Colorado Rockies: Bud Black on the new faces in the clubhouse

Colorado Rockies manager Bud Black knows the experience of joining a new team better than anyone

Bud Black was drafted in the 17th round in the 1979 MLB Draft to the Seattle Mariners. Black didn’t make his first big league appearance until September 1981 when that lost season for the Mariners was almost over. When he was traded to K.C. in 1982, he was converted to a starter but was sent back up and down for the next two years.

He finally stuck and made the most of his career as a Royal eventually winning his only World Series ring as a player. He played for Kansas City for three more years but was eventually traded in the middle of 1988. Black didn’t pitch much that year but he went on to have two good seasons in 1989 and 1990. He spoke of how it affected him and how he sees the landscape of moves today.

“When I left Kansas City and got traded to Cleveland, that was a little bit of a blow but I got over it relatively quickly,” he said. “I think most players do. Now, there’s some players that get traded and it’s welcomed. Maybe it’s time for them to move on. It works a lot of different ways but I think players are conditioned for this because it’s the nature of our game and if it happens to them for the first time or second time, they’re usually around players that have done that before them.”

Bud Black thinks that Kris Bryant and the others have transitioned well to the Colorado Rockies because, essentially, in the words often used by Black, “that’s baseball.”

Many criticized Kris Bryant for not wanting to win by signing a long deal with the Colorado Rockies. For a guy who’s won a ring and an MVP, he was criticized for just wanting to pad his stats and make the most money. But Bryant talked about first and foremost how this would affect his family and how close he would be playing to his hometown of Las Vegas.

Bryant’s mentality about coming to Denver has always been in the right place and his manager Bud Black can see that.

“I don’t know that it was hard,” Black said of getting to know your new teammates. “I think getting to know your teammates is fairly easy because growing up in sports from amateur baseball to professional baseball, I think players naturally gravitate towards each other on a new team.”

“A lot of times, it’s exciting to go to a new team. I think that’s the way it is for Kris because he was excited to be a Rockie. I think the acclimation to a new team for him [and the others] has been relatively easy. Denver is a great city. [Bryant] had been to Denver as an amateur player in youth tournaments. [Bryant and a few of the others] came to Denver as a visiting player downtown, maybe [Bryant] got outside of the downtown area as a visiting player. I don’t think it’s as hard as some people think. I really don’t.”

Of course, the Rockies have a large supporting cast to help players with these transitions. He spoke of personnel getting players everything from a realtor to players relying on their teammates and wives for any questions they might have.

It takes every kind of relationship to make this team fire to its full potential with many new faces. The Colorado Rockies seem to have those supporting relationships in spades to start the season. Being there for one another helps define this team.

“Through conversations with those guys and they tell those guys [who have been traded] that they’re going to be fine. We [as players] are conditioned that way. We travel a lot as it is, going from one place to another. It’s just what we do. It’s hard to explain,” Black said.