The All-Star Break, that four-day pause in Major League Baseball’s six-month marathon, starts Monday. The game will be played Tuesday in Atlanta, the intended host of the Midsummer Classic that was moved to Denver in 2021.
When the Rockies resume play on Friday against the Minnesota Twins, they’ll have 66 games left for Warren Schaeffer to convince his many judges that he deserves to have the “interim manager” title changed to simply, “manager.”
The Rockies brain trust—presumably general manager Bill Schmidt, owner Dick Monfort and his son Walker, and maybe others—represents the “judges” who will decide his fate.
But Rockies fans will make themselves heard, even if their collective opinion will just be background noise.
Which way will you vote?
Here’s a status report through 90 games to help you reach a conclusion.
Bud Black was fired as manager on May 11, 40 games into his ninth season in the Rockies’ dugout.
Schaeffer replaced him and completed 50 games in charge last Sunday, when Colorado beat the White Sox 6-4.
In those 40 games under Black, this year’s club struggled to a 7-33 record. That’s a winning percentage of .175.
In their first 50 games under Schaeffer, the players posted a 14-36 record. That’s a winning percentage of .280.
On the face of it, that might not seem like a huge improvement. But dig a little deeper.
In those first 40 games, the offense scored two runs nine times and one run each in six games, and was shut out five times. That’s fewer than three runs half the time.
In the first 50 under Schaeffer, the Rockies scored fewer than three runs 34% of the time (7-6-4).
To put it another way, Colorado averaged 3.3 runs per game in 40 under Black, and 3.8 per game in the first 50 under Schaeffer.
One conclusion from these numbers is that the manager alone is not the difference between a historic losing team and a contender. It takes sustained performance by players with talent.
But anyone who is still paying attention to the ’25 Rockies should be able to notice some subtle differences in the team’s play—intensity and aggression that the new manager has insisted of his players.
So, does Warren Schaeffer deserve to be designated the man in charge of Colorado’s clubhouse beyond the remainder of this season?
Not yet, in my opinion. Let’s see how the 66 games unfold following the Atlanta hiatus.
For those who are still getting to know the man who might be the Rockies’ next full-season manager, here’s some background.
The Rockies are his only professional organization. He was drafted in the 38th round the year the Rockies advanced to their only World Series.
A shortstop, he played for Tri-City (A), Casper (Rookie), Asheville (A), Modesto (A), Colorado Springs (AAA) and Tulsa (AA) between 2007 and 2012. In 459 games, his composite batting average was .214 with nine home runs and 137 runs batted in.
After hitting .189 in 80 games for Tulsa in 2012, he became the hitting coach for the Tri-City Dust Devils. In 2015 the Rockies named him to his first managerial position, Asheville, which he held for three seasons. Then he moved to Hartford for two, and then to Albuquerque.
Schaeffer managed the Salt River Rafters in the Arizona Fall League in 2022, his last stop before joining the big club as third base coach in 2023.
If Schaeffer returns as Rockies manager in 2026, there are bound to be complaints and criticism that Colorado once again stayed “in house” instead of hiring a “name” manager with prior major league experience.
But he wouldn’t be the first “lifer” who became a major league club’s manager.
If you’re a baseball fan, you’ve heard of Atlanta’s Brian Snitker.
Snitker had been a part of the Braves organization for 39 years when he was named interim manager after Fredi Gonzalez was fired on May 17, 2016. He’d been a minor league catcher, a roving instructor, the manager of eight teams in the Atlanta farm system, and the Braves third base coach.
Now in his ninth full season as the Braves manager, Snitker has won six National League Eastern Division titles and the 2021 World Series.
There are numerous other examples. Maybe Warren Schaeffer will be next.
________________
Denny Dressman’s 17th book, a collaboration with Kansas City artist Anthony High titled Black Baseball’s Heyday – Capturing An Era in Art and Words, will be published in late summer. You can write to Denny at dennydressman@comcast.net.