Rockies retain interim manager Warren Schaeffer after small 2025 turnaround following Bud Black's firing

The Colorado Rockies will bring back Warren Schaeffer as their manager for 2026 and beyond, the club announced on Monday. 

Schaeffer, 40, had served on an interim basis after longtime manager Bud Black was dismissed 40 games into what turned out to be one of the worst team seasons in Major League Baseball history. The Rockies wound up going 43-119. Those 119 losses are tied with the 2003 Tigers for the third most since 1900. 

Under Schaeffer the Rockies went 36-86 over the remainder of the season. While that's a winning percentage of just .295, it's quite an improvement over the team's .175 mark at the time Schaeffer was hired. 

The move comes as a bit of a surprise, as the Rockies waited for some time to remove Schaeffer's interim tag, and because of that time interval the expectation was that they would hire from outside the organization. However, the Rockies in early November brought former Dodgers general manager Paul DePodesta on as their president of baseball operations. The manager hire was thus DePodesta's decision and, after a period of evaluation, he presumably decided Schaeffer was the best option. 

Schaeffer in 2026 will lead a roster in flux and also one that again projects as the worst in baseball. Now, though, he'll be working under a front office that's committed to modernizing the Rockies, at least relative to the organization's prior standards. 

Overall, the Rockies have endured seven straight losing seasons and three straight 100-loss seasons. 

With the appointment of Schaeffer to the permanent job in Colorado, all MLB managerial vacancies have now been filled.