Colorado Rockies: Five candidates who could replace Jeff Bridich

Colorado Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich resigned on Monday, bring an end to his tumultuous six-plus seasons as general manager.

On the most recent episode of our podcast, my co-expert, Kevin Henry, and I talked about our reactions to the news and we also discuss a couple of internal candidates but today, we’ll delve into a few more.

For this, we are considering internal candidates only for GM. Why?

Well, if the job is an “interim” job, which is what the Rockies said that they are looking for, most people aren’t going to come to the organization (or leave another organization) just to be the GM for a few months and then be cast aside.

An external candidate would be difficult to hire in the middle of the season since other teams could very easily not grant the Rockies the opportunity to interview their employee.

So, if it is for the interim, it would stand to reason that it will be internal. If they want someone external, they will have to wait for the offseason.

Let’s look through the candidates.

Bill Schmidt

Schmidt, 59, has been with the Rockies for a long time. He became their scouting director after the 1999 season and he has been the team’s VP of Scouting since Janaury of 2007.

Prior to joining the Rockies, he was a national crosschecker with Cleveland (where he worked with former Rockies GM Dan O’Dowd before he worked with him again in Colorado) and he was a scout for the Yankees and Angels.

For trade proposals and ideas, his scouting background would be handy but with that scouting experience, he would also be able to relate on the on-field/coaching front as well as he was a coach in the minor leagues and collegiately.

Zack Rosenthal

Rosenthal is in his 16th season in the Rockies front office and he is one of the team’s few assistant general managers.

Previously, he worked in the Red Sox and Athletics organizations but he has more of a legal background as he is the assistant GM in baseball operations and legal counsel

With that, he has handled some contract negotiations and arbitration cases but he also deals with the team’s finances, statistical analysis, rules administration, and scouting.

With being well-rounded in baseball operations and the legal sides of things (like with contracts), he would definitely be a guy that the Rockies could use as a GM. In fact, some other teams have scouted him out as a possible fit for them in previous openings.

Zach Wilson

Zach Wilson is another Rockies assistant GM but he is the assistant GM focused in player development. He’s the team’s farm director so he is obviously more focused in baseball operations rather than the business of the baseball operations, like Rosenthal.

His knowledge of the Rockies farm system and other farm systems is something that could be benefical for the Rockies in a GM, particularly with trade season around the corner.

Danny Montgomery

Danny Montgomery’s current title is “special assistant to the GM” but he was one of the Rockies very first hires as a team.

He was hired as an area scout by the Rockies nearly a year and a half before they even played their first game. He kept rising through the Rockies scouting department to role of both assistant scouting director and national crosschecker.

Montgomery has a good eye for scouting as he was the key figure for signing many future Rockies, including Dexter Fowler and a first-year outfielder and former pitcher by the name of Charlie Blackmon.

If he became the Rockies GM even in the interim, he would become the only African American GM in baseball right now.

Jon Weil

Weil is the Rockies assistant general manager of player personnel and he highly regarded both in the Rockies organization and throughout baseball.

He has been the Rockies organization for a long time and has worn numerous hats before his current one. He previously was the manager of minor-league operations and the team’s pro scouting director.

Before coming to the Rockies, he served in the Royals front office as a scout.

He is known to be an excellent communicator (which Bridich was not known to be) so that would be a big thing for a Rockies GM.

The Rockies could announced their interim general manager as soon as today but if not, they will likely hire one very soon.