On Monday, Colorado Rockies general manager, Jeff Bridich, resigned from the position after much scrutiny from the media.
The Colorado Rockies have historically been considered one of the worst organizations in baseball history in terms of how they take care of their players and approach the free agency. Because of this, they have always struggled to put sustainable, winning ball clubs on the field. All of this while acquiring two super talents in Troy Tulowitzki and Nolan Arenado in which both left the organization displeased with how things were run. The Colorado Rockies owner, Dick Monfort, must’ve seen enough as while the team’s statement reads Bridich chose to step down, deep down it feels like he wasn’t given the option to stay, even if he wanted to.
Highlighting The Horrible Past
An article from the Athletic by Ken Rosenthal and Nick Groke details all of the inner workings of the Colorado Rockies and shows just how bad things had gotten over the years. The article interviewed former and current Rockies players that spoke in anonymity describing “Poor communication between Bridich and employees, including players. Questionable talent evaluation in both trades and free agency. And a perception that the Rockies under Monfort are unwillingly or unable to build a championship roster.”
The team also named Greg Feasel as the team’s president, further pushing the notion that Monfort is growing his control over the team as a whole. As mentioned in another article by Nick Groke of The Athletic, Feasel is Monfort’s right hand and will work even more closely with him now. Whoever winds up being Bridich’s replacement, will no doubt have to answer to Monfort and get any clearing from him about moving any pieces in the organization.
Right GM Could Spark Bright Future
There are pros to the situation, however, as the team does have plenty of movable assets that could fetch the right return. Players like Jon Gray, German Marquez, and Trevor Story are all names right now that could be on other team’s radar, with Gray and Story entering free agency this off-season. A general manager that understands the player value and is creative could acquire a significant haul for any of the players already mentioned and speed up a rebuild project should they go that route.
In free agency under Bridich, the team showed that they are willing to spend money when they need to, however, none of them had seemed to work out. From 2017-2020, free agents that the Rockies had signed included Ian Desmond, Greg Holland, Mike Dunn, Wade Davis, Jake McGee, Bryan Shaw and Daniel Murphy just to name a few. All of them either performed below average to barely average in the years they were all with the team. Free agency hasn’t been kind to the Rockies in the past, but with a new gm who is better at evaluating players and has the financial backing of Monfort, they could provide solid support from outside their system.
No matter who the Colorado Rockies hire as their next general manager, they are faced with huge question marks in Jon Gray and Trevor Story now and what to do with them. The team will search during the off-season for their next gm and whoever it is must really weigh the pros and cons of the situation they are dealing with in Colorado, just like any job. They have to understand that if Monfort isn’t willing to let go of the reins and let the new gm have some control, then there might not be anything that changes.