Strike 1: Bud Black didn’t sound like a guy who was worried about his job security, or someone planning a voluntary retirement any time soon. The manager of the Colorado Rockies, losers of 100 games for a second straight season, spoke like a skipper with a lot of plans for the 2025 baseball season.
Certainly most MLB organizations would make the manager the scapegoat for back-to-back 100 loss seasons. Many in the national media are expecting the Rockies front office to fire Black now that the disappointing season is over. They clearly don’t know much about how this young team is being built, or how the Rockies front office operates. Truth be told, bringing in a brand new field manager now would set the rebuilding process – already three years in and counting – back even further.
While nothing is official yet – and Black would not discuss his contract status – the Rockies will almost certainly be back in Black’s managerial hands in 2025.
Meeting with the media before Game 162 on Sunday, Black, who just finished his eighth season at the helm in Denver, was focused on the moment – the final home game in the wonderful career of Rockies icon Charlie Blackmon – and what his painfully young Rockies squad needed to do over the next four months to try to make sure that next season goes a lot better than this one did.
“When this game is over, your immediate attention turns to next year,” Black said. “It happens really really fast. I think for coaches and managers, for people in our position…it doesn’t really stop.”
He talked about the “consistency” of his team’s pitching – or more accurately, the lack thereof. He talked about the solid defense that this team can bring back in 2025. And he talked a lot about the need for his hitters to cut down drastically on strikeouts, something that has plagued the franchise through multiple hitting coaches over the past several seasons. This year, Colorado struck out more than 1,600 times, roughly 10 times per game.
Overall, Black emphasized the phrase “service time” repeatedly when talking about what separates his team from the 12 squads moving into the postseason. Experience. “Those teams have it, and we don’t,” he stated.
The Rockies nucleus is all in their mid-20’s. There are several players on the roster with very bright futures. Still, Black was quick to welcome the idea of adding more veterans to next year’s team. He’s expecting significant improvement.
For that to happen, this very young Rockies roster needs a veteran hand in the dugout. Sure, the front office could try to find someone they might deem to be a better manager than Black. But how many unemployed veteran managers with a resume better than his would jump at the chance to take over a team that’s still squarely in the middle of rebuilding mode, and at least a year – perhaps two – away from even contending?
While his critics might not like it, Black remains the best man for the job right now. And it sure sounds like he’s already thinking about being at Salt River Fields in February.
He talked about an emotional pregame meeting with Blackmon, and he wasn’t saying goodbye for very long.
“I’ll see Chuck in Spring Training,” Black joked. “We’re gonna write his name down…Hey Charlie, you’re on field four, you got the outfielders.”
Planning like a guy who intends to be there.
