The Colorado Rockies have found their interim general manager in the form of scouting director Bill Schmidt. He brings a wealth of experience and talent to the position and should be a strong option when the full search for the position begins after the 2021 season.
Bill Schmidt Should Be Permanent
As Thomas Harding states, Bill Schmidt has been with the Rockies for decades and has run the team’s drafts since 2000. That means he has helped craft the best pitching rotation in club history. Yes, the team has rarely had a top farm system and it isn’t particularly good right now, but very little of that is Schmidt’s fault. He has had to operate within the confines of ownership and Bridich’s own philosophy regarding team building. One also can’t blame Schmidt for numerous injuries to otherwise solid pitching prospects. It is impossible to know if Schmidt would have promoted some of the team’s internal options over signing underwhelming free agents. However, it is a safe bet that he knows the team’s prospects as well as anyone in the organization.
The experience with the team’s existing farm system is absolutely why Schmidt needs to remain in place. Amateur scouting is the one area where the organization seems to be no worse than average when compared to the rest of the league. The team could stand to invest more in the international market, but scouting has rarely been a glaring organizational weakness.
What Schmidt Needs To Bring To the GM Role
All of the concepts above are things that Schmidt has already done. The more important question is how he shifts the organizational philosophy away from whatever Bridich had in mind. It’s one thing to merely be a quality leader in the draft and scouting. There is far more responsibility for someone managing the entirety of baseball operations.
The big hope is that retaining Schmidt past 2021 will improve the team’s reputation as a trade partner. Bridich rarely made trades and seemed to have a reputation as someone other general managers disliked. That is not an ideal quality in someone responsible for building a competitive roster. Schmidt will hopefully be far more open to conversations with other teams. That is the only way the team can maximize what could be a hard rebuild over the next few years; they cannot merely rely on marginal trade returns and above-average drafts.
Even more important is convincing owner Dick Monfort to do two things. First, Monfort needs to staff a quality R&D department. The Athletic reported late last year that the analytics department saw a huge departure of talent. The team cannot solve the puzzle that is Coors without an elite staff of smart people working on the problem. Second, he needs to convince Monfort to spend money and then get out of the way. The Rockies owner might not be baseball’s absolute worst, but he seems to lack the emotional intelligence and baseball acumen to do anything more than sign players’ checks. We won’t know how Schmidt handles Monfort for months, but these are two things that must be done.
Likelihood of Schmidt Being Retained
It’s anyone’s guess at this stage, but the odds seem good that Schmidt is retained permanently. For all his failings, Monfort is incredibly loyal to veteran staff such as Schmidt. This is how the team has had only three general managers in its history and none have been fired. Repeat, the trio of Walt Weiss, Dan O’Dowd, and Jeff Bridich all technically left on their own free will. It seems like the only reason Schmidt wouldn’t be the permanent solution is if he prefers the thrill of scouting and drafting. Not working in an office for the majority of the past several decades would make for a radical adjustment. He also might not want to tackle the task of building a top-tier analytics department. Furthermore, he might be wary of tangling with ownership more than he did as the VP of scouting. His resume absolutely qualifies him to be Colorado’s next permanent general manager, but there are valid reasons for him to return to his previous role after 2021 and the official search concludes.
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