Dan O'Dowd was the Colorado Rockies general manager for 15 seasons before stepping down at the end of this year. The 2009 Sporting News Executive of the Year has been replaced by his 37-year-old protégé, Jeff Bridich.
O'Dowd stepping down was likely a mutual agreement between him and the team, especially after the team's fifth consecutive season missing the playoffs and fourth consecutive losing campaign. Bridich will now take over after serving as the team's senior director of player development since 2011 and is the youngest GM in the MLB along with A.J. Preller of the Padres and Jon Daniels of the Rangers.
Now that Bridich is in control, it should be interesting to see what changes are made. Shortstop Troy Tulowitzki and outfielder Carlos Gonzalez have expressed frustration with losing and they're still both under contract for quite some time. O'Dowd received multiple inquiries about the two star players before the trade deadline, but said he wasn't interested in trading either of them. But could that change?
Colorado was without Tulowitzki and Gonzalez for the final two-plus months of the season and still managed to finish first in the league in slugging percentage (.445), second in batting average (.276), third in runs (755) and fourth in on-base percentage (.327). However, they finished with the worst ERA in the league (4.84), 22nd in fielding percentage (.983), and had the sixth most errors (106). So if these two players are frustrated with winning, are atop the Rockies payroll (Tulo is owed over $120 million through 2021 and CarGo is due $53 million through 2017), and with only four prospects in the top 100, could Bridich trade one (or both) of them to save money to sign different players and/or build their farm system?
The New York Mets expressed interest in both Gonzalez and Tulowitzki before the trade deadline and reportedly offered a package that included their top pitching prospect Noah Syndergaard. O'Dowd declined. And now Bridich is in a tough spot because the season-ending surgeries to Tulowitzki and Gonzalez will make it harder for him to acquire top prospects, if he's even interested in trading them at all. But Bridich's new approach could certainly change things in 2015.
"I think the reality for most teams in this game is that our scouts learn from our analytics individuals and our analytics individuals learn from our scouts," said Bridich in this CBS Local article. "And I think there is even more blending of that than probably people know or think about. And I think that that is a type of learning from each other and that type of shared process goes on and I think that is going to allow you to eventually make the right decisions and make good decisions and make consistently good decisions which is really a big part of this process."
Could Tulowitzki and Gonzalez be out of the mix for the Rockies if they don't fit into Bridich's equation?
