The Colorado Rockies have wrapped up their general manager search, and it doesn’t appear to have been much of a search at all. On Saturday, the team announced Bill Schmidt will have the interim label removed and take over as general manager permanently. Schmidt has served as interim general manager since his predecessor Jeff Bridich stepped down in April.
“After five months as our interim general manager, it became increasingly clear that Bill was the right person to lead this franchise forward,” Rockies president and CEO Greg Feasel said in a statement. “We already knew Bill as a trusted and respected baseball professional within the game. He came into a challenging situation and quickly Impacted the play on and off the field.”
Schmidt joined the Rockies way back in Oct. 1999, and he has held a variety of roles with the organization, including vice president of scouting and special assistant to the general manager. Prior to joining Colorado, Schmidt worked as a minor-league coach as well as in the front office with the Yankees, Reds, and Cleveland. He also spent time with MLB‘s Scouting Bureau.
“I am very honored to be named the general manager, and excited to get to work this offseason with (assistant general managers Danny Montgomery and Zack Rosenthal), and the rest of our baseball operations team,” Schmidt said in a statement. “The past five months have been important for our club, and we want our fans to know that, as a group, our baseball operations team is bringing a fresh perspective, approach and energy in these roles. We’re going to work had to deliver a consistent winning club to our fans.”
Similar to Bridich, Schmidt was promoted from within after spending more than a decade with the organization, an approach that has drawn some criticism. The Rockies have been to the postseason just five times in franchise history (only nine winning seasons), and they would seem to benefit from a fresh set of eyes and ideas. Instead, they keep promoting from within without an exhaustive search for a new head baseball operations executive.
Bridich traded away Nolan Arenado prior to this season and it is all but certain Trevor Story will leave as a free agent this winter after Schmidt declined to trade him at the deadline. Righty Jon Gray is a free agent as well. Colorado needs help all over the field, and a quick rise to contention in the rugged NL West seems impossible.
To their credit, the Rockies have played competitive baseball in the second half, going 34-34 since the All-Star break. They were 40-52 in the first half.
