In Desperate Times, Black Shown the Door

In Desperate Times, Black Shown the Door

Summary
For the Colorado Rockies, the 2025 season has been a complete disaster and continues to get worse historically. With various factors contributing to their collapse, the team will no longer have manager Bud Black to scapegoat. One day after a 21-0 shellacking by the San Diego Padres, Black was released by the team along with bench coach Mike Redmond. Third Base Coach Warren Schaeffer has been named the interim manager, and current Hitting Coach Clint Hurdle has been named the interim bench coach through the end of the 2025 season.
Black managed his final game for the Rockies on Sunday in a 9-3 win on Mother’s Day against the Padres. His last game was part of a 4-16 stretch in his final 20 games, bringing the team to a 7-33 mark over 40 games. The team is on pace to finish 28-134, surpassing the 2024 Chicago White Sox record of 41-121, starting by 13 games. Black spent nine seasons as the Rockies’ manager, leading the team to the playoffs in his first two seasons. Each of the past two seasons for the Rockies has been a +100 loss season, also a team record.
Dating back to 1901, Saturday’s 21-0 loss was the third-largest shutout margin in baseball. Saturday’s game capped a seven-game stretch in which the Rockies allowed six, nine, eight, 10, 11, 13, and 21 runs, respectively, thus becoming the first team in MLB history to allow at least eight runs and then increase their runs allowed in each of their next four games. That four-game stretch also allowed the most runs in team history in four games.
“Our play this season, especially coming off the last two seasons, has been unacceptable. Our fans deserve better, and we are capable of better,” said Rockies Owner, Chairman and CEO Dick Monfort. “While we all share responsibility in how this season has played out, these changes are necessary. We will use the remainder of 2025 to improve where we can on the field and to evaluate all areas of our operation so we can properly turn the page into the next chapter of Rockies Baseball.”
Warren Schaeffer, 40, has become the eighth franchise manager. He has been the club’s third base and infield coach since the 2023 season. Schaeffer spent 10 seasons as a manager and coach in the Rockies’ Minor League system.
“It might be a kick in the [posterior],” said third baseman Ryan McMahon, the team’s last player named as an All-Star. “We’re in a spot where we need to make some moves and start doing some stuff, or else things like this are going to happen…. At the end of the day, it’s on us players to get it done. We feel like we let Buddy down a bit. So, hopefully, we can kick it up a notch and get it going.”