Clint Hurdle makes it clear: He’s the Rockies’ hitting coach — and no more

Clint Hurdle wanted to make it clear Saturday morning that he’s not coming back into the Colorado Rockies dugout to do one job, and one job only — now and in the future.

Anticipating the question that would arise as he returned to the Rockies as hitting coach to replace the dismissed Hensley Meulens, Hurdle spoke of the conversations he had with top club executives and manager Bud Black about the nature of his role — and the clarity of it.

After all, the return of the only person to manage the Rockies to a World Series would surely arch eyebrows and raise speculation and chatter as the team struggles under the weight of a 3-15 start coming on the heels of consecutive 100-loss seasons — the first such campaigns in the club’s history.

But first, there was the matter of what brought him back to 20th and Blake.

“The conversations started later Monday afternoon and there needed to be conversations on both parts,” Hurdle told media in a press conference Saturday. “I heard from Greg [Feasel] and Dick [Monfort] and Bill [Schmidt] and then I had some questions and then I wanted to make sure I had the conversation with Buddy, because I’m here to be Buddy’s hitting coach.

“And I want to make sure everybody’s understanding of that. I’m here to be Bud Black’s hitting coach.”

#Rockies new hitting coach Clint Hurdle on his role. pic.twitter.com/UXJ9HDikxL

— Patrick Saunders (@psaundersdp) April 19, 2025

“I’m no stranger to challenges. Not that I’m inherently wired for them, but I’ve had some experience here and in Pittsburgh, and I actually dropped back and ran this play 15 years ago in Texas, went from being a manager to a hitting coach, so, it’s not unfamiliar territory for me.”

HURDLE A DECORATED HITTING COACH

Hurdle joined the Texas Rangers as their hitting coach in November 2009, just over five months after the Rockies dismissed him as manager. Texas went to the World Series in Hurdle’s only season on the staff, and Pittsburgh plucked him away for managerial duties shortly thereafter.

He managed the Pirates for nine seasons until he was dismissed after the penultimate game of the 2019 campaign; he remains the only manager to guide the Pirates to the postseason — or winning seasons, for that matter — since 1993.

Hurdle had been serving as a special assistant to the general manager until returning to a more active role this week with Colorado’s offense in a strikeout-flooded funk. Last weekend the Rockies went an entire three-game series without scoring for the first time in club history; a night later they set a new franchise record for most consecutive scoreless innings.

For their offense, times couldn’t have possibly been worse.

The Rockies’ hitting coach in the salad days of the Blake Street Bombers, Hurdle answered the call after five seasons away from full-time duty.

“There’s probably been situations where you’ve had people reach out to you for help in some hard times,” Hurdle said. “And you can talk about being a friend, you can talk about being a helper. And in some situations, the best thing you can do is not talk about being a helper, it’s go be a helper.

“And that’s basically what it came down to.”

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