Despite another 100-loss season, Rockies extend Bud Black

The Colorado Rockies have had a rough journey the last few years skippered by Bud Black but the organization is maintaining hope in the veteran manager, signing him to a one-year extension for the 2025 season.

The team announced the news on Tuesday, just after completing a second-straight 100-loss season—the first two in franchise history.

“While our recent results on the field did not meet expectations, we believe this team is heading in the right direction with the growth of very talented young players,”Rockie general manager Bill Schmidt said in a news statement. “Our organization is committed to giving our fans the winning team that they deserve. We believe the foundation we’re building with our core roster and our farm system, along with Buddy’s skills, experience and knowledge are instrumental in achieving our goal of playing games in October.”

Black, 67, has a record of 537-657 over eight seasons with the Rockies, the most games and wins for any manager in club history. Under his leadership, the Rockies made consecutive playoff appearances in 2017 and 2018, marking the first time in team history the club reached the postseason in back-to-back years. But he’s now known for the six straight seasons since and the back-to-back years in 2023 and 2024 that have the Rockies with a record of 120-240 over the last two seasons.

The former National League Manager of the Year from his days in San Diego, Black, is not regarded by the baseball world as the issue in Denver. The talented group Black inherited was slowly gutted highlighted by the trade that sent Nolan Arenado to St. Louis. Injuries and letting the wrong pitchers walk have diminished a once-strong pitching staff to one of the worst in the National League. Two seasons ago the Rockies finally moved a bunch of veterans so that Black would play a crop of young players who have been interesting but not necessarily amazing. In 2024, it was clear the team was rebuilding both at the top and in their farm system as it was recently one of the worst in baseball but is now looked at as decent. Still, there isn’t enough pitching prospects there for Black to coach up into the staff that made the 2017 and 2018 teams so good for Colorado.

This isn’t the first time Black has managed a club where seemingly the results day-to-day do not matter. That was the case with his hometown Padres where he was eventually fired in 2015. He never got that club to a playoff game. But his baseball career is well known. He is a former World Series champion pitcher with the Royals, who is thought to be one of the best pitching coaches in MLB, winning another championship filling that role with the Angeles.

Black’s first deal in Colorado was for three seasons with a mutual option for 2020 that was scrapped in favor of another three-year deal. The Rockies signed Black to additional extensions in 2022 and 2023, taking him up to this past year’s contract which expired recently but now bleeds into another year.

Nobody in baseball thinks the Rockies will do anything serious in 2025, though Colorado had the fourth-youngest roster in MLB in 2024.

The Rockies also shared that bullpen coach Reid Cornelius and assistant hitting coach P.J. Pilittere will not return to the Major League coaching staff in 2025.