Bud Black’s dismissal by the Rockies: How it went down

DENVER — One win Sunday, no matter how delightful it felt for the Colorado Rockies, wasn’t going to change the decision that general manager Bill Schmidt had made after Saturday night’s embarrassing 21-0 throttling and before Sunday’s homestand finale against the San Diego Padres.

So, when manager Bud Black and bench coach Mike Redmond walked into the dugout at Coors Field Sunday morning, the clock was ticking on their eight-plus seasons with the Rockies.

In a professional sense, they were dead men walking.

They just didn’t know it.

“We had a lot of internal talks,” Schmidt said after the dismissals of Black and Redmond Sunday following the Rockies’ 7-33 start — which came on the heels of the club’s first 100-loss seasons. “I think we’re capable of playing better than we’ve played and so, it was the time to make a change.”

Saturday’s shellacking wasn’t the final straw, so to speak, Schmidt said, even though he told The Denver Post on Saturday that he wasn’t at the point of firing Black. But he noted that discussions had been ongoing “recently” regarding Black’s status.

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— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) May 11, 2025

By Sunday morning, the decision was made. Black was out; Warren Schaeffer was in as interim manager for the balance of the season.

The club’s upper management reached the same conclusion of many outside observers, that the numbing futility of the Rockies’ overarching trends — outlier wins surrounded by lengthy skids — reached a point where something significant had to change.

Last month, it was the hitting coach. Hensley Meulens was out; Clint Hurdle was in. Some metrics improved — strikeout rate, for instance. But statistically speaking, the Rox as a whole remained at a sub-replacement level. They were 3-15 before that change; they’re 4-18 since then.

“I think you just look how we’ve been playing last month, probably more so, right? You win a game, you lose eight. You win a game, lose eight,” Schmidt said.

“Everything in total played a part, just not one game.”

And with that …

“I think there just comes a point where you have to change the leadership of the group and maybe a different voice,” Schmidt said. “And I’ve used that before on the hitting thing.

“But I think … just a different voice here. We’re at that point where we needed to do that.”

SO, WHY DID THE ROCKIES WAIT UNTIL SUNDAY AFTERNOON TO FIRE BUD BLACK …

… which meant telling Black and Mike Redmond and then notifying the team within moments of its most satisfying win of the season?

The Rockies couldn’t even enjoy the kind of moment that has been so scarce in this wretched spring.

The 9-3 win felt like more than just a triumph for this struggling team, it seemed like an exorcism, especially after Saturday’s football-score flogging and a four-game stretch in which the Rockies allowed a staggering 55 runs — the most in any four-game span in club history.

“Yeah, I’ll be honest, that kind of sucked, you know, but it is what it is, man. This is a business at the end of the day and, you know, they have to make hard decisions like this,” said third baseman Ryan McMahon, who went 2-for-3 with a home run and two walks on Sunday, but wasn’t thinking about that just moments after the game.

“I guarantee if you ask anybody in the front office, they probably didn’t want to do this, but they felt like it was necessary.”

Schmidt knew Sunday morning that Black was done. But game time was looming, with a road trip to Texas and Arizona beyond that.

“Trying to get everything in place this morning was gonna rush it,” he said. “So, I made the decision we’d do it post game, win or lose.”

“So, I know it took a little air out of winning the game, but I think the right thing, you don’t put somebody on a plane and do it in Texas; you do it here. So, that’s why we made the decision.”

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— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) May 11, 2025

FINAL GOODBYES

For veterans like McMahon, Kyle Freeland, Antonio Senzatela and Germán Márquez — Rockies who actually know what it’s like to play — and win — in the postseason with Black in the dugout, the move was a gut punch.

Senzatela, Freeland and McMahon have been with the Rockies for nine seasons and know major-league life with no other manager.

Several of the veterans had a final chance to meet individually with Black and Mike Redmond before they left the home clubhouse for the final time.

“A good amount of us got our chance to say our goodbyes to [Black] and speak the words that we want to speak to him, but that was tough,” Freeland said. “While I won’t get into what we spoke about, but, yeah, got a chance to say goodbye to him.”

Added McMahon: “It was a little emotional. He’s the only manager I’ve ever known. I had a great relationship with him, so it’s tough.

“I don’t think it was his fault much. I don’t think we played our capabilities, and this is the direction the organization has decided to go in. So, we’ll roll with it.

“But it’s gonna be tough without Buddy. I learned a lot from him.”

Márquez made his 182nd start on Sunday, and it was one of his finest; 179 of them have been with Black and Redmond on the staff.

“He always got my back, man. Always,” Márquez said. “He always was pushing me to be a better player, to be a better person, to be a better guy.”

But the players couldn’t do enough to save the duo from the firing line.

“You know, we feel like we let Buddy down a little bit,” McMahon said.

“I’ve already had a couple conversations with guys, you know, just feeling down in the dumps, feeling like, you know, we definitely played a part in this happening.

“So, talking to Red and Buddy, they both said, you know, don’t put that on your shoulders, but you can’t help it.”

Firing Black won’t pull the Rockies out of last place. That die is almost certainly cast; Colorado trails fourth-place Arizona in the National League west by 13.5 games.

As for being at the bottom of the entire sport, the second-worst team in the NL, Pittsburgh, is six-and-a-half games better; the second-worst team in MLB, the Chicago White Sox, are four-and-a-half games better.

Both are on pace to lose at least 107 games, so even improving to those levels still puts the Rockies in abysmal straits.

But at least that’s not historically bad or national-punchline bad — the type of depths the Rockies plumbed in recent weeks.

Even if it was a change for change’s sake, it was inevitable. Black and Redmond weren’t the cause of the Rockies’ woes, but they weren’t solving the problems, either.

The club can’t do worse by making the change.

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