After returning from the General Managers’ meeting in Las Vegas, Paul DePodesta was officially introduced as the Colorado Rockies’ new president of baseball operations on Thursday. He is making the odd jump from the NFL to MLB, but he does come with some MLB background from his early days in sports.
DePodesta has a huge task in front of him, trying to rebuild a team that lost 119 games in 2025. There are several decisions to make, including hiring a general manager and a manager, which is currently held on an interim basis by Warren Schaeffer.
Rockies’ fans know this won’t be an easy or quick turnaround in Colorado, and DePodesta was in no rush to put a timeline on how long a turnaround would take.
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Aside from the GM and manager spots he needs to decide on, the rest will require a deep, hard dive into what they have, what they need, and how exactly they can get better over time.
“I don’t know enough at this point to tell you exactly when that would be,” DePodesta said. “But I’ll tell you this: What we’re actually trying to achieve is this fundamental change of state, within the organization, and that’s both the talent on the field and also the culture in the clubhouse, the culture in the building.
“Even as I’ve gone through these different organizations and experienced that, I still have never been able to say, ‘Oh, yeah, that was perfectly predictable three years ago.’’
A clubhouse and culture change come over time. It’s not going to happen overnight, and it starts with the manager. That is what should worry Schaeffer. He was not the guy picked by DePodesta, and how many times have we seen a change in a front office, and changes come with the on-field staff? New front office decision-makers want ‘their’ guy in charge and in the dugout.
Now, that doesn’t mean that Schaeffer should start looking for another job, but it’s the nature of the beast. Just as hard as hiring his next manager, it will be even harder to hire his general manager to work under him. Decisions won’t be easy in the Mile High City.
When it comes to the roster, there are some veterans, like Kyle Freeland, they have in place to lead in the locker room and on the field, but pinpointing talent is going to be key. Which younger players, and Colorado does have some promising ones, do they see them making an impact sooner or later? Which free agents do they target? Which free agents of their own do they try to retain?
All of those decisions, as well as what is available for resources and money, are still to be determined, but it wasn’t surprising to hear DePodesta not put a timeframe on the rebuild. With the Rockies, that would be unrealistic right now.