Last week, I explored the new Rockies front office and coaching staff’s focus on embracing and learning from failure. This week, I want to examine two more priorities that frequently popped up Rockies Fest: curiosity and trusting the process.
In the fourth week of January, president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta arranged meetings to bring staff in various departments together to start to get to know each other and lay out the guiding principles for the season.
In addition to many of the new
additions on staff repeating ‘they want to be here,’ as Purple Row’s Renee Dechert wrote about on Tuesday, another key qualification for the new-look Rockies is curiosity. The characteristic is a huge reason he wanted to bring GM Josh Brynes to Colorado. Together, they decided to keep Warren Schaeffer as manager and looked for people with the same mindset as they filled out the rest of the front office and coaching staff.
“[We wanted to] surround ourselves with people that we think have a chance to really move the organization forward with their curiosity, with their collaboration,” DePodesta said. “All of that excited us. And certainly that’s why I’m here.”
Brian Jones, the director of research and development, is in his 25th year with the organization. He joined the Rockies in 2002, was promoted to video coordinator in 2006, and continued to add to his responsibilities over the years. He assumed his current role in 2022.
Jones’ excitement about the meetings with the new personnel and direction was palpable during a Rockies Fest session with pitching coaches.
“The biggest word that we’ve used this week in meetings is curiosity,” Jones said. “Just having a group of people that are just curious and want to take all the information that’s available to get the best out of our players. I mean, it’s been a fantastic first week with the new operation.”
The change that could come from the new perspectives from personnel who are coming from other organizations seemed to make Jones very optimistic about a more successful future in Colorado.
“Obviously, things haven’t gone very well the last couple years, so, you know, just the difference, fresh ideas of people coming in, you want to just take the information that’s available and more that we can get and just kind of integrate that through our entire baseball operation. It’s just having a bunch of outside voices that have had experience and success in Chicago and Toronto, and Miami and Cincinnati, Detroit, and LA, and all these different places. It’s bringing in some outside best practices, if you will, and we now take all those together. Take what we do in research and development — it’s really information, tools that use information and insights, and helping improve people that are here.”
From the front office to the coaches and from Single-A to the MLB level, the Rockies are establishing new processes. While long-term success has to mean a winning record, playoffs, and eventually a championship, measuring success could be tough in terms of wins and losses in 2026.
When a Rockies Fest audience member asked new pitching coach Alon Leichman what his definition of success would be, he didn’t give a number of wins.
“Let’s stick to our process when it’s tough times,” Leichman said. “They’ve got to, and they will come. Our ability to not waver from what we believe in, just because of the moment. That would be a successful season.”
Assistant pitching coach Gabe Ribas echoed Leichman’s definition, adding the importance of collaboration, creativity, and building relationships with the players. Ribas also alluded to another message coming out of meetings with DePodesta, explaining that the new PBO is comparing the Rockies rebuild to the invisible process of water freezing.
“When water is turning to ice, it’s going through this transition phase, and you don’t necessarily see that transition happening until you get to 32 degrees, and then it really happens,” Ribas said. “And so I think our strength is a unit, to be able to continue to stay within our values and principles, and to feel like that temperature is dropping.”
After seven straight losing seasons, after four fifth-place finishes in a row in the NL West, after three straight seasons losing over 100 games, and on the heels of the franchise-worst 119-loss season in 2025, it’s hard for Rockies fans to know how to set their expectations for 2026. While much of it will take a while, the fans will also have to trust the process. Ribas does hope that process will lead to a more enjoyable future for the Rockies faithful.
“Ultimately, it’s about providing a better fan experience. It’s about winning more games. But for this year, there’s some growing there. There’s some turning down the temperature to reach that 32 degrees that a lot of people won’t see. So, you know, to, again to tack onto what Alon said, it’s more of how strongly can we stick to our principles and our values this year, but that trust, even if it’s not showing up on the scoreboard right away. Mike Tyson said, ‘everybody’s got a game plan until you get punched in the mouth,’ right? And that’s gonna happen, and we just need to stay true to our core principles.”
It’s going to be hard, but I am going to try to trust that the Rockies are on a better path, even if I can’t see it in the standings in 2026.
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