Colorado Rockies: Darren Holmes out as bullpen coach

With the season that the Colorado Rockies had in 2019, it was speculated that there may be coaching staff casualties and now, we have at least one.

The Colorado Rockies announced on Friday that they have not retained the services of their bullpen coach/assistant pitching coach Darren Holmes. They have replaced him with one of their minor league pitching coordinators, Darryl Scott.

Steve Merriman, who spent the 2019 season as the pitching coach for Double-A Hartford, will replace Scott in his minor league pitching coordinator role.

As the Rockies press release states, Scott has been in the Rockies organization as a pitching coach or a pitching coordinator since 2009. He has been a MiLB pitching coordinator since 2017, after he spent the previous two seasons as the pitching coach in Triple-A Albuquerque.

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In his playing career, he got a cup of coffee with the then-named California Angels in 1993, in which he pitched in 13 games. Other than that, he spent 1990-2000 with six different MLB organizations and a season over in Japan.

He spent parts of two seasons (1995, 2000) with the Rockies organization at the Triple-A level when their Triple-A affiliate was in Colorado Springs.

As for Holmes, 53, he had been the Rockies bullpen coach since the start of the 2015 season. It was his first coaching role with a team. However, he spent the 2014 season in the Atlanta Braves organization as a “biomechanics pitching consultant.”

Holmes spent part of 13 seasons at the major league level as a reliever, including part of five seasons with the Rockies, which was the organization that he played the most in. In fact, he was one of the original Colorado Rockies as he played with the Rockies from 1993-1997.

Perhaps Holmes could find himself as a coach with his former teammate, Joe Girardi, who is the Phillies new manager. Reportedly, Girardi is considering his former Rockies teammate, Dante Bichette, as one of the team’s hitting coaches.