Colorado Rockies shake up coaching staff more as two coaches leave

Thomas Harding of MLB.com was the first to report on Tuesday that the Colorado Rockies will be parting ways with coaches Jeff Salazar and Tim Doherty.

That comes on the heels of Monday’s news on Steve Foster stepping down as pitching coach. However, Harding reports that Foster will stay in the Rockies organization as he will be in a role that’s “similar” to the role that Mark Wiley had until his retirement last week. Wiley was the Director of Pitching Operations for the Rockies. That position oversees all of the pitching in the organization, including the majors and minors.

Both Jeff Salazar and Tim Doherty had been in the Colorado Rockies organization for a long time.

Jeff Salazar played in the Colorado Rockies Rockies organization from 2002 through 2006 and again in 2011. He became a minor league hitting coach in the Rockies organization in 2015 and in 2017, he was promoted to assistant hitting coach, which is the title he has held since then.

Doherty had been in the Rockies organization for five years as a minor league hitting coach before he was promoted to the MLB staff prior to the 2021 campaign. Doherty was also the assistant hitting coach under current Rockies hitting coach Dave Magadan when Magadan was Boston’s hitting coach in 2012.

While he had the title of “major league coach,” Doherty functioned as a third hitting coach for the team. However, given their struggles throughout the season, particularly on the road, Salazar and Doherty are the casualties of it.

It remains to be seen whether or not one or both of Salazar or Doherty will be retained to work in some other capacity in the Rockies organization.

For the assistant hitting coach position and, potentially, the “major league coach” position, the Rockies will have to determine whether or not they want to promote from within or look externally.

Magadan was an external hire when he was hired prior to 2018 but Salazar and Doherty were internal promotions as well as Magadan’s predecessor, Duane Espy. But Espy’s predecessor, Blake Doyle, was an external hire.