The Colorado Rockies announced the firing of manager Bud Black on Sunday, following a 9-3 win over the San Diego Padres. The Rockies have the worst record in Major League Baseball at 7-33.
Colorado wasn’t just losing games, and a lot of them. The team was losing badly, looking completely outmatched on the field. On Saturday, the Rockies lost to the Padres, 21-0. That was part of a week during which Colorado’s pitching staff allowed 10 or more runs in four consecutive games.
Bench coach Mike Redmond, who held that position during Black’s entire tenure with the Rockies, was also dismissed.
Third base coach Warren Schaeffer was named interim manager.
The Rockies’ -128 run differential is the worst in MLB by a considerable margin, 59 runs worse than the next closest team. An inept offense has also contributed significantly to that figure. Colorado has scored the second-fewest runs in baseball (133) with the third-worst team batting average (.219) and OPS (.646).
The Rockies are on their way to their seventh consecutive losing season and third with 100 or more losses. At 7-33, Colorado is on pace to overtake last season’s Chicago White Sox as the team with the most defeats (121) in a single season in MLB history.
Black’s firing comes less than 24 hours after general manager Bill Schmidt supported him following Saturday’s blowout, saying he thought the team could “turn it around.”
“I think our guys are still playing hard, and that’s what I look at,” Schmidt told the Denver Post’s Patrick Saunders. “Guys are working hard every day, they come with energy, for the most part. I don’t think we are [at that point of firing Black]. Guys still believe in what we are doing and where we are headed. We are all frustrated.”
Colorado Rockies general manager Bill Schmidt publicly supported manager Bud Black before firing him less than 24 hours later. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
(AAron Ontiveroz via Getty Images)
Schmidt may be the next to go. Little help is coming from a minor league system that ranks 18th among baseball’s 30 organizations, according to MLB.com. The payroll is saddled with horrible contracts such as the seven-year, $182 million pact with Kris Bryant, who’s played 170 games in his four seasons with Colorado and just had surgery to alleviate a degenerate lumbar condition.
“Our play so far this season, especially coming off the last two seasons, has been unacceptable. Our fans deserve better, and we are capable of better,” Rockies owner Dick Monfort said in a statement.
“While we all share responsibility in how this season has played out, these changes are necessary. We will use the remainder of 2025 to improve where we can on the field and to evaluate all areas of our operation so we can properly turn the page into the next chapter of Rockies Baseball.”
Montfort has been the Rockies’ principal owner since 2000. Colorado has had six winning seasons during that span, including a run to the World Series in 2007.
Prior to joining the Colorado staff for the 2023 season, Schaeffer coached in the Rockies’ organization for 10 seasons, progressing from high Single-A to Double-A and Triple-A affiliates. Former Rockies manager Clint Hurdle, who was named interim hitting coach in mid-April, will now be the interim bench coach.
Black finishes his Rockies tenure with a 543-690 record (a .440 winning percentage). In his first two seasons, Colorado qualified for the MLB postseason as a wild card and advanced to the divisional round in 2018. However, the Rockies hadn’t won more than 74 games in the following six seasons.
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