As the Colorado Rockies’ 2025 season winds down, it’s time to look to the future.
Although this team will (likely) not set the record for most losses in the Modern Era, the Rockies have clearly not been a good team. (Then again, worst run differential and worst ERA by a starting rotation are still up for grabs.)
Their 40-103 record speaks for itself, and the reasons for the team’s struggles this season are many and varied, as ESPN detailed last week. (I also tried to pinpoint some of them back in July.)
But one of the biggest questions is what Dick Monfort will do concerning the future of interim manager Warren Schaeffer, who assumed the helm of a sinking ship on May 12.
It’s worth considering, then, what we’ve learned about Schaeffer’s managerial philosophy and explore whether he might be a good fit for the permanent position.
Clearly, the Rockies have played better under Schaeffer’s stewardship. In 2025, they went 7-33 (.175 W-L%) under Bud Black and have gone 33-70 (.320 W-L%) with Schaeffer.
How did he do this?
I first wrote about Schaeffer’s approach in May when trying to understand what I called his “coaching pedagogy.” Since then, Schaeffer’s philosophy has become clearer, both because he’s had more time to implement it and because he’s become better at articulating it.
In May, he stressed the need for clear communication and realistic benchmarks, seeing this season as an “opportunity.” In addition, Schaeffer stressed the need for players to play “loose” and to stop playing “tight.”
Here’s how Schaeffer explained it to Ryan Spilborghs:
I just want them to play loose. You know, from my vantage point, we have a fresh start. They’ve been playing tight, in general, young players playing tight. I want the young players to come up and feel like they’re a part of something immediately when they get here. And I believe that when you play loose, the fundamentals get better, and all the stuff that you practice can show itself.
I’ve thought about that passage a lot, but I really didn’t understand it. Last month, Schaeffer further explained his thinking, and his answer is worth quoting at length.
These are young players where, if they make mental mistakes — which, you expect that they’re going to do that — there has to be a level of patience.
But when they’re corrected, you have to trust and give them the directive that this is what you’ve done wrong. I don’t want you to go out there and play “tight” and feel like you can’t make another mistake. I want you to know what you did wrong, fix it, move forward, and play free, and don’t worry about me.
It’s not ‘beating them up over the head over’ stuff. It’s learning and moving forward and seeing results like we had this past series [with the Pittsburgh Pirates], where if you’re playing tight, you can’t come back from nine to nothing. You can’t come back from four to nothing. You just do it in a box, and nothing works when you’re tight.
So just playing free and believing in each other.
I don’t know. It’s tough to explain. You just to kind of have to look and see what you saw this pretty much whole second half. You’ve seen the majority of guys playing free, in my opinion.
To provide further illustration, in early September, he added this when asked about Warming Bernabel’s slump:
The big leagues are hard for, especially, young players. I’m telling you, [playing in the big leagues] is a hard thing to do.
You can’t expect the young guy to come up and be on fire from the beginning to the end of the season. He’s going to go through spells like this. That’s baseball. It’s just a matter of how he handles it.
So he’s going through it right now. We are trying to help him along, give patience to him, give him confidence, and just say, ‘If you’re pressing’ — which is a real thing that guys do, especially young players — ‘you don’t need to press. You’re good enough to be here. You’ve shown that already.’
Schaeffer’s managerial strategy, then, rests on building players’ confidence, conveying his belief in them along with baseball instruction, and then trusting them to play better — and believing that they will.
His “that’s baseball” reference was not lost on me because not only is it true, but it was also a Bud Black staple. Clearly, though, the two managers have very different approaches.
I was reminded of Black’s comments to Sam Bradfield in September of 2018 when the Rockies looked very different than they do today. She asked him about his approach to working with young players:
I think playing time is earned over time in a lot different ways, a lot of different auditions. Whether it’s spring training; whether it’s minor leagues and minor league production; whether it’s major league performance/minor league performance; evaluations from minor league evaluators, minor league coaches, managers, what they see from young players and forecasting what they’ll do at the major league level based on what they see at the minor league level.
I think there are steps to be taken — being put on the 40 man roster, being in big league camp, becoming accustomed to the big league setting, all those things come into play. How they mentally and emotionally handle a big league game, a big league setting, conversations with them…there’s a lot of indicators that tell you when it’s their time.
Black’s notion of “earning” playing time is something that played out a number of times during his tenure. A player either produced, or he didn’t. Cases in point include Elehuris Montero, Yonathan Daza, Raimel Tapia, and José Mujica.
In thinking back over Black’s time as manager, we could probably see some young players playing “tight” and growing less confident as they worried about being failing and being sent back to Triple-A.
Just to be clear, that’s not to say all of these players’ issues were the result of Black’s decisions. Obviously, the Rockies have significant player development problems throughout their system. But at the end of the day, Black served as the ultimate MLB gatekeeper for the Rockies’ prospects.
That leads to an obvious question: Should Warren Schaeffer get the job as the Rockies’ permanent manager?
I don’t know.
Clearly, Schaeffer was the right person for this team during this season. His confidence-building and teaching approach to baseball (reflections of both his personality and his previous career spent as a minor-league manager) have allowed this young Rockies team to grow and progress.
But I have wondered if his approach would work with teams like, say, the Philadelphia Phillies or the New York Yankees. Those teams have effective player-development systems and All-Star veteran players. I am unsure as to how Schaeffer’s approach would translate.
In the end, only Dick Monfort’s opinion matters — and he’s not yet revealed his thinking.
This week on the internet
Last week, the Rockies welcomed the Denver Nuggets to Coors Field, and Peyton Watson threw out the first pitch.
Peyton Watson, have you considered professional baseball?
Hunter Goodman named National League Player of the Week | Purple Row
ICYMI, the Rockies All-Star catcher continues to rack up the accolades.
MLB’s fired managers plot their returns after a most unusual summer | USA Today
Bob Nightengale spoke with the MLB managers who’d been fired during the course of the 2025 season. Yes, he talked with Bud Black — I believe these are Black’s first comments about his termination. And, also, yes, he hopes to return to baseball and would be fine with managing again.
As Rox match 2023 loss record, focus is on process, growth beyond ‘25 | MLB.com
This is an informative interview with Schaeffer about his approach to a season that teetered on the brink of setting some dubious records. Thomas Harding describes some of the changes Schaeffer implemented to get the young Rockies on track.
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