With the Nationals hiring Paul Toboni as president of baseball operations, the Rockies are the only team searching for a new front office head. That could soon be coming to an end, as Thomas Harding of MLB.com reports that the Rox will narrow to a group of finalists next week.
Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post hears similarly and writes that the Rox still have yet to determine whether the new hire will be given the title of general manager or president of baseball operations. That could be based on whomever they hire. If they tab a GM from another club, they’d need to give that person the president of baseball ops title to represent a promotion.
There are three known interviewees for the Rox’s top job: Royals assistant GM Scott Sharp, Guardians AGM Matt Forman, and Blue Jays vice president of baseball strategy James Click. It’s not clear how many other candidates are under consideration. Click is the only one of those three who has experience running a baseball operations department. He led the Astros between 2020-22, winning a World Series in the last of those seasons. He clashed with owner Jim Crane, though, and the Astros moved on after Click rejected a one-year extension offer on the heels of the championship.
While the front office leader is the most significant hire, Saunders reports that the team is also set to hire a chief revenue/strategy officer. That person will work mostly on the business side, though the stated goal is for increased revenues to be reinvested back into the team’s notoriously thin baseball operations infrastructure.
According to Saunders, the front office search is being headed by executive vice president Walker Monfort — the son of owner Dick Monfort. It’s not entirely clear how the baseball operations staff is structured in the interim. Former GM Bill Schmidt and assistant GM Zack Rosenthal are both out, and the team did not name an interim general manager. It stands to reason they’ll want their new top executive in place by the end of the month. The World Series could end as soon as October 28 in the event of a sweep. The trade market reopens the day after the World Series and the first few days of the offseason see plenty of waiver activity.