DENVER (AP) — Josh Byrnes has taken notice of all the winning going on in the Mile High City. The Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets aren't too far removed from titles and the Denver Broncos have one of the best records in football.
He wants the Colorado Rockies to join in on that prosperity and fun.
The new general manager believes the Rockies can be a success story, too. It's why Byrnes took the risk of leaving the front office of the Los Angeles Dodgers, a team that just won a second straight World Series crown, for a franchise that lost 119 games last season. The Rockies haven't been to the postseason since 2018.
“Obviously, 119 losses, there’s no sugarcoating it. There’s a lot of work to do,” Byrnes said Friday in an introductory video call. “If you really talk to people around the game, there’s quite a bit of intrigue in trying to solve it here.”
Because Colorado's long been a puzzle: How to consistently win at elevation and in a park as expansive as Coors Field? But Byrnes has been here before — he was an assistant GM in Colorado from 1999-2002 — and knows the challenges. He's also tight with Paul DePodesta, who was hired Nov. 7 as the Rockies’ president of baseball operations. The two worked together in Cleveland in the 1990s.
DePodesta always wanted to work with Byrnes again. So he got him to leave the safety of the Dodgers, where he'd spent more than a decade as the senior vice president of baseball operations and won three World Series rings.
“I loved every day with the Dodgers and have a tremendous amount of respect for the people,” said Byrnes, who's also worked in the front offices of the Arizona Diamondbacks, San Diego Padres and Boston Red Sox. “But I’ve known Paul for 30 years, and he and I have always embraced challenges. I think he’s brilliant. I think there’s a lot we can both bring to this, and also not just tell stories about what we’ve done, but create a new future for this franchise.”
DePodesta said they've been given assurances they can make changes happen. The Rockies won't shy away from the trade front, either, in reshaping the roster. In years past, there's been some reluctance to deal players.
“Josh and I have both been in situations with immense resources, and we’ve also been in situations that have have had lesser resources, also by a significant amount," explained DePodesta, who said the team is close to rounding out the coaching staff for manager Warren Schaeffer. “We feel very comfortable with what’s available here. The mindset is that there’s a desire to invest pretty heavily on the baseball side.”
First, though, the front office must find an identity — the Rockies' way of doing things. Byrnes pointed out that what made the Dodgers elite was their mindset of constantly pushing to be better. He mentioned Shohei Ohtani stealing 50 bases, Mookie Betts sliding over to shortstop and Clayton Kershaw finding ways to win without his 95 mph fastball.
“It was a nonstop quest for improvement, and in their cases, greatness,” Byrnes said. “It has to come from the player, but we also have to support it and and and be right there with them.”
The Rockies have a solid nucleus that includes All-Star catcher Hunter Goodman and shortstop Ezequiel Tovar. The team also drafted an exciting player in Ethan Holliday with the No. 4 pick last summer.
“Paul and I have talked about it, just conceptually, raising the floor,” Byrnes said. “Having a deeper team with fewer sort of gaps — innings, plate appearances — that are that are going to players that aren’t quite what we need. So there’s a lot of ways to start attacking it, but there’s definitely some talent in place.”
He wants to get this team back to winning — like the other teams around town.
“Wouldn’t come in here without some optimism and confidence that we can get there,” Byrnes said. “The excitement around those teams in Denver for winning is something you can feel, I’m sure. We want to be part of that, without a doubt.”
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