Colorado Rockies extend Bud Black through 2023 season

According to Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post, the Colorado Rockies have reportedly extended manager Bud Black’s contract through the 2023 season.

Black’s contract was scheduled to expire at the end of the 2022 campaign. However, there will now be another year of the veteran skipper in the dugout and building in the relationship between Black and Colorado Rockies general manager Bill Schmidt, who was elevated to the position just after the 2021 season ended.

Bud Black’s managerial experience important for Colorado Rockies during transition time on the field

Black will enter the 2022 campaign with 998 wins in his 14 seasons managing both the Rockies and the San Diego Padres. In his five seasons overseeing the Rockies, Black is 349-359 and has led Colorado to a pair of postseason berths (2017 and 2018).

However, the face of those postseason teams has changed dramatically since the Rockies dropped the 2018 National League Division Series to the Milwaukee Brewers. Gone are Nolan Arenado and six other starters off that team. Of the starting group who took the field for Game 3 of the series (the final one in what would be a Milwaukee NLDS sweep), only Charlie Blackmon and Germán Márquez remain.

And that’s where Black’s importance to the team moving forward may be the most critical as Colorado looks to the next chapter of franchise history and what it will hold. The former Major League pitcher has already been a key to the development of Colorado starting pitchers Márquez, Antonio Senzatela, and Kyle Freeland, and Colorado will likely see Ryan Rolison and Peter Lambert along with other young hurlers playing a big role in 2022 and beyond.

Black was the 2010 National League Manager of the Year during his time in San Diego and was a finalist for the award during Colorado’s pair of postseason years.

This extension is the second time the Rockies and Black have agreed to continue working together. Black inked a three-year extension with the team in late February of 2019.