Changes, first-year Rockies general manager Bill Schmidt readily concedes, were needed in the front office.
“There were, and are, a lot of good people here,” Schmidt said. “But we got to a point where adjustments were needed and fresh people needed to be brought in. We needed some new ideas. We needed everybody pulling in the same direction.”
Whether the Rockies have done enough to change the club’s culture and rebound after three consecutive losing seasons remains to be seen. But Schmitt has made it a major point of emphasis to both change the culture and beef up the franchise’s research-and-development department.
The first step was hiring Scott Van Lenten as the director of R&D, a department that lost personnel in 2020 during the pandemic and remained short-staffed in 2021 because of the club’s hiring freeze. Van Lenten, who had been with the Washington Nationals since 2017 and won a World Series ring in 2019, leads a revamped analytics department.
“The R&D people help in all areas — the major league team and helping develop players,” Schmidt said. “They provide an analytical look at things. It’s a tool to help all areas of our organization.”
Working under Van Lenten will be Taehwa Hong, a data engineer who used to do computer engineering and development for the South Korean government. Hong also has a background in baseball analytics.
Ryan Kelley, whose title is “data architect,” joined Colorado after six seasons with Tampa Bay, a team known for its extensive and successful use of analytics.
Isaac Gerhart-Hines, who worked with Van Lenten in Washington, is the club’s new web developer. The Rockies are revamping their in-house website to create a user-friendly system that enables players, coaches and staffers throughout the organization easy access to analytics and scouting reports.
Colorado also hired Al Gilbert as its new director of baseball operations. Gilbert replaced Domenic Di Ricco, who took a job outside of baseball. Gilbert, who worked previously as the Los Angeles Dodgers’ coordinator of contracts and finance, graduated from Stanford and went to Harvard Law School.
“Al is a big addition,” Schmidt said. “He’ll help us with the payroll and rules, roster management and contracts. Plus, he’ll have a hand in the day-to-day operations at the major league level. And he’ll help us out with arbitration.”
Ethan Moore, who spent the past two seasons with the Minnesota Twins, was been hired as an analyst in the R&D department. And Brittany Haby, who worked with the Rockies the past four seasons through the Major League Baseball Diversity Fellowship Program, is now the Rockies manager of baseball research. Her duties will include advance scouting.
“She’s a very sharp young woman and she knows baseball,” Schmidt said. “We have hired some bright young people to help the department grow.”
Although changes have been made in the front office, the Rockies stayed in-house with many of their major moves. For example, Schmidt, Colorado’s longtime scouting director, was promoted to interim general manager when Jeff Bridich resigned on April 26. The Rockies did not conduct a search outside the organization for a new general manager.
When Schmidt was promoted from interim GM in early October, the Rockies also announced the promotion of Danny Montgomery to vice president and assistant general manager of scouting and promoted Zack Rosenthal to vice president and assistant general manager of baseball operations and assistant general counsel. All of those men at the top have been with the organization for at least 15 years and many of them for much longer. Montgomery, for instance, has been with the Rockies since their inception, and Schmidt was first named director of scouting in October 1999.
On Jan. 1, Sterling Monfort, owner Dick Monfort’s youngest son, was promoted to director of professional scouting. Sterling, 30, who was serving as the assistant director of scouting operations on the amateur side, has been with the Rockies since 2014.
Schmidt takes issue with those who have been critical of Monfort’s in-house promotion.
“In Sterling, there is a tremendous passion and he’s got really good people skills,” Schmidt said. “And he has really good baseball skills. I know for a fact that there are many other teams that would hire him. He’s a good baseball man.”
Schmidt, who acknowledges that there was not a good working environment early last year, believes the revamped Rockies are on the right track.
“You have to get people who have a common belief in things,” he said. “I think we have that now, and so it becomes about trust and trust and belief in the vision of where we want to go to. This is about building for the future.”
REVAMPED ROCKIES
Changes to the Rockies’ front office began with a bang. Just over a year ago — Feb. 1 to be exact — the Rockies traded star third baseman Nolan Arenado, and $51 million, to the St. Louis Cardinals for left-handed starter Austin Gomber and four prospects. The Rockies, especially owner Dick Monfort and general manager Jeff Bridich, were harshly criticized for the deal.
On April 26, just 21 games into the season, the Rockies announced that Bridich, who had a contentious relationship with Arenado, was leaving the team. Since then, there have been major changes:
Departures
Jeff Bridich: General manager resigned on April 26.
Jon Weil: Assistant GM for player personnel left in mid-June when his contract was not renewed.
Zach Wilson: Assistant GM of player development (farm director) resigned in late June.
Domenic Di Ricco: Director of baseball operations left in December to pursue a career outside baseball.
Promotions
Greg Feasel: Executive vice president/chief operating officer since 2010, was named president/chief operating officer on April 26.
Bill Schmidt: Longtime head of scouting was named permanent GM on Oct. 2.
Danny Montgomery: Special assistant to the GM was named vice president and assistant general manager of scouting on Oct. 2.
Chris Forbes: New farm director. Began leading player development last June when Wilson resigned.
Sterling Monfort: Assistant director of scouting operations on the amateur side was promoted to director of professional scouting on Jan. 1.
Brittany Haby: After four seasons with the Rockies through the MLB Diversity Fellowship Program, was promoted to manager of baseball research.
Additions
Clint Hurdle: Former Rockies manager returns to the organization as a special assistant to the GM with an emphasis on player development.
Scott Van Lenten: Hired as the director of research and development.
Al Gilbert: Hired as director of baseball operations.
Emily Glass: Joined the Rockies in November as scouting operations administrator, assisting Marc Gustafson, the senior director of scouting operations.
Scott Van Lenten: New director of research and development.
Isaac Gerhart-Hines: Hired as the full-stack web developer.
Taehwa Hong: Hired as a data engineer for analytics.
Ryan Kelley: Hired as a data architect.
Ethan Moore: Hired as a data analyst for R&D.
Julianna Rubin: Joined Rockies through the MLB Diversity Fellowship Program. She’ll work on roster, contract and salary arbitration issues.
–– Patrick Saunders, The Denver Post
Source : From the Web