As one of the 5,000 Rockies fans to hear from the new front office and coaching staff and lean into the new-look Rockies organization at Rockies Fest on Jan. 24, I was struck by three things:
- A genuine feeling of optimism
- Consistent messaging
- The emergence of three new core values that feel like the new direction is real
First, a genuine feeling of optimism.
Coming off 119 losses, it almost seems impossible, but I was inspired by the new Rockies leaders. Everyone I heard from who came to Colorado from other organizations mentioned being excited about the challenge of finding a way to win in Colorado’s unique environment. They were also all focused on winning, which wasn’t always communicated so clearly from the previous front office.
“I was having a good time in the NFL and everything else, but the chance to be here in Denver, to be around this fan base that has supported this team — I mean, even during the last couple years — looked pretty amazing,” said president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta. “And then to be able to, hopefully, do what we want to do, which is build not just a good team out in the field, but a championship organization, that’ll be a championship contender, year in, year out, and do that here, I think it’d be incredibly special.”
Second, the consistency from the top down on the new vision for baseball in Colorado.
From DePodesta and GM Josh Byrnes and his assistants to the research and development department and players and coaches, everyone talked about winning and the excitement to explore new ideas on how to do it for pitchers and position players from Single-A to MLB.
Third, three core principles of that winning vision came up over and over again in various sessions: learning from failure, embracing curiosity and sticking with the process.
While all three values are closely linked, since there was so much discussion of the trio, I’ll focus on failure this week, and curiosity and sticking with the process next week.
I first heard failure come up when former Rockie turned announcer Ryan Spilborghs was moderating a panel with some of the new pitching coaches and members of the R&D department. Considering the Rockies have struggled to develop players in the past, despite calling themselves a draft-and-develop team, there was a consistent theme around helping players learn to learn from and bounce back from setbacks.
“We also like it when players fail. We, like, in general, we want, you want a pitcher to stink for a month and figure it out after that. You don’t want it always to be, like, you’re dominating, dominating, dominating ’cause you’re gonna get your teeth kicked when you get here [MLB],” Spilborghs said to kick off the discussion on failure. “So you have to have that background of, ‘Okay, when I fail, this is what I did to get out of it.’ … Failure is a huge, huge advocate for learning and to get better.”
New pitching coach Alon Leichman, who worked on pitching coach staffs for the Marlins, Reds and Mariners before coming to Colorado, also mentioned how beneficial it is to have Minor League teams in Double-A Hartford, which has an altitude of 30 feet, and Triple-A Albuquerque, which sits at 5,312 feet. His biggest reason why the change is helpful is more exposure to failure.
“It can be really helpful because it lets them have an opportunity to fail. You know, they go from Connecticut to now altitude, and it’s kind of like a test run for them of what it’s gonna be like over here,” Leichman said. “So, it’s a super important level setting. We’re hoping that they come, learn from their failures. Once they come here, it’s not the first time they are experiencing it.”
Understanding the new focus on growing from failure, especially since it’s such a part of the game of baseball, made it easy to understand why the new front office and coaching staff wanted to sign pitcher Michael Lorenzen. The RHP is an 11-year veteran with a 4.08 career ERA who has pitched for the Reds, Angels, Tigers, Phillies, Rangers and Royals. He represents the rare free agent pitcher who willingly signs a deal to pitch in Colorado.
Lorenzen credits his routine to his longevity, in addition to his love for problem-solving and ability to make and monitor adjustments. Considering the Rockies have recorded the worst team ERA in MLB every season since 2022, there is a big problem to be solved.
“One thing I do love is problem-solving and growing as a pitcher, and I have grown as a pitcher by failing,” Lorenzen said in a panel with other members of the Rockies pitching staff. “So I feel like that’s why I’ve been able to stick around for as long as I have, and Colorado just seems untapped in that area. So we’re gonna fail a little bit, but we have a good coaching staff that has been brought in and a new front office that has been brought in to hopefully make that learning curve a lot shorter than normal.”
Gabe Ribas, the new assistant pitching coach, was on the same page. Ribas has dealt with his fair share of helping develop prospects and coach MLB pitchers as he spent the last five years as the director of pitching for the Detroit Tigers and four years as a pitching coordinator with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“A wise person once said to me, ‘You do not want them experiencing failure for the first time at the Major League level.’ That is a recipe for disaster,” Ribas said. “… So nobody should panic when they get their teeth kicked in in Fresno or Albuquerque or Harford or wherever. That’s all part of the learning curve.”
Ribas then looked out to the audience and talked about the lessons that failure can teach us all outside of the game of baseball.
“You know, I would do a poll in this room. How many people have walked away from something successful going, ‘Man, I learned so much.’ Right?” Ribas said. “It’s when you get beat up. It’s how you respond. That sparks learning and curiosity. And anything that’s worth having is hard. And they’re gonna experience that.”
Over the last few seasons, the Rockies have experienced more failure than success. Since 2021, their 504 losses are the most in MLB. Now, it’s time to learn from that failure, keep learning from that failure, fail and bounce back and do it all over again.
It takes resiliency and curiosity to make that process work, which we’ll dive into next week.
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