to-back 100-loss seasons and a historically bad start in 2025, it was inevitable the Rockies would move on from Black, a necessary move for a franchise in desperate need of some sort of change.
When Black was hired to manage starting in 2017, he arrived as a seasoned voice capable of helping a young starting rotation find its footing. He had all the tools needed to succeed with excellent on-field talent and a lineup full of some of the greatest players in Rockies history. He expertly helped navigate that team, even with some of their flaws still showing through, to back-to-back playoff appearances, including a bid for their first division title that fell short.
For that, Black will always be appreciated. He was the right manager at the right time with the Rockies in those two seasons and had the leeway to stick around for the next few years. However, following the disaster of the 2021 season, it became more and more clear that he was not the right fit for the team any longer. The loss of talent and the poor state of the replacements didn’t give him the tools to be successful.
However, let’s stop trying to move the goalposts and treating the former manager as infallible.
While Black is a good baseball mind and a good manager, and a great person who treated people with class on and off the field, he isn’t without blame for the state of the Rockies. We saw the stubbornness with which he managed young players. Brought in as a “pitching whisperer,” we regularly saw pitchers struggle and get worse in Colorado after that 2018 season, falling victim to Rockies tradition. He would throw rookie relievers out to the wolves, mismanage the bullpen, and leave a pitcher in for far too long.
His approach on the old school philosophies of baseball and how it was played in the 80s and 90s was always apparent. Why be so quick to praise his success with some players yet not call out the problems with some of those very same pitchers years later?
Gritty, grinder veterans would get far more playing time in the lineup than a prospect waiting on the bench unless otherwise forced. There was a low tolerance for underperforming rookies as they had to somehow earn his trust and learn how to be a big leaguer before they got a chance, while a struggling vet has the longest leash available.
Some of his patterns of management aren’t the reason the Rockies are as bad as they are, but they haven’t quite helped either in recent years.
For many, Bud Black represented a complacency and comfort level that is unbecoming of a Major League franchise. At the end of the day, he was just a symptom/sign of a larger disease that afflicts the Rockies organization. It’s important to make that change and treat a symptom in the hopes it helps the body build some strength. As Sam Bradfield pointed out, Warren Schaeffer seems like the right man for this club right now.
Someone had to fall on the sword for the players, and that is the role of a big league manager. The players often understand that and take that realization to heart. When Buddy Bell was fired in 2002, that was the sentiment of the players. When Clint Hurdle was fired in 2009, that was the sentiment of the players. For so long, there has been a lack of accountability for the Rockies’ poor play, and there had to be a reckoning at some point.
Indeed, the more severe symptoms lie further up the chain with general manager Bill Schmidt and owner Dick Monfort. It is fair to acknowledge that firing Black for their mistakes and ineptitude with the team is unfair, but unfortunately, that’s the nature of pro sports. Firing Black will not magically turn the Rockies’ season around, as the players have to do better and the front office has to support the product on the field, but an acknowledgement that a change needed to be made is at least a step in the right direction.
10 years ago, Black was fired by the San Diego Padres when they were 32-33 in mid-June, six games back in the division. General manager A.J. Preller talked about how much they liked Black, but came to the decision that a change was needed to get the team on a different trajectory.
“It’s not like the team has bottomed out. It’s not that the team is playing poorly,” Preller said. “But we’ve all seen some of the inconsistencies, some of the ups and downs with this team. We’re just really looking for a situation here in the next month or so where we start playing at the level we’ve shown we’re capable of.”
As the Rockies now try to move forward and search for answers in their quest not to finish with the most losses in baseball history, they will try to find a way to play at a level they feel they are capable of.
They will just have to do so without Bud Black, who wasn’t the main problem, but he certainly wasn’t part of the answers for the Rockies.
But hey, that happens, that’s baseball.
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On the Farm
Triple-A: Tacoma Rainiers 9, Albuquerque Isotopes 1 (F/6)
Perhaps by a show of mercy, the Albuquerque Isotopes played just six innings but the damage was done. Tanner Gordon started on the mound and went 5 2⁄3 innings and was roughed up for eight runs on 12 hits, including a pair of home runs. The Isotopes had just four hits, with rehabbing Ezequiel Tovar going 0-for-3, Tyler Freeman going 1-for-3, and Aaron Schunk notching a double.
Double-A: Hartford Yard Goats 1, Binghamton Rumble Ponies 0 (F/11)
Gabriel Hughes started on the mound and tossed five hitless innings with three strikeouts. The bullpen then tossed six more scoreless innings, allowing just two hits, both of which came against Victor Juarez in 3 1⁄3 innings. The lone run came in the 11th when Dyan Jorge dropped a sac bunt, which allowed Bryant Betancourt to score on a throwing error from the first baseman to walk off the game.
High-A: Spokane Indians 3, Eugene Emeralds 1
Skyler Messinger delivered two hits while Jared Thomas had a double and both Aidan Longwell and Cole Messina each hit solo home runs. McCade Brown started on the hill and allowed one run over four innings, striking out six before giving way to the bullpen that tossed five innings, giving up just one hit and striking out eight.
Low-A: Fresno Grizzlies 12, Lake Elsinore Storm 3
The Grizzlies scored 12 runs on eight hits, and were led by Robert Calaz’s two-hit, three RBI performance that included two doubles. Yeiker Reyes also had two doubles and a pair of RBIs. Lebarron Johnson Jr. started on the hill and allowed two runs on three hits over five innings. He battled his command with five walks, but he also had five strikeouts.
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‘I felt the energy’: Schaeffer debuts as Rockies’ manager | MLB.com
Thomas Harding was on the scene Monday for the debut of the Rockies’ interim manager. Read more about Schaeffer’s background and his mindset when it comes to coaching a baseball team.
In a stunning announcement on Tuesday, Commissioner of Baseball Rob Manfred announced that all the deceased players on the permanently banned list have been reinstated, including Pete Rose and ‘Shoeless Joe’ Jackson. All the players included will be eligible for consideration for the Hall of Fame now on the various voting committees, should that occur.
Affected by Altitude Episode 163: Bad Times at the El Rockies | Rocky Mountain Rooftop
This week, Evan Lang and I discussed the sad state of the Rockies and the need for change (a conversation that happened before Bud Black was fired), and celebrated the bullpen.
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