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After a run of forgettable seasons, Rockies owner Dick Monfort wants to see the team get back to playing meaningful baseball. Denver Post via Getty Images <\/p>\nThroughout his professional life, Colorado Rockies owner Dick Monfort says, his philosophy has been to hire from within.<\/p>\n
But a string of four consecutive last-place finishes in the National League West division, including three straight 100-loss seasons, coupled with the departure of several longtime executives (leading to the promotion of his son), caused the historically loyal Monfort and the Rockies to look for accomplished outsiders with fresh perspectives.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur fans and the media believe we\u2019re too insular, and maybe they\u2019re right,\u201d Dick Monfort told Sports Business Journal. \u201cWe\u2019re going to find out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rockies went an MLB-worst 43-119 in 2025, with President and CEO Greg Feasel and general manager Bill Schmidt, who spent a combined 56 years with the organization, stepping down from their posts. Assistant GM Zack Rosenthal also resigned.<\/p>\n
Dick\u2019s son, Walker Monfort, who has spent 16 years full time with the organization, was elevated to executive vice president, and took the lead on reshaping both baseball and business operations.<\/p>\n
Longtime MLB executive Paul DePodesta was hired as Colorado\u2019s president of baseball operations on Nov. 7 after spending a decade with the NFL\u2019s Cleveland Browns. Nicky Schmidt left the Cleveland Guardians after 14 years to become the Rockies\u2019 senior vice president and chief revenue and strategy officer on Dec. 1.<\/p>\n
After a run of forgettable seasons, Rockies owner Dick Monfort wants to see the team get back to playing meaningful baseball. Denver Post via Getty Images <\/p>\n
Walker Monfort led the process on both hires. \u201cFortunately, we were pretty well aligned. But I\u2019ve let him really roll with it,\u201d Dick Monfort said.<\/p>\n
The Rockies interviewed around eight candidates on the baseball side and five on the business side before deciding on DePodesta and Schmidt. Fellow external hires general manager Josh Byrnes (Dodgers), assistant general managers Ian Levin (Mets) and Tommy Tanous (Mets) have since been brought in to work under DePodesta.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t want to hire people all the time. It takes a lot of time and effort and calls,\u201d Walker Monfort said. \u201cBut in the end, we couldn\u2019t be happier with where we\u2019re at today versus a couple months ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why the Rockies fell behind<\/p>\n
The hires were driven as much by what the Rockies lacked as by who they lost.<\/p>\n
There were moments when the Rockies were among baseball\u2019s most compelling stories \u2014 from the offensive-fueled early years at Coors Field to the 2007 \u201cRocktober\u201d run that carried them to the World Series.<\/p>\n
Now, years of losing have turned the franchise into an afterthought, as it has struggled to keep pace with competitors, identify long-term cornerstones in the draft and build the data and analytics infrastructure that has become standard across the sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t innovated at as fast a pace as other organizations have in MLB,\u201d Walker Monfort said. \u201cSo what we\u2019re looking to do on the business and baseball side is catch up a little bit, modernize our business and use technology more on both sides to help us make the right decisions as we move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
From \u2018Moneyball\u2019 to modernizing organizations<\/p>\n
DePodesta rose to prominence as an Oakland Athletics assistant general manager under Billy Beane. Their revolutionary usage of analytics more than two decades ago was immortalized in the 2011 movie \u201cMoneyball,\u201d with Jonah Hill playing DePodesta.<\/p>\n
Today, DePodesta\u2019s value is less about discovering analytics and more about building organizations that know how to use them.<\/p>\n
But as DePodesta returns to baseball, seemingly every team has a department devoted to finding market inefficiencies. Colorado ranked 20th in the majors in payroll in 2025 at $147 million (down from $161 million in 2023), so putting together a homegrown core is paramount. A rival executive referred to the franchise as \u201ca sleeping giant.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went out and interviewed quite a few people, and we just kept coming back to Paul,\u201d Dick Monfort said. \u201cHis uniqueness, his process-oriented skills and his experience with lots of different organizations in a couple different sports, he sort of became our guy.\u201d <\/p>\n
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From left: EVP Walker Monfort; GM Josh Byrnes; Paul DePodesta, president of baseball operations; Nicky Schmidt, SVP and chief revenue and strategy officer. Betting on enterprise health<\/p>\n
Schmidt became an attractive candidate given her contributions to a Cleveland organization that ranked highly in the data and analytics category under MLB\u2019s benchmarking data.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t feel like we had somebody internally at the Rockies that would be qualified for this role, just based on the fact that we\u2019re a fairly lean organization and this would be a new endeavor,\u201d Walker Monfort said.<\/p>\n
For Schmidt, the Rockies were a fit due to the potential of their market, a personal desire to put down roots in Denver and Walker Monfort\u2019s long-term vision. Her hire reflects the Rockies\u2019 belief that competitiveness now starts with enterprise health, not just player payroll.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand fans don\u2019t want to hear about growing revenue. I truly do. But I know they want to hear about us investing back in the team, and for us here at the Rockies, that\u2019s what my role is all about,\u201d Schmidt said. \u201cIt\u2019s about positioning us to fuel sustainable baseball competitiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n
She will oversee ticketing, merchandise and corporate partnerships \u2014 responsibilities Walker Monfort would have assumed, had Feasel not signaled over the summer that he was ready to step away.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt opened up an opportunity for us to go out and find somebody that probably had more savvy than we had in the organization as far as analytics, and maybe a fresher mind,\u201d Dick Monfort said. <\/p>\n
What success looks like now<\/p>\n
Walker Monfort plans to lean on Schmidt as the team puts together its masterplan for the next three to 10 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not only revenues, but it\u2019s cost efficiencies and creating better return-on-investment through premium areas and upgrades we do to the ballpark,\u201d Walker Monfort said. \u201cIt\u2019s really strategically planning those things and using data to help guide our decision-making as we move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The Rockies are expected to receive nearly $6 million this upcoming season in the first year of their new jersey patch deal with York Space Systems. Colorado Rockies <\/p>\n