Colorado Rockies: Daniel Bard talks about going from a coach back to a player

More from Rox Pile

• A Colorado Rockies Thanksgiving
• Colorado Rockies: What if Todd Helton had played football instead?
• Colorado Rockies: Charlie Blackmon out for the season
• Colorado Rockies: Injuries shift look of roster ahead of Dodgers series
• Colorado Rockies: Has Sean Bouchard earned a second look in 2023?

The D’Backs loss was the Rockies gain.

Bard said that he was initially hoping that it would be with the D’Backs since he was familiar with the organization but because of potential “conflict of interest[s]” because of the mentor role that he was in, the D’Backs and Bard decided to not go that route.

So, in February, just as Spring Training was starting, Bard had a tryout for a number of teams and one of those teams was the Rockies.

"“Three days after quitting my job,” said Bard, “I was standing on a high school [pitching] mound in Scottsdale, Arizona with about 20 scouts that had showed up…[F]ortunately, I threw the ball really well that day and had several offers. It was kind of a crazy day.”"

During the weeks leading up to summer camp, Bard said that he pitched to live hitters so, at least for his baseball career, the shutdown “was kind of the best thing that could have happened to me, baseball-wise” since it gave him more time to ramp up his pitching to make it big-league worthy.

Even though he “felt good” from the beginning of him playing catch with minor leaguers in 2018 and 2019, Bard said that he “didn’t that it would all happen this fast.”

You can check out Jim Rome’s interview with Bard below.

Bard has already made three appearances out the Rockies bullpen and, with the injuries that Wade Davis and Scott Oberg have sustained in the last week, now, Bard finds himself as part of the Rockies committee trio that Rockies manager Bud Black will turn to close out games.

Bard has already been one of the feel-good stories of the year in baseball but he can make it even more of a story with his new opportunity.