Considering that Rockies Owner Dick Monfort "promoted from within" for the club's new GM "rather than look outside the organization for a new leader shows how much he resists change," according to according to Patrick Saunders of the DENVER POST. In the "wake of four consecutive losing, dispiriting seasons, change finally arrived" for the Rockies yesterday as the club promoted 37-year-old Senior Dir of Player Development Jeff Bridich to GM, Bridich "becomes the youngest GM" in MLB after Exec VP, Chief Baseball Officer & GM Dan O'Dowd and Assistant GM Bill Geivett both "resigned early in the day." Monfort "declined to answer questions" at yesterday's news conference. He said that it was a "great day for the organization" and a "fresh start" for the Rockies. Bridich said that he was "not going to become a 'clone' of O'Dowd." The club also "restructured its front office." The club's "'two-headed' GM model is now a thing of the past." There are "no indications that the Rockies will hire a team president, meaning Monfort will continue in his role" as both owner and CEO. The Rockies have "not had a team president since the sudden death" of Keli McGregor in April '10. Bridich "takes over a team that must deal with a top-heavy payroll." The Rockies' overall payroll is "expected to remain" at about $94-95M in '15 (DENVER POST, 10/9).
SHUFFLING THE DECK: MLB.com's Thomas Harding wrote the front-office "overhaul is more extensive than anticipated." Club officials ended the regular season "believing there would be some reshuffling but nothing major." Front-office personnel began meeting late last week, and the "new arrangement took focus during meetings" yesterday. Harding noted Bridich graduated from Harvard in '00, and "played four seasons" as a C and OF there (
MLB.com, 10/8). The DENVER POST's Saunders notes before joining the Rockies, Bridich "worked in the commissioner's office" from '01-04 in the department of minor-league contracts and transactions (
DENVER POST, 10/9). Saunders wrote Bridich is a "whiz with numbers and payroll." But given the Rockies' four consecutive losing seasons and the fact that he is being promoted from within, Bridich "will be under the gun immediately" (
DENVERPOST.com, 10/8).
WILL MONFORT GIVE HIM SPACE? In Colorado Springs, Paul Klee notes Bridich and A's Assistant GM David Forst "were teammates at Harvard." Forst described Bridich with "flattering words like 'passionate' and 'knowledgeable' and 'a natural on the field.'" Forst: "He's very smart. That's what you see first." That is what made Bridich's introductory news conference "so alarming." Why did an "excellent communicator" like Bridich "dance around questions as though he were afraid of cracking eggshells?" It "wasn't because he didn't know the answers." Klee: "I think it was because his boss ... was in the room. ... Get out of the room, Dick. Please, let the baseball people run the baseball team." It is not that Bridich "isn't capable of making the Rockies relevant again." Klee: "It's that I don't know if Bridich will be allowed to." If ownership "doesn't let the new guy work, nothing will change" (Colorado Springs GAZETTE, 10/9).
HIS OWN MAN: In Denver, Benjamin Hochman writes the Rockies “are the afterthought” of MLB, “seemingly trapped by the cultlike thinking of its leadership.” Bridich “had better defy the cult” in order to “change the culture.” Bridich is "an O'Dowd disciple," but “he’s not O’Dowd Jr.” Hochman: “Give him a little time to prove that." To make the Rockies relevant in a division with the Dodgers and Giants, while "playing in a ballpark at high altitude," this "innovative, Harvard-taught, outside-the-batter's-box thinker had better be the Mark Zuckerberg of baseball” (DENVER POST, 10/9).
