Rockies fans were treated to two pieces of late-breaking news today, the first about the Rockies’ coaching staff and the second about the ongoing President of Baseball Operations/General Manager search.
Darryl Scott out as pitching coach
Rockies beat writer Thomas Harding reported on Wednesday evening that pitching coach Darryl Scott would not be returning to the Colorado Rockies for the 2026 season.
Scott, 57, had been a member of the Rockies organization since 2009. A former pitcher in both MLB and Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, Scott served in a variety of minor league coaching and coordinator roles before being promoted to the big league team’s bullpen coach for the 2020 season.
The Rockies were one of baseball’s worst bullpens during the two seasons Scott was the bullpen coach. In 2020 they had the league’s second-worst ERA at 6.77, and in 2021 their 4.91 ERA was fifth-worst.
Following the 2021 season, Scott was named the team’s new pitching coach when Steve Foster stepped down from the role and became the Rockies’ new director of pitching.
In the four seasons Scott has been pitching coach, the Rockies have regularly had one of the worst team ERAs in baseball. During that time, the pitching staff has the third-worst adjusted ERA and ranked dead last in strikeout rate and team in each of those four seasons. In each of the Rockies’ three consecutive 100 or more loss seasons the pitching staff had an ERA of 5.40 or higher.
Scott’s departure is yet another shakeup in a team undergoing seismic changes. The team has also not yet decided if Warren Schaeffer—who replaced the fired Bud Black during the season—will be retained as the club’s manager.
Two PBO/GM finalists named
The Rockies are in the middle of deciding who their next head of baseball operations will be after both general manager Bill Schmidt and assistant general manager Zach Rosenthal resigned.
Reporting from the Athletic’s Brittany Ghiroli and Ken Rosenthal today revealed two finalists for the position. While Toronto’s James Click and Kansas City’s Scott Sharp are no longer in consideration for the role, Cleveland’s Matt Forman has advanced as a front-runner.
The other finalist revealed is Amiel Sawdaye of the Arizona Diamondbacks, a name not previously associated with the Rockies’ hunt.
Sawdaye is Diamondbacks general manager Mike Hazen’s right-hand man, serving as the team’s senior vice president and assistant general manager. He followed Hazen to Arizona from the Boston Red Sox.
The surprise candidate has a number of interesting factors working in his favor. Sawdaye has experience with winning in baseball. He was part of three World Series titles over 16 seasons with the Boston Red Sox, as well as the Diamondbacks’ recent National League pennant in 2023. He also has intimate knowledge of the National League West, including the Rockies.
Both Sawdaye and Matt Forman have strong backgrounds in scouting and a pursuit of analytics, as well as experience working on teams with a limited payroll.
The Rockies have not confirmed any of the candidates they have interviewed, and it is currently unknown if there are other names in the mix to lead their new-look front office.
In addition, according to Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post, a league source has indicated the Rockies do not currently plan to hire both a president of baseball operations and a general manager.
Exactly which title the new executive will have is unknown, but the Rockies reportedly hope to have the hire in place by the end of the World Series or at least prior to the general manager meetings in Las Vegas from November 10th-13th.
