{"id":540554,"date":"2026-01-27T14:00:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T14:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/540554\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T14:00:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T14:00:19","slug":"colorado-rockies-news-warren-schaeffer-looks-to-2026-its-an-exciting-time-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/540554\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Rockies News: Warren Schaeffer looks to 2026: \u201cIt\u2019s an exciting time right now\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Warren Schaeffer is, by any standard, an energetic and positive person. He also tends to keep busy, though that has been especially true since becoming the Colorado Rockies permanent manager<\/a> as he participated in hiring new staff, communicated with players and a new front office, and began planning spring training.<\/p>\n

So, how was his offseason?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a lot of work,\u201d he says \u2014 but with enthusiasm, not exhaustion.<\/p>\n

On the eve of Rockies Fest, Schaeffer answered a few questions about building a staff, communication, and changes coming to Scottsdale.<\/p>\n

After being named the Rockies permanent manager, there was the matter of him finding his own staff.<\/p>\n

\u201c[It\u2019s been] a lot of interviews,\u201d Schaeffer said, \u201ca whole lot of interviews to get it right \u2014 who we need to hire \u2014 because we had a lot of people to hire: new pitching coach, new assistant pitching coach, new bullpen coach, new first base coach, new hitting coach. I mean a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, Schaeffer is currently focused on hiring the minor league coaching staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a huge collaborative effort,\u201d he said, \u201call of these hirings between the minor leagues and the major leagues, looking for that unity going up and down the chain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Something that can get lost in this Rockies rebuild is that team-building is happening throughout the organization. New front office and coaching stuff are meeting each other and learning to work together just as the players will next month. Prior to Rockies Fest, president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta convened a \u201csummit\u201d where all parts of the organization came together and began sorting out their roles and planning for the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been great getting to know Paul [DePodesta]<\/a> and what he\u2019s about,\u201d Schaeffer said. \u201cIt\u2019s been great getting to know Josh Byrnes<\/a> and what he\u2019s about and the new assistant<\/a> GMs<\/a>, and it\u2019s an exciting time right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just the manager; the players are enthusiastic about the changes, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re all, almost pretty much to a man, extremely excited,\u201d Schaeffer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlayers in general are always excited about the next season, and I would say specifically ours because they want to right the wrong that has been going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201d[R]ight the wrong that has been going on\u201d would be those consecutive 100-loss seasons with the most recent being historically bad.<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cIt just seems like the momentum that we\u2019ve got going on, the players are extremely excited about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dec<\/a><\/p>\n

Dec 8, 2025; Orlando, FL, USA; Colorado Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer speaks with the media during the 2025 MLB Winter Meetings at Signia by Hilton Hotel. Mandatory Credit: Mike Watters-Imagn Images Mike Watters-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Schaeffer\u2019s calling card has always been his emphasis on communication, and that hasn\u2019t changed heading into 2026. If anything, it\u2019s even more important.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have strong relationships with the players already, and I continue to cultivate those with the new ones coming in and trying to create leaders in that area,\u201d Schaeffer said. \u201cAnd at the same time, we\u2019re all in this together, in terms of Paul and Josh and Tommy Tanous<\/a> and Ian Levin<\/a>, all the new guys, and Walker [Monfort].\u201d<\/p>\n

Then he added, \u201cBut I love doing that because of the relationships you can build.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schaeffer\u2019s plans to revamp spring training are also taking shape, and they start with \u201chigher expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Schaeffer puts it, \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to talk about them, and it\u2019s another thing to put them into action.\u201d<\/p>\n

The changes to spring training will be notable.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpring training will look completely different scheduling-wise, where we spend our time, what we spend our time on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He was light on specifics since he\u2019s not yet shared the details with the players, but he did says this: \u201cIt\u2019ll look clearly different to the players, which is what matters, with a huge focus on winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Too, there will be an emphasis on sustainability.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to build a sustainable winner here for the city of Denver,\u201d he said. \u201cWe believe that that could absolutely happen, and this is the first step.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Schaeffer, 2025 was a year of learning, and he has two primary lessons he\u2019s bringing into 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cNumber one, preparation for the win that night,\u201d Schaeffer said, \u201chow to prepare better, and bringing in Jeff Pickler as a bench coach<\/a>, who is exceptional at that part of the game, is going to be an enormous help for me and everybody else in terms of preparation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the second lesson.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second thing that I learned, I think big time last year, is that at the big-league level, development never stops. It can never stop,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough the interview process this winter and being with these [new coaches] the past four or five days and getting to talk to them over the phone, the new coaches I\u2019m talking about, it\u2019s clear that they\u2019re going to get that a relentless obsession with getting the player better, which is what they want. The point is, this isn\u2019t the final product of the players we have. They\u2019re going to get better. And that\u2019s a learning experience from last year. We\u2019re not finished getting better. There\u2019s more in the tank.\u201d<\/p>\n

This week on the internet<\/p>\n

Please enjoy this snippet from Rockies Family Feud, featuring Chase Dollander:<\/p>\n

Freeman ready to be leader for young Rockies squad | MLB.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Freeman tells Thomas Harding about his preparation for the 2026 season. Thomas Harding spoke with Paul DePodesta about the outfielder\u2019s role: \u201cWe still see him as an outfielder. He\u2019s a right-handed hitter, but he complements Jake [McCarthy] and Mickey [Moniak], but we also see him as the guy who can play in the infield. He\u2019s played second, third and some short in the big leagues. He maybe even snuck in a game or two at first base at some point along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Red Sox tabbed to trade for Rockies Gold Glove shortstop with prospect haul | Newsweek<\/a><\/p>\n

This article is a summary of a Red Sox podcast. Here are the trade details. Interested?<\/p>\n

Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines<\/a> when you\u2019re commenting. Thanks!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Warren Schaeffer is, by any standard, an energetic and positive person. He also tends to keep busy, though…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2405],"tags":[5,167,52,4316,4,168,38579],"class_list":{"0":"post-540554","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-colorado-rockies","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-colorado","10":"tag-colorado-rockies","11":"tag-coloradorockies","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-rockies","14":"tag-rockpile"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115967428943640200","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}