Warren Schaeffer will be sticking around in 2026 as the Colorado Rockies manager.
While a majority of Major League Baseball (MLB) clubs are prepping to make offers to free agents and position themselves for trades at the upcoming Baseball Winter Meetings in Orlando, there are a select few who are more engaged in prioritizing players already under contract. Count the Rockies among the latter.
After mercifully making it through a disastrous 2025 MLB season, Rockies ownership has begun steering the organization towards calmer waters.
Stability begins for the 2026 season in the dugout. Schaeffer, 40, had the interim tag removed from his job title after the recently completed 43–119 season—the worst among all 30 MLB clubs. The Rockies’ management waited until this week to make the announcement formal as the club was in search of a new president of baseball operations.
On October 1 Colorado ownership dismissed general manager Bill Schmidt. The new skipper was going to be the choice of whoever was going to be running the baseball side of the organization. Earlier this month, when Paul DePodesta was hired to fill the space, it was going to be his call as to who would be in charge on the playing field.
Schaeffer won over his new boss during the interview process. With the Rockies off to an abysmal 7–33 start, on May 11, Schaeffer took over as interim manager.
Bud Black, who had been in his 9th year guiding the Rockies, after 40 games, was part of the changes coming at the team’s field level. With Schaeffer at the helm, Colorado went 36–86.
Schaeffer, having a half dozen minor league managerial seasons under his belt, plus management elevating Clint Hurdle to bench coach, the support was firmly behind the interim manager to progress in his role. Hurdle, who has 17 years experience managing on the MLB level—including eight with the Rockies—was the quintessential choice as teacher for the rookie skipper.
Anyone predicting postseason play in 2026 for the Rockies is just being disingenuous. In reality, Colorado could consider the upcoming season successful with a 20-game win swing. An 81–81 record is, in all honesty, not feasible.
Not since 2018, when finishing second to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Western Division by one game, has playoff baseball come to Colorado. Even after coming out ahead of the Chicago Cubs in the wild card game, the Rockies made a hasty exit from the National League Division Series at the hands of the Milwaukee Brewers.
Rockies fans at Coors Field in Denver last had something to truly be excited about in 2007, when the Hurdle-managed club captured the National League pennant. When the World Series matchup with the Boston Red Sox began, the Rockies were swept in four games. It’s safe to say Colorado baseball has hit rock bottom, and any improvements achieved in the coming season should be celebrated.
Despite 2025’s awful record, there is promise on the horizon. The club’s middle infield is solid, and shortstop Ezequiel Tovar and center fielder Brenton Doyle, contractually speaking, will be part of the Rockies’ plans for several seasons to come. Doyle is a two-time Rawlings Gold Glove Award winner who has 70 stolen bases in 413 games, and Tovar took home a gold glove in 2022. Both defensive “whiz kids” have three full MLB seasons of experience with the Rockies.
In his first full season in Colorado, catcher Hunter Goodman came into his own in 2025, emerging as a solid slugger hitting .278. Selected as the only representative of the Rockies to the National League squad for the All-Star Game in Georgia, Goodman won a Silver Slugger Award as the best offensive catcher in the National League.
DePodesta is no doubt concentrating on shoring up the Rockies’ pitching staff. Colorado’s starting rotation produced last season’s earned run average of 6.65—the highest in the National League. Colorado allowed 1,021 runs, leading all MLB clubs in this category. The lowly Rockies are also in the 2025 record books for the worst run differential, -424, since 1900.
Last July, the Rockies selected fourth in the first round of the MLB draft and picked high school shortstop Ethan Holliday. The Holliday name is well known in MLB circles. Jackson Holliday, older brother to Ethan, was the overall top draft selection in 2022 and is now playing regularly with the Baltimore Orioles. Matt Holliday, their father, starred for 17 seasons on the MLB level, including for the Rockies.
DePodesta, who came to the Rockies after spending close to 10 years working for the NFL’s Cleveland Browns as their chief strategy officer, previously held top leadership positions with the Oakland A’s, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, and New York Mets.
When it comes to analytics and other advanced information clubs utilize in hopes of gaining advantages over opponents, DePodesta is a pioneer. His forming the 40-man roster in Colorado can only give the club an advantage that was lacking this time last year.
Going from last to first may be improbable, if not impossible, for the 2026 season, but somewhere in the .500 win–loss neighborhood should be on Schaeffer and DePodesta’s radar. Anything less, and the Rockies would once again be MLB’s doormat. The excitement that spring training offers can’t come sooner enough for the Rockies new—and hopefully improved—brain trust.
