Rockies Boss Reveals Big Reason for Huge Offseason Front Office Changes

The Colorado Rockies knew they needed to do something different, and this offseason has been all about executing that vision.

Jeff Lange / USA TODAY NETWORK

This has been an offseason of change for the Colorado Rockies.

Colorado hired Paul DePodesta to be their new president of baseball operations, putting one of the aces of the “Moneyball” era of Major League Baseball in charge of the franchise’s new direction. He opted to keep the well-respected Warren Schaeffer as manager after he spent the bulk of the season in an interim role.

DePodesta recently hired Josh Byrnes away from the Los Angeles Dodgers to be the franchise’s general manager. Byrnes previously worked for the Rockies as an assistant GM. Byrnes has four World Series rings with two different organizations.

The moves made this offseason speak to the franchise’s new direction, something Rockies executive vice president Walker Montfort talked about during an appearance on DNVR Rockies recently.

Walker Montfort on Colorado Rockies’ New Direction

"We know we can do this much better than we have." - Walker Monfort

"The thing we're going for right now is trying to find the right people to help us. Understand what we don't know and move things in the right direction."

📺 LIVE with Walker Monfort: https://t.co/3YXGGZjmZ9 pic.twitter.com/mzUTmuqGWO

— DNVR Rockies (@DNVR_Rockies) December 2, 2025

After seven straight losing seasons — along with three straight 100-loss seasons that included losing 119 games in 2025 — team ownership knew things had to change. Montfort said he heard it from fans, season ticket holders and even team employees in 2025. What Colorado has done is a wholesale change with new leadership and a permanent manager who helped develop much of the young talent as the organization’s Triple-A manager.

Montfort had a message for fans during his interview, and in doing so revealed the biggest reason why the Rockies have turned to and put their trust in DePodesta, Byrnes and Schaeffer in the future.

“The thing that we're going for right now is trying to find the right people to help us understand what we don't know and move things in the right direction,” Montfort said. “I'm fully confident that we can operate at the same capacity as some of these other mid-market teams that have approximately the same amount of resources that we do. It's really about how we allocate things, where we invest and i think if we can do that the right way with some outside perspective it's going to produce much better results than what we've had in the past five or six years.”

It will still be a long climb for the franchise, which last had a winning season in 2018 under then-manager Bud Black, as Colorado won 91 games and played in the National League Division Series. DePodesta’s moves to this point haven’t been major and likely won’t be during the MLB winter meetings next week in Orlando.

But hiring DePodesta, Byrnes and installing Schaeffer in a full-time role is meaningful change based on feedback Montfort heard all season. It sets a direction for the future, one that the Montfort family hopes will pay off in time.  

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