If my informal eight-man panel is correct, the Rockies will join Gil Hodges, Don Lock, and Claude Osteen in an infamous chapter in major league history. Hodges was the manager, Lock was the best hitter, and Osteen was the best pitcher for the 1964 Washington Senators. losing 100 or more games for the fourth consecutive season.

No major league team has done that since. But the 2026 Rockies will, at least according to my panelists.  Add up their predictions, divide by eight, and you get a 59-103 record.

I’ll start. I’m encouraged by the long-overdue front-office shuffle led by new team president Walker Monfort. And I’m intrigued by young players like third baseman Kyle Karros and Charlie Condon. But the reality for this season is that the starting pitching is still too thin over the long haul, and the offense too punchless to improve by 20 games over their 119-loss 2025 season.

Saunders’ prediction: 60-102.

Sean Keeler, Denver Post columinst

The season highlight might well be those long-overdue statue unveilings for Todd Helton and Larry Walker. Beyond that? Meh. The best thing about 2026 for the Rox is also the worst: The record won’t mean much. It’s a free hit for Paul DePodesta and Josh Byrnes. A honeymoon year. A transition year. A throw-everything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks year. It would be great to give a long-abused fan base some good vibes before Dick Monfort and his fellow Lords of the Realm torpedo 2027, but I wouldn’t count on it.

Keeler’s prediction: 62-100.

Kyle Newman, Denver Post sportswriter

The Fightin’ Rox will be better in 2026, but they are attempting to climb out of the abyss. This is going to take years to get competitive again, so book a fourth consecutive 100-loss season.

The starting pitching will be better, but the Rockies’ depth at that critical position remains thin. After an inevitable injury or two to starting pitchers, the season will unravel quickly. Also, the Rockies won’t hit for enough power once again, even though they’ll play better at home. Look for 2027 to be a true turning point year where Colorado can perhaps sniff a win total in the 70s.

Newman’s prediction: 60-102

Nate Peterson, Denver Post sports editor

Looking for a purple-and-silver lining for 2026, Rockies fans? Here it is: Colorado’s hard-luck MLB franchise will again be the worst team in baseball, but it will somehow, someway avoid the historical ignominy of four-straight 100-loss seasons.

No, Ted Lasso isn’t the skipper, but the arrival of Paul DePodesta, the addition of some crafty veterans on the mound and the development of young talent on the field will be enough to avoid the century mark for losses. The Rockies won’t be the 1962 Phillies, who improved by an MLB-best 34 wins. But they’ll be 20 wins better, which will feel like a miracle. 

Peterson’s prediction: 63-99

Troy Renck, Denver Post columnist

The Rockies will be terrible, but a light will replace an incoming train at the end of the tunnel. With a veteran starting rotation, improved health of shortstop Ezequiel Tovar and Brenton Doyle, and a versatile lineup that strikes out less, the Rockies will look like a major league team again. That is not meant as a backhanded compliment, but an indictment of the past regime. As the use of analytics and improved coaching takes hold as prospects develop, hope will return.

Renck’s prediction: 60-102

Jorge Castillo, ESPN baseball writer

Will they flirt with the wrong kind of history again?

Colorado finally hit the front-office reset button, hiring longtime executive Paul DePodesta as president of baseball operations to replace general manager Bill Schmidt to course-correct. … DePodesta didn’t overhaul the roster over the winter, instead signing four players to contracts of one or two years and making minor trades. The Rockies will look to avoid disaster.

Keith Law, national baseball writer, The Athletic

I have the Rockies finishing with the worst record in baseball again, but winning 11 more games, and I’m not sure how strongly I can even defend that other than to say that it����ap very hard to be 119-loss bad two years in a row. They do have new people calling the shots in the front office, including Paul “The Revenant” DePodesta, and I expect some gains on the margins, but they’re going to need more than an Ezequiel Tovar breakout to get back to even 60 wins this year.

Dan Szymborski, FanGraphs baseball writer

If another NL West team shocks the Dodgers, it won’t be wearing purple-and-black.

Mike Evans? Good luck!

Romeo Doubs? See ya!

Wan’Dale Robinson? Au revoir!

Christian Kirk? Adios!

The Broncos coach has what’s left of his heart in the right place. But he might want to get his eyes checked. Better yet, Payton might want to have the receivers they’re running it back with have their peepers looked at.

Only the Titans (who featured a rookie QB) and Browns (bad QBs, then Shedeur Sanders) elected to punt more times during the 2025 regular season than the Broncos did (75).

And only Jacksonville (8.0%) had a higher team drop rate than the Broncos’ 7.0%.

Don’t know about you, but if I’m sitting on a franchise quarterback on a rookie contract, I’d be sorely tempted to overpay in the short term now for a more sure-handed WR 2 or borderline WR 1. Alas.

“My brother’s the worst at this,” Payton had told reporters just before the 2024 trade deadline. “He’s the worst at free agency, and he’s the worst at the trade deadline. He just wants to see action. Then right after the action takes place, he never goes back and reflects and says, ‘Well, that was a bad signing,’ or, ‘That was a bad trade.’

“I say that, I kid him, but I think that there’s so much more that goes into it relative to whether you’re trading a player (or) acquiring a player. Contracts go into it, vision goes into it, and locker room goes into it. There are a lot of details that go into that.”

True. Fit matters, especially in a place as cold and cynical as an NFL locker room.

But culture can’t catch touchdown passes. Chemistry alone won’t move the chains.

And young, top-shelf quarterbacks on cost-friendly deals don’t last forever.

From 2020-2023, during Joe Burrows’ initial contract in Cincinnati, the Bengals reportedly spent $287 million on free-agent deals — an average of $71.78 million per year.

According to OverTheCap.com, the Chiefs in 2018, the second season of Patrick Mahomes’ rookie contract, spent $57.3 million on 26 players from outside their roster.

After the second year of Bo Nix’s current deal, the Broncos had, as of Monday afternoon, spent zippo on nada.

“Hope what we’ve got will get better” is a strategy, granted, although former Rockies general manager Bill Schmidt has seen how well that one usually works out. Payton’s putting a lot of faith in a good group of coaches to squeeze more out of the status quo. It’s putting a lot of faith in new offensive coordinator Davis Webb. It’s also putting a lot of faith in another first-year wideout, which is a risk in and of itself.

The Broncos have picks No. 30 (first round), No. 62 (second round) and No. 94 (third round) to lead off their 2026 NFL Draft haul. Seven wideouts were taken among picks 25-75 last spring, including Pat Bryant III to Denver at No. 74.

Their average stat line in 2025: 28 catches, 364 receiving yards, three touchdowns, two drops. Bryant has all kinds of size (6-foot-2, 204 pounds), catch radius, and upside, but his production last year (31 catches, 378 receiving yards, one receiving touchdown, three drops), along with all the ups and downs that came along with it, proved fairly typical of rookies drafted around his salary slot.

You may not get more cap value in 2026 from, say, a Doubs, who grabbed 75 balls and six scores last fall and just inked a four-year, $68-millon deal with the Patriots. But you’ll almost certainly get more production, historically, when compared to a low-first-round-to-early-third-round rookie wideout.

“When you have a dominant O-line and a dominant defensive line, people want to come here,” left tackle Garett Bolles told us in January.

“We’ve got a great running back room, we’ve got great receivers. Obviously, we need some key players to come in and do what they need to do by getting points on the scoreboard. We got a phenomenal defense. We have everything we need. We just need a couple more playmakers, and sky’s the limit for this team.”

The sky here, sadly, remains only so high, so long as the Broncos value continuity over, well, math. Take Adam Trautman. Super dude. He was tied for 46th among NFL tight ends last season in receiving first downs with 11. Old friends Greg Dulchich and Noah Fant collected 14 and 13, respectively.

According to Spotrac.com, after his latest Broncos extension, That trio averaged 28.3 catches and 2.3 receiving scores last fall, if you’re curious. Trautman collected 20 and (checks notes) one, respectively.

A Payton quote from last August has been doing the rounds lately. Remember when the Broncos coach likened free agency to garage sale finds? In hindsight, it was a harbinger.

“My parents loved garage sale-ing,” Payton told reporters that day. “That was their deal, one thing they enjoyed together. And I think I had 10 couches growing up …

“So, they come home with a new couch, and you’d remove the old one. And you were so excited — it was a sectional — until you sat in the left corner, and it wiggled. And then you realized why it was a free agent.”

Tell that to Talanoa Hufanga. Fit may catch on. Culture may catch on. But if nobody can catch the darn football, what’s the point?

Hey Patrick, I have a general curiosity question about MLB front-office structure and, more specifically, job titles. I know and assume that all front offices are different and have their own uniqueness to them, but can you tell me what the difference is between the “president of baseball operations” and the “general manager?”

For the Rockies, we all know Paul DeDodesta is the new head honcho in the front office, but from the outside looking in he has all of the traditional responsibilities of a general manager (trades, free-agent signings, etc.) but not the job title, and his preceding front office leaders (Bill Schmidt, Jeff Bridich, Dan O’Dowd, etc) had the title of GM. Why doesn’t DePodesta have the job title GM? And if he is the final authority on baseball decisions, why hire a “GM?” Seems like with DePodesta in charge, our new GM has the job title in name only. I am just curious if you can elaborate on the differences between the roles?

— Douglas, Denver

Douglas, excellent question that I have been trying to answer myself. I know that DePodesta and new GM Josh Byrnes will work hand in hand, even though DePodesta is the actual boss of the front office. The title of “president of baseball operations” vs. “general manager” is often a matter of semantics.

Anyway, this is what Byrnes told me when I forwarded your question to him:

“At this point, I think most teams have those two titles. As you know, it’s a big operation. Internally, we are both involved in major league club roster decisions, scouting, player development, R&D, performance science, etc.

“In addition, we need to communicate with ownership, media, agents and other clubs. So, we divide responsibilities on all of those things.”

And this is what DePodesta said:

“My view is that Josh and I are partners in this. Both of us will be involved across the baseball operation, with each of us being a bit more involved or a bit less involved in certain areas at particular times of the calendar.”

What new systems, etc., will this front office deploy at the minor-league levels? How will spring training be run differently from the previous front office?

— Logan, Grand Junction

Logan, that remains to be seen. The Rockies’ new front office has said it’s working to get everybody on the same page. That’s been Job 1, and it entails using similar analytics and technology at all levels. Going forward, the franchise would like to add more coaches at the minor league level. We’ll see how that plays out.

As for spring training, manager Warren Schaeffer will have a huge role in structuring a new camp. I know he’s eager to lay out his plan. “Through the roof,” is how he put it. Schaeffer has thus far declined to reveal specifics about how spring training will change, other than saying he wants to focus on improving Colorado’s base running. We’ll know more soon.

Hey Patrick, a couple of questions. First, I am surprised by what is happening. I never thought that (owner) Dick Monfort would bring in outside help. If Monfort lets the new kids on the block run the show their own way, how long would it take to see the effects? I am guessing two to three years before we see anything, but I could be wrong.

Also, how do you think Walt Weiss will pan out in Atlanta? The Braves were my team before the Rockies existed (it was either them or the Cubs, as they were the only ones on TV. Yes, I am dating myself).

— Del, Lamar

Del, I think we are already seeing changes: cutting loose first baseman Michael Toglia and catcher Drew Romo; trading for outfielder Jake McCarthy and lefty reliever Brennan Bernardino; and bringing in free-agent starting pitcher Michael Lorenzen. There are no blockbuster moves there — I didn’t expect any — but I think they are solid decisions.

I don’t expect the Rockies’ record to dramatically improve in 2026, but maybe they can avoid their fourth consecutive 100-loss season. Baby steps. In the best of all possible worlds, the Rockies could sniff .500 in 2027 and make a playoff push in 2028.

You have to give Walker Monfort (Dick’s son) credit for the changes in the front office. I was skeptical he would go outside the organization to rebuild the team, but he did. Kudos to him.

As for Weiss, I’m a big fan. Every player I’ve talked to about Weiss has had positive things to say about him. He’s a solid baseball man, and he learned a lot during his time with the Rockies, as he told me during baseball’s winter meetings. With Weiss at the helm, I expect the Braves to be a contender in the NL East in 2026.

What do you think of the Rockies’ moves so far? Jake McCarthy seems like a cheap pickup for a flyer. I’m not hating on the additions of (pitchers)  Michael Lorenzen and Keegan Thompson either. I mean, they’re not going to make us a .500 team, but at least we’re slowly moving in the right direction.

— Jeffrey, Parker

Jeffrey, McCarthy’s athleticism makes him an intriguing player. Over his five-year big-league career, McCarthy has slashed .260/.324/.381 with 46 doubles, 20 triples, 24 homers and 139 RBIs. He has swiped 83 bases and hit 20 triples. His 29.9 feet/second sprint speed in 2025 was tied for fifth-fastest in the majors among players with at least 200 plate appearances.

But he needs to rebound from a disappointing season that saw him sent down to Triple-A.  After playing in 142 big-league games in 2024, he played in just 67 in 2025, slashing .204/.247/.345 (.591 OPS, 67 OPS+). The trade has a chance to be positive, but if it doesn’t work out, the loss of minor league Josh Grosz is not a big deal. Also, the Rockies have a surplus of young outfielders, so I imagine they will make another trade before spring training begins on Feb. 11.

Finally, while the additions of Lorenzen and Thompson aren’t game-changers, they give the Rockies some needed depth while they look to develop pitchers in the system.

Do you think we’ll try using Michael Lorenzen as a two-way player, maybe like a poor-man’s Shohei Ohtani? He can pitch and eat up innings and play in the outfield.

— Mike, Denver

Mike, Lorenzen will only be a pitcher for the Rockies. The club has more than enough outfielders, and they need starting pitching. I suppose he could be an emergency outfielder or a pinch-hitter.

Which young player is going to make a splash for us this year?

— Mark, Arvada

Mark, my pick is third baseman Kyle Karros. He’s just 23, and he’s still filling out his 6-foot-5, 220-pound frame. I think he’s going to get stronger and hit for more power. He won’t be a prodigious home run hitter, but he’ll show more pop than he did in his late-season debut last season, when he hit just one homer in 31 games (156 plate appearances).

With his strong arm and agility, Karros has the skills to be a solid third baseman with Gold Glove potential. At the plate, he slashed .226/.308/.277 (.585 OPS, 58 OPS+) with a 26.3% strikeout rate. That’s sub-par, but he has a good swing, and he’s going to improve at the plate.

Plus, Karros loves the game and is mature and disciplined. I think he’ll make a quantum leap in 2026.

My second choice to make a big improvement is left fielder Jordan Beck.

Colorado hired Tommy Tanous as its assistant general manager, the club announced Wednesday. Tanous comes to the Rockies from the Mets, where he spent the last 15 seasons in various roles, most recently as New York’s vice president of player evaluation and special adviser to the president of baseball operations.

With the Rockies, Tanous’ primary focus will be on scouting and player development.

“Tommy brings a wealth of knowledge in coaching, amateur scouting, pro scouting, international and special assignment work from his time in baseball, and I’m looking forward to using his experience and rare ability to connect with people to help build organizational consistency across all levels of our operation,” Rockies president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta said in a statement.

Tanous has overseen the Mets’ draft since 2012, and he will be a primary voice in shaping Colorado’s draft strategy along with DePodesta and Byrnes.

Previously, the Rockies’ draft was run by former general manager Bill Schmidt and Danny Montgomery, an original hire of the club who is the team’s assistant general manager of scouting. Montgomery is still listed as a member

A shortstop in college for the Community College of Rhode Island as well as American International College, Tanous was the Blue Jays’ national crosschecker from 2006 to 2010 and worked as the club’s area supervisor for a couple of seasons before that. He also served in that role for the Rangers in 2003 and for the Brewers from 1996 to 2002.

The 2026 MLB draft is on July 11 and 12, and the Rockies have the No. 10 overall pick.

Become competitive. Less embarrassing. Show us progress. Embrace innovation. Give fans players worth cheering for, prospects they can believe in, a process that makes sense, a reason to go to the Coors Field beyond fireworks nights.

Accomplish these steps, Walker Monfort and Paul DePodesta, then anger and suspicion will nudge toward appreciation.

As it stands, anyone who knows anything about baseball does not trust anyone employed on Blake Street.

But — long pause, clearing of throat, blinking twice — the Rockies made a good move Wednesday that should help change the culture.

Josh Byrnes, a 55-year-old who has worked for every team in the National League West but the San Francisco Giants, is back. Intelligence and analytics are in. DePodesta and Byrnes are the polar opposites of predecessors Greg Feasel and Bill Schmidt, who judged their performance not on how players were producing, but their own brown-nosing of Dick Monfort.

Byrnes is the new general manager.

After a 119-loss season that highlighted incompetence at every level of the organization, it appears Walker Monfort has convinced his father that the focus must change, and that the baseball brain trust has to lead the dramatic pivot.

When the Rockies hired DePodesta, who has spent the past decade with the Cleveland Browns, it only made sense if he could add executives to fill in for his baseball absence and complement his skillset.

Byrnes does that. He is not the perfect candidate, but his resume looks good doesn’t it?

He has spent the past 11 years with the Los Angeles Dodgers as their senior vice president of baseball operations, where he ran the club’s scouting and player development. You know the two things the Rockies are horrible at?

During this time, the Dodgers posted the best record in baseball. They won three world championships and eight division titles. The Rockies have never won a division title.

This means nothing.

Unless it means something.

The Rockies are not the Dodgers. The only thing they share in common is roughly the same number of blue-clad fans who attend games at their stadiums every season.

The Rockies are trying to create their version of “Moneyball.” DePodesta and Byrnes, during their time in Los Angeles, a decade apart, were part of “More Moneyball” with the Dodgers.

But finding prospects and turning them into impact big leaguers is a skill, and Byrnes’ preparedness and attention to detail helped produce positive outcomes for the likes of Corey Seager, Wil Smith, Cody Bellinger, Walker Buehler, Dustin May and Gavin Lux. He also strongly recommended Dave Roberts as the manager.

Perhaps no organization incorporates analytics better than the Dodgers without losing a feel for the fact that baseball is played by humans. Byrnes, himself, set records for home runs and RBIs at Division III Haverford College in Pennsylvania, and remains a sharp pickleball player. He can live in both worlds — as part of the geek squad and the pick-up team.

It wasn’t as if he was riding coattails like a skateboard around Chavez Ravine.

“He’s been intimately involved with the Dodgers’ success over the last 11 years and he’s been a big engine behind a lot of their successes. A lot of people there have made significant contributions, but I think his are particularly significant,” DePodesta told The Denver Post. “For all of those reasons, I’m excited to have him. In terms of the pairing with me, I would tell you that I have known him for 30 years now and I feel like I get smarter every time I talk to him. And that continues today.”

Byrnes benefited from working for the Dodgers, allowing him to excel and improve in the shadows.

After stints with Cleveland, the Rockies and Red Sox, where he won a ring in 2004, he served in a general manager’s role for the Arizona Diamondbacks (2005-2010) and San Diego Padres (2011-2014). He helped guide Arizona to the National League Championship Series in 2007, losing to the Rockies. And with the Padres, he acquired three starters — Ian Kennedy, Tyson Ross and Andrew Cashner — and a closer (Huston Street) in a roster-shaping trade.

There were plenty of misses, too.

In a three-way deal in Arizona, he shipped Max Scherzer to the Tigers for Kennedy and starter Edwin Jackson. And replacing the popular Bob Melvin with A.J. Hinch, who had never coached at any level, was a disaster, leaving Byrnes panned for pushing the term “organizational advocacy” in marrying the manager to the front office. In San Diego, he was doomed by an ownership change, becoming a convenient fall guy for delusional former Miami Dolphins executive Mike Dee.

In his third crack at this job, Byrnes will have the advantage of experience, of a decade of success in Los Angeles and four years of working at altitude two decades ago. He must nail the draft, hit on international signings, invest in pitching development and analytics staff specialized for Coors Field, while trading for more controllable assets for this massive rebuilding project. The Rockies did not lose 119 games by accident.

DePodesta and Byrnes, in many ways, are connected. DePodesta was too young to succeed with the Dodgers. Byrnes was too bold, too soon in Arizona.

These two know what they don’t know. They have been humbled. And yet not discouraged. They have been friends since they were kids, sharing a passion for baseball. Both have lived in the San Diego area for years.

That, in and of itself, inspires confidence in a weird way in Byrnes.

Who leaves baseball’s best organization, while living in one of the greatest ZIP codes, to work for the Rockies? It is like a reverse midlife crisis. And makes it clear how much Byrnes, if not DePodesta, are determined to make this work.

Let’s be clear. Byrnes was part of the Dodgers’ dynasty, but he was not the guy making the biggest decisions. And his record as a GM is a mixed bag. There are no guarantees this will work.

The Rockies have given us no choice but to demand two words when they make these kind of moves: Prove it.

But at least, in DePodesta and Byrnes, they have hired people who are capable of doing just that.

On Tuesday, the club designated 2019 first-round draft choice Michael Toglia for assignment as it reset its 40-man roster. The strikeout-prone Toglia, selected out of UCLA with the 23rd overall pick, never became the player that former general manager Bill Schmidt envisioned.

In 280 games over parts of four big-league seasons, Toglia slashed .201/.278/.389 (.666 OPS) with 42 home runs. Though Toglia showed flashes of power, his high strikeout rate made him a liability at the major league level. For his career, Toglia has a 35% strikeout rate, including a 39.2% K rate in 2025.

The Rockies also hoped that Kris Bryant would emerge as an option at first base, but his chronic back issues have sabotaged his career, and there is a chance he won’t play baseball again.
In other moves, the club acquired left-handed reliever Brennan Bernardino from the Red Sox in exchange for outfield prospect Braiden Ward. The Rockies also selected the contracts of left-hander Welinton Herrera, right-hander Gabriel Hughes, and outfielder Sterlin Thompson, adding them to the 40-man roster.

Bernardino, 33, was at times a productive reliever for Boston last season, posting a 3.14 ERA and 1.26 WHIP over 55 outings (51 ⅔ innings). Opponents hit just .205 against him, but walks have hurt him (4.5 walks per nine innings). Bernardino pitched in 167 games for the Red Sox over the last three years, posting a 3.46 ERA with 157 strikeouts.

The speedy Ward, a left-handed hitter, has yet to make his big-league debut. He swiped 57 bases on 64 attempts in 97 games for Double-A Hartford and Triple-A Albuquerque in 2025. He batted .290 with a .786 OPS, two home runs, 17 doubles, four triples, and 37 RBIs in 368 plate appearances at two minor league levels.

The Rockies also cleared space on the 40-man roster by designating right-hander Ryan Rolison for assignment. Rolison was a first-round pick (22nd overall) in the 2018 draft out of the University of Mississippi. Rolison battled shoulder injuries before he made his big-league debut in 2025. He appeared in 31 games, posting a 7.02 ERA.

The Rockies are a joke in baseball, but they finally held a news conference that did not require a laugh track.

Monfort insisted he will let son Walker Monfort and new president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta run the team.

Please make this case, because we are going to hold you to it.

“I think they are sort of pushing me out. Doesn’t it feel that way?” Dick Monfort said Thursday. “Much has been said about what I do and don’t do. I am here to support Walker. I am here to support to Paul. We have to have the resources. I am not as bad as everyone thinks I am. I do care. I care about winning. I care about the entire staff that work here. I defend them.”

For the past seven years of Monfort’s reign, the Rockies have come across as cheap, incompetent, loyal to a fault and strangers to logic.

Thursday, they left their alternative reality. At least that is the hope.

That the acknowledgment of failure will provide a path forward. That the chain of command will give DePodesta freedom to do his job while reporting to Walker, who will answer to his father only to get expense reports approved and resources allocated.

This is not as simple as cleaning up a mess. This is climbing out of the abyss. The franchise has reached the playoffs four times over the past 25 years, and the on-field success was largely achieved despite the people who keep the profits.

It is why everyone is skeptical that Dick will step aside. Why everyone remains suspicious that Walker is qualified or will have the courage to stand up to his dad, allowing DePodesta to execute his vision.

It is a strange feeling to walk out of a news conference and believe the person who hasn’t worked in baseball for a decade is more qualified to make this work than the people who hired him.

It is up to the Monforts to prove us wrong.

Dick has empowered Walker to put his stamp on this franchise, encouraging him to do things differently, starting with hiring an executive from outside the organization.

Walker’s business card says that he is the executive vice president. Is it a title? Or in practice?

That is the lingering question. There were subtle indications Thursday that Walker has power.

It came in his opening remarks. He owned the organization’s colossal failure. The next time Greg Feasel, the man he replaced, does that publicly will be the first time. Walker pointing a finger in the mirror permits the the Rockies to act like a professional franchise again after not one, not two, but three consecutive 100-loss seasons forced significant leadership changes.

“We all know it’s been a tough stretch for the Rockies, to say the least. And there are no excuses for that. Nothing will be accepted except progress going forward,” Walker Monfort said. “To our fans, we know you are frustrated. We know you are tired of seeing words, you want to see action. Paul is the first move, and there will be many more to come. We hear you and feel your passion.”

This is baseline stuff. Business 101. But accountability has been so foreign for so long that it was jarring and refreshing. Let’s be clear: The Rockies get no respect, and deserve none either. They must earn the trust back of fans who watched the 2025 squad became a national punchline.

That team represented a perfect storm of what happens when a franchise cannot draft or develop, refuses to see players as assets and believes it can field a 25-man roster of homegrown prospects. Not even the Dodgers can do that, and they do everything better than everyone else.

In DePodesta, the Rockies hired a grown-up. His resume features a remarkable hole — a 10-year unsuccessful sojourn with the Cleveland Browns — but his intelligence and humility make him a million times more likely to succeed than former general manager Bill Schmidt.

DePodesta helped pioneer analytics in baseball. The Rockies could not figure out how to roll out a wireless network in the press box during the 2007 World Series. That, in a nutshell, captures their relationship with technology over the past two decades.

DePodesta will change that. And most encouraging, Walker wants him to. Knows it must be done. And it will require more external hires.

“He’s 52 years old and worked in sports his whole career. I do think we changed our approach with him,” Walker Monfort said. “We are not going to just bring in one (new person). We are bringing on others. If there are things that are missing from him not being in the game the last 10 years, the plan is for him to bring in people to supplement that.”

DePodesta provides knowledge, conviction and the common sense to take his share of responsibility for the disastrous Deshaun Watson trade in Cleveland.

But, none of his skills will matter if Dick Monfort continues running interference.

While the last several years proved that Schmidt and Feasel were awful at their jobs, Monfort made them worse. He nixed trades. He failed to spend on infrastructure — video technology, scouts, better minor league coaches, data analysts — that pays dividends at the big league level. He fostered a no-consequence culture.

Listening to DePodesta, it is hard to believe he would have taken this job, even if his days with the Browns were numbered, if he believed Monfort was going to continue in this type of role.

There is also this: Monfort volunteered that he was going to be busy with other things, likely as a hawk as the owners and players attempt to hash out a new collective bargaining agreement with the current CBA expiring on Dec. 1, 2026.

Whether it results in a salary cap or not could go a long way in determining Monfort’s stomach to remain an owner.

Given the Rockies’ struggles and the avalanche of criticism he has received, Dick told me before the 2024 season he was unsure if Walker wanted to take on a significant front office role or inherit the team.

But he talked with pride on Thursday as he glanced over at his son after the news conference.

This certainly felt like the realization of a long-held dream.

But it will only be one for the rest of us if it means Dick is gone, leaving the baseball decisions to Walker, DePodesta and his new staff.

It’s kind of been the worst “best” week for the Broncos that anybody on the Grading The Week (GTW) crew can remember.

After all, the orange and blue went 2-0 over the last seven days to extend Denver’s lead atop the AFC West with an 8-2 record. The Broncos set up a showdown with the Chiefs (5-4) at Empower Field on Nov. 16 that could officially end the Mahomes-Reid stranglehold on the division.

It’s how they got there. A victory over the Texans (18-15) was due to a brilliant defense and a very timely injury to Houston quarterback C.J. Stroud. A win over the Raiders (10-7) on Thursday night was an exercise in sheer agony. Brilliant defense again, but mostly agony.

In between the games, Sean Payton was grouchier than usual. And on Tuesday, despite being on track for a No. 1 or No. 2 seed in the AFC playoffs, the Broncos elected to stand pat as the trade deadline came and went. Marcedes Lewis, the 41-year-old “blocking” tight end, was ����apountry’s midseason acquisition of note. Everybody dance!

Broncos at the NFL trade deadline — D

Payton insisted midweek that he had everything he needed inside Broncos Park Powered by CommonSpirit. Against Vegas, his offense showed him otherwise.

Several reports over the last few weeks had the Broncos sniffing around at offensive additions, primarily at wide receiver. Denver was allegedly a suitor for New Orleans wideout Rashid Shaheed, only to be pipped by the Seahawks.

NFL reporter Jordan Schultz then claimed the Broncos reached out to the Dolphins to inquire about Shaheed clone Jaylen Waddle, only to find the reported asking price — a first-round draft pick, at the least — to be too steep.

Considering the Colts (7-2) coughed up two first-round picks to free star cornerback Sauce Gardner from the Jets, it puzzled the kids in the GTW offices why the Broncos wouldn’t consider a corresponding move in kind. Nix will only be on a rookie contract for so long, and the Broncos’ cap situation improves significantly in 2026.

Waddle would be an upgrade over Troy Franklin. But we’re not sure he’d be a significant improvement over Marvin Mims Jr., assuming the latter is good to go. And it would be a waste of a first-rounder to land a guy that Sean Payton would likely just be asking to block on screens anyway.

DePodesta is a Rockie! — C

The GTW gang is torn on this one. We’re mildly and pleasantly surprised that Rockies CEO Dick Monfort hired a director of baseball operations from a) outside the organization; and b) outside his genetic family tree. Baby steps, after all, are still steps.

That said, Paul DePodesta coming to Colorado is, if not straight outta left field, at least from the gap in left-center.

DePodesta was at the forefront of the analytics movement in baseball, although that forefront was multiple decades ago ­– the “Peter Brand” character in the movie “Moneyball” was based on DePodesta and his work with Billy Beane.

Not Peter Brand also hasn’t worked for a baseball club in 10 years. During that aforementioned decade, he was pulling strings behind the scenes with the Cleveland Browns, who might be the NFL’s equivalent of the Rockies in terms of dysfunction. With the Browns, he was part of the trade that brought Deshaun Watson to Cleveland for six draft picks — six! — and then agreed to ink Watson to a five-year, $230-million deal. Which panned out for the Browns even worse than that trade-and-sign with Russell Wilson worked for the Broncos.

We’ll try to keep an open mind, here, although we can’t shake the feeling that Monfort thought he was actually hiring actor Jonah Hill, who played Brand in “Moneyball.” Although if Paul can somehow get Kris Bryant off the books, he’ll already be a 70% improvement over Bill Schmidt.

They brought in a fresh set of eyes from the outside, a person who has been with the Browns for the last decade. Not St. Louis. Cleveland.

Wait, what?

They tried to do the right thing. And they still got it wrong.

Their search for a president of baseball operations was unusual. Unorthodox. Unfortunate.

A bottom-feeding major league franchise in need of strong leadership and modern vision hired Paul DePodesta, who last worked in baseball in 2016, a year before Trackman radar technology became fully integrated in MLB.

A team that has lost 100 games in three consecutive seasons hired someone who was last a general manager for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2005.

An organization that needs a cultural reset hired someone who helped facilitate the Browns’ trade for troubled quarterback Deshaun Watson.

What is the level of confidence that this will work? Low. Very low.

This is not an indictment of DePodesta as much as the timing. It is hard not to imagine Dick Monfort flipping through Netflix one night, settling on “Moneyball” and deciding the Rockies had to have that Peter Brand guy (the character loosely based on DePodesta’s successful role in Oakland).

The book was published 23 years ago. It has been 14 years since the movie came out.

Being light-years behind an industry trend is on brand for the Rockies. In that way, DePodesta can walk into his Blake Street baseball office with an iPhone 6 in hand and an Ed Harvey T-shirt on and feel like he never left.

DePodesta is a bright guy, Harvard-educated. He was not ready for the GM job in Los Angeles. Or more accurately, the Dodgers were not ready for him. Scouts were jealous of a 31-year-old, mockingly calling him “boy genius.” He did not come from the Branch Rickey tree, but the Google bandwidth.

Without internal support, DePodesta became isolated, and a natural fall guy for an awful owner, Frank McCourt.

The same traits DePodesta was once criticized for are now complimented, praised, coveted. (Not by Browns fans. They have universally cheered his departure.)

Analytics are embraced. And no one needs to strengthen its infrastructure and use of data more than the Rockies.

But DePo? Now?

DePodesta never severed his relationship with baseball. He last worked for the Padres in 2016, and his family has lived in La Jolla, Calif., since. That surely makes the president of baseball ops job appealing. But going from the Browns to the Rockies? The jokes write themselves. If Colorado had a sister city in the NFL, it would be Cleveland.

If any other team made this move, it would have been panned as the worst in franchise history. The Rockies make this move, and many consider it good news. At least it was someone, anyone from outside the league’s most insular organization.

It speaks to how low the bar was set by previous general manager Bill Schmidt, who failed upward for 25 years, and should have been fired in May when manager Buddy Black was canned.

In my past interactions with DePodesta, he was impressive. It was just a long, long time ago. To think that DePodesta has been keeping up to speed with baseball’s technological evolution over the last decade is naive, negligent. Or both.

And yet, for those who want to believe it will work, DePodesta has brainpower. The question becomes: Will he have real power?

Without autonomy, he has no chance. Zero. Zilch.

The hope was that Walker Monfort would usher in a new era for the Rockies. However, his father’s fingerprints were all over the hiring process, which got weird when Arizona Diamondbacks assistant general manager Amiel Sawdaye and Cleveland Guardians assistant GM Matt Forman fell out of the running either by choice or by finishing behind DePodesta, depending on whom you believe.

DePodesta will be free to hire a GM. Bringing in childhood friend Thad Levine would go a long way in making this move make sense.

The reality is that this job requires a complete house cleaning of roughly 20 people. There is little reason to believe Dick Monfort would sign off on such seismic change, given his loyalty to longtime employees and the looming work stoppage after the 2026 season.

In the absence of a complete front-office makeover, guardrails must be established. Follow a flow chart that helped produce the franchise’s greatest success in 2007. Let DePodesta oversee baseball decisions and report to Walker Monfort. And have Walker report to his dad, acting as a buffer just as the late Keli McGregor did between ownership and Dan O’Dowd.

And, oh yeah, bring on a handful of Rockies from the World Series team as special assistants.

The notion that DePodesta can pull this off — turning the Rockies into a consistent winner would rank right below Theo Epstein winning titles with the Red Sox and Cubs — is wishful thinking. The Rockies have so few major league players, and their minor league system is flawed from a developmental approach.

The challenge is enormous, and DePodesta is most known for being portrayed by Jonah Hill in a movie. That, and his 10-year gap in baseball employment. Doing research led me to the bio page for DePodesta on the Browns’ website. It read: “The page you are trying to reach cannot be found.”

Oh. That can’t be good.

The idea was for the Rockies to make a move outside of the batter’s box. Not outside of their league.

Arizona Diamondbacks assistant general manager Amiel Sawdaye and Cleveland Guardians assistant GM Matt Forman were reportedly finalists to become the head of Rockies baseball operations. However, neither is being considered now.

on Monday.

The Denver Post reached out to the Rockies for comment on the report, but did not receive a response as of late Monday afternoon. Franchise decision-makers have stayed quiet about their front-office search throughout the process. The team is coming off a 119-loss season and three consecutive 100-loss seasons. The Rockies fired GM Bill Schmidt in early October.

Sawdaye interviewed for the job last Monday, according to a league source, and Forman interviewed at the Rockies’ offices at 20th and Blake on Oct. 24. The Rockies had hoped to announce their new hire this week, but now it’s unclear when they will find their new head of baseball operations. The clock is ticking because MLB’s general managers’ meetings start next week in Las Vegas.

It’s also unclear if the Rockies have other finalists in mind or how many candidates had a preliminary interview for the job.

Executive vice president Walker Monfort, the son of owner Dick Monfort, is leading the Rockies’ search. Dick Monfort has also been involved in the interviews. The Rockies, who promoted their last two GMs (Jeff Bridich and Schmidt) from within the organization, have said they would search for candidates from outside the organization.

“We are setting our sights on finding the right leader from outside our organization who can bring a fresh perspective to the Rockies and enhance our baseball operations with a new vision, innovation, and a focus on both short- and long-term success,” Walker Monfort said last month. “This change delivers an opportunity to shape the future of our club and move forward into a new era of Rockies baseball.”