The Rockies Have Fired Bud Black. Now What?

I was in Denver last week for the Colorado Rockies series with the Detroit Tigers. On Thursday, the day of the traditional doubleheader, manager Bud Black did not have his usual pre-game media availability. This in itself was not unusual. When the Rockies have an early-afternoon game, Black is generally not available unless something significant is happening.

After the Rockies clubhouse closed, I walked with some other writers through the dugout, and we stood there, leaning against the railing and watching the players warm up. It wasn’t unusual to see Black playing catch or manning first base or even throwing batting practice. But on this Thursday morning, he was manning second, taking shuffle passes from Adael Amador, Thairo Estrada, and Tyler Freeman, turning to first as if for a double-play, and then, instead, dropping the balls in a bucket.

Here’s a snippet.

It was unusual, the writers agreed, to see Black at second — in fact, they were not sure they’d ever seen him there before. But here he was on a bright Thursday morning just playing some baseball.

I will forever regret not capturing more of that video, staying with it for another 30 seconds to preserve just a bit more of the moment.

Looking back, I wonder if he knew then his career with the Rockies was nearing a close. Surely, he had some sense of it. The Rockies had racked up back-to-back 100-loss seasons under his mentorship. That morning, the Rockies were 6-29; they would be 6-31 by the end of the day. By the end of the week, the Rockies would be 7-33.

One thing I’d come to notice about Bud Black was his enjoyment of a morning warmup before a day game. He seldom wore a hat but always had his glove, and I wondered if in those times, he just allowed himself for a few moments to step out of decision making and back into the joy of just playing baseball.

I’ll probably never know.

After the Rockies defeated the San Diego Padres on Sunday afternoon, the Rockies announced via a press release that Bud Black had been terminated.

I had long been of the mind that Black’s stay with the Rockies should be over. Although he had been a good fit for the team from 2017-2020, after that, things began to deteriorate. The team simply couldn’t win. He had been good with the media and never threw players under the bus, but there was also a sense that his time had gone.

He finishes his nine years with the Rockies with a 544-690 record.

To be clear, the 2025 Rockies have been a perfect storm of baseball disasters. Most obviously, key players (e.g., Thairo Estrada, Austin Gomber, and Ezequiel Tovar) were injured. (Kris Bryant’s back issues have relegated him to a footnote of injury reports given that he is hurt more than he is on the field.) The Rockies turned to their backup depth, which promptly got hurt, too. A trade for former Rockie Alan Trejo helped them stop the bleeding.

Key players failed to perform: Ryan McMahon and Michael Toglia were cold at the plate, both leading the league in K% at one point, while Brenton Doyle missed playing time due to an injury and some personal matters.

And with the offensive failure, too much pressure fell on the pitching staff, which couldn’t handle the workload as their ERA bloomed. If you’re a Rockies fan, this is a familiar story.

Add to that some old crows coming home to roost, primarily in player development failures that manifested themselves as young players struggled to adapt to MLB pitching.

No manager was going to survive that.

In Warren Schaeffer, the Rockies have promoted a familiar face (because that’s their way) who has been with the big-league club for three seasons after being a manager in the Rockies farm system. (Read more about him here.)

As with Clint Hurdle, now the Rockies bench coach, Schaeffer will inject some stability into an unstable situation — and this is a team desperate for stability.

“My message is we’re going to go out there and play free – and see how you can play by playing free,” Schaeffer told Thomas Harding prior to Monday’s game against the Texas Rangers.

At 40, he will be one of the youngest managers in MLB, and he’ll bring with him a positive energy. Since the firing of Hensley Meulens and Clint Hurdle’s assuming the position of hitting coach, it’s been clear the Rockies front office has become more focused on their transition from what was to what will be — a rebuild in earnest, if you will. In removing Black and bringing on Schaeffer, that movement is accelerated.

And that’s a good thing. The Rockies clubhouse had gotten grim — making bad history will have that effect. The Rockies couldn’t continue to bring their prospects into an environment so poisoned. Getting called up should feel like an achievement, not a prelude to fearing you’ll be immortalized in terrible baseball history.

Will Warren Schaeffer help the Rockies start winning? I don’t know, but something had to change, and this was the next step.

And who knows why Dick Monfort made the move at this time. Maybe he hated the negative national attention he was getting. (Making dubious baseball history has that effect.) Maybe attendance was down. Whatever the reason, in firing Black, the Rockies did something completely out of character: They took action early in the season. It may not seem like a lot, but it is for this organization.

On a personal note, I liked Buddy. He always answered my questions and gave me some one-on-one time when I was writing about backup catchers. Whatever is next for him, I wish him the best. Mostly, I hope he still has those sunny mornings where he can experience the pleasure of baseball.

But it’s a new day at Coors Field, and it was time.

Closing Thoughts

Apologies for being late again. The last three weeks have been soemthing.

That said, I turned in my grades this morning, so I should be back on schedule for a while. Plus, given the breaking news, it turns out being late was a good thing.

As always, thanks for reading, and feel free to share this with a friend. I’ll be back on Friday.

Renee

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Rockies Pitch is a newsletter that focuses on Colorado Rockies baseball. Find me on Bluesky at @Renee.Dechert.com.