Colorado dropped the interim from his title on Saturday to name Bill Schmidt as the club’s fourth general manager, following in the footsteps of Bob Gebhard, Dan O’Dowd and Jeff Bridich.
“After five months as our interim general manager, it became increasingly clear that Bill was the right person to lead this franchise forward,” said Colorado Rockies President and Chief Operating Officer Greg Feasel in a press release.
Before becoming the interim GM on May 3 following Bridich’s departure, Schmidt had led the scouting department as the vice president since 2007, overseeing selections made by the organization in the MLB Draft such as Charlie Blackmon, Nolan Arenado, Trevor Story, Jon Gray, Kyle Freeland and Brendan Rodgers.
Schmidt referenced a desire to create change that brings about success on the field in the same press release made by the organization.
“The past five months have been important for our club, and we want our fans to know that, as a group, our baseball operations team is bringing a fresh perspective, approach and energy in these roles. We’re going to work hard to deliver a consistent winning club to our fans.”
Following the announcement, manager Bud Black was excited about the appointment, both for the franchise and for Schmidt, sharing his thoughts on what hopes to be the open lines of communication often existing within successful clubs.
“I think he’s been very open minded to whether it’s advice or opinions, he likes to talk baseball. That’s the beauty of Bill,” Black shared. “He’s very passionate about this game. And he likes to talk about it in whatever fashion it might be, whether it’s breaking down a player or player development or scouting or front office structure. We’ve talked about all that stuff, and he’s been very, very open and very easy to talk to.”
Two other corresponding promotions have also announced by the Rockies. Danny Montgomery is now the vice president and assistant general manager of scouting while Zack Rosenthal is vice president and assistant general manager of baseball operations and assistant general counsel.
“Bill’s promotion also gives the organization an opportunity to promote two experienced individuals, Danny and Zack, to leadership roles that will be key in getting us to the next level,” Feasel said.
Montgomery, one of the first hirings made by the expansion club in November 1991, has been a special assistant to the general manager for the past seven seasons and has served in a variety of scouting roles in his 30-plus years with the organization.
Rosenthal’s promotion to vice president comes after serving the past seven seasons as the assistant general manager of baseball operations and assistant general counsel, aiding in areas such as contract matters, salary arbitration, statistical analysis, Major League roster oversight and all legal matters involving the baseball operations department.
“I am very honored to be named the general manager, and excited to get to work this offseason with Danny, Zack and the rest of our baseball operations team,” said the 61-year-old Schmidt.
Schmidt has been with Colorado since October 1, 1999 when he began as the director of the scouting department following four seasons with Cleveland as a national crosschecker, a type of high-ranking scout. Prior to that, he supervised the Southern California, Arizona and Nevada regions for the New York Yankees (1988-95) while coaching the team’s Penn League club (1991-93), worked for the Major League Scouting Bureau (1987-88) and scouted for the Cincinnati Reds (1982-84) where he also served as a coach in the Pioneer League for the Reds (1984) and Brewers (1986).
Recently, Schmidt has been honored as the West Coast Scout of the Year in 2019 at the Winter Meetings, and was one of six scouts to receive the Legends in Scouting Award at the Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation gala in January 2019.
Schmidt’s biggest priorities will be constructing a roster to get back to the playoffs for the first time since 2018 with top players such as Jon Gray, Trevor Story and C.J. Cron heading into free agency.
