Being “normal” is not something title contending teams in any sport strive to be. Normal is for average teams, not champions. The goal is always to be exceptional.
The Colorado Rockies, however, are striving to be as normal as possible in 2026.
After six seasons of operating in a way that was nowhere close to normal – and not in a good way – the Rockies welcome as much normal as possible for the upcoming season. They’ve gotten a late start, but having a front office that’s now settled in during the late winter months in 2026 is a good start.
Things aren’t totally normal yet – for instance, several minor-league coaches and field coordinators still don’t know where they’ll be working in 2026 as of yet. And the manager jobs in both Double-A Hartford and Triple-A Albuquerque have yet to be announced, even with spring training just a few weeks away.
There’s nothing normal about that.
The late start to almost everything involving the minor leagues can be attributed to the change in leadership at the very top. Greg Feasel, a Rockies executive since 1996, formally stepped down from his post as team president on January 1st. His replacement, Walker Monfort, didn’t get the shackles completely removed until after Christmas. That’s not normal, either.
But since then, the Rockies have been operating much more like a normal major-league franchise, including making numerous player personnel moves that have front-office types from other organizations taking notice.
In very un-Rockies-like moves, they’ve let go of a few former top prospects, still-young players like catcher Drew Romo and power-hitting outfielder Yanquiel Fernández. That’s really new for the Rockies, but perfectly normal for everyone else in MLB.
They signed a free agent pitcher, Michael Lorenzen, formerly of the Reds and Royals. That’s normal.
They’ve held press conferences to announce minor-league deals, like when they sent young flamethrower Angel Chivilli to the New York Yankees for minor-league first baseman T. J. Rumfeld. Again, normal in baseball, even if it hadn’t been around these parts in previous years.
Once all the coaching assignments are complete and spring training is underway, the Rockies could very well move past striving for normal and start experimenting. That’s also something they’ve been loath to do since the attempt at “piggybacking” with the pitching staff failed to go over well back in 2012. Ironically, with the entire game of baseball moving toward the use of more relief pitchers and fewer innings for starters, that idea was probably ahead of its time in some respects.
What will not be normal, in a good way, is more player movement as the season progresses. It’s possible, if not likely, that the Rockies will be making trades involving both minor- and major-leaguers well before the end of July and the trade deadline. It won’t be the revolving door of players that Rockies fans saw in the very early days of the Dan O’Dowd GM era back around the turn of the century, but it might come close.
A wise man once said, “You don’t know what you need until you know what you have.” Now that the Rockies have some stability and normalcy in the front office, they can go about finding out what they have, personnel-wise, and start making moves towards fixing holes. That would be the best kind of normal.
