This afternoon, Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic reported that the Colorado Rockies have interviewed at least three external candidates for their President of Baseball Operations/General Manager position.
Those candidates include James Click, Scott Sharp, and Matt Forman.
Of the three, only Click has general manager experience.
James Click
Currently an executive with the Toronto Blue Jays, Click has worked as a general manager with the Houston Astros in addition to coming up through the Tampa Bay Rays system.
A native of Durham, North Carolina, and a graduate of Yale (Bachelor of Arts in History), Click met Chaim Bloom when both were writing for Baseball Prospectus. When Bloom signed with the Rays, he hired Click as an intern in 2005 before behind hired for their front office in 2006. In 2016, he was promoted to vice president of baseball operations.
The Houston Astros hired Click in 2020 in the wake of a front-office housecleaning following a cheating scandal. The Astros went on to win the World Series in 2022.
However, Click left the organization that season after only being offered a one-year contract.
In 2023, he joined the Blue Jays as vice president of baseball strategy.
Over at our sister site, The Crawford Boxes, Daniel May wrote “An ode to James Click: We miss you” in May of 2024:
James Click was Houston’s GM for only three seasons, but his contributions to the team are still being felt. In many ways, Click was the ideal GM: smart, data-driven, and not afraid to buck conventional wisdom.
Hiring Click would mark a decided shift in the Rockies front office approach.
Scott Sharp
Sharp, currently senior vice president/executive general manager with the Kansas City Royals has a very different résumé.
A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Sharp was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in 1994 (25th round) and was a catcher in the Reds system through 1997.
After that, he worked as an area scout for three teams: The Los Angeles Dodgers, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the and the Texas Rangers before joining the Royals in 2006 as an assistant director of player development. Since then, he was worked his way through their front office.
According to the Royals Front Office Directory:
Sharp has been instrumental in all facets of Baseball Operations during his tenure in Kansas City. Focused on player development upon arrival, Sharp’s responsibilities have grown to include Major League operations, roster management, player acquisition, arbitration, contract negotiations, professional scouting, advance scouting and analytics integration. Sharp has been involved in many special projects including the 2015 Surprise Complex renovations and The Fountains, an 88,000 square foot residential and player development facility located in Arizona.
He has a degree from George Washington University, where he also played baseball, and resides in Missouri.
His extensive background in player development would help a Rockies organization that has struggled in this area.
Matt Forman
A native of the Philadelphia area, Forman earned a degree in journalism and history from Northwestern in 2011 and began pursuing a career in sports journalism.
He was the editor in chief of The Daily Northwestern before taking a job with Baseball America. As Forman told Mark Feinsand:
Through a number of the publications that I had worked for — Miami Herald, Baseball America — I started to establish some relationships with people in the game. One of those relationships was with Victor Wang, who’s now our senior vice president of player acquisitions [with the Guardians]. Victor started interning with the team as a high schooler; he was a year behind me at Northwestern. Victor and I connected while in school and we stayed in touch after; Victor actually encouraged me to apply for a position with the team.
Although his first job application was rejected, in his second application, he was offered an amateur scouting internship, which led to a career with the Guardians. Immediately following the Guardians’ postseason run in 2016, Forman was named assistant general manager, and he was promoted to executive vice president and assistant general manager prior to the 2022 season.
Last weekend, Thomas Harding reported that the Rockies search remains ongoing, but it is clear they are living up to their promise of looking outside the organization.
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