Report: Clint Hurdle returning to the Colorado Rockies for 2022 season

Tracy Ringolsby of Inside The Seams is reporting that the Colorado Rockies are bringing an old friend back into the fold. Starting at the beginning of next month, former Rockies manager Clint Hurdle will be rejoining the Rockies organization as an assistant to general manager Bill Schmidt.

Hurdle, 64, rejoins the Rockies after he was in the organization from 1994 through 2009.

Former Colorado Rockies manager Clint Hurdle is returning to the team

Clint Hurdle joined the Colorado Rockies organization as a minor league hitting instructor in 1994. He joined the Rockies from the New York Mets organization as a coach after he ended his 10-year MLB career with the Mets. He was a minor league manager for them from 1987 through 1993, leaving the organization after the final two seasons being their Triple-A manager.

Hurdle joined the Rockies major league coaching staff in 1997 as the hitting coach and first base coach under manager Don Baylor. He was dropped as first base coach after Baylor left the Rockies and under Jim Leyland and Buddy Bell, he was their hitting coach from 1999 until Bell was fired in 2002.

Hurdle took over as manager for him until Hurdle himself was fired on May 29. He was offered a role in the organization but he declined. He joined MLB Network as an analyst for the rest of the season, which was the first year of MLB Network’s existence. He joined the Texas Rangers as hitting coach for the 2010 season and after they got to the World Series, he left to become the manager of the Pittsbrugh Pirates to start the 2011 season. He was their manager through mid-September of 2019.

Hurdle is the most winningest manager in Colorado Rockies history as he went 534-625 with a .461 winning percentage and, to date, the franchise’s only appearance in the NLCS or World Series under his tutelage in 2007.

Many Rockies fans were hoping that he would return to the organization in a front-office role (like President of Baseball Operations) but with turning down other big roles from teams in the last two years, Hurdle reportedly wants to be close to family. Being a special assistant means that he won’t have to do a ton of traveling and he can still be involved in baseball while still spending more time with his family.