Bud Black to return as Rockies manager for ninth season

Bud Black is coming back.

The Rockies announced Tuesday that the manager would return for his ninth season. He has agreed to a one-year contract through the 2025 season.

Black’s former contract expired at the end of the season, and, given that the team had suffered two straight 100-loss campaigns, there was speculation he might not return.

But the 67-year-old Black wants to be part of what he believes will be a brighter future with a younger, evolving roster. He’s hoping the Rockies can mirror the Royals, who lost 106 games last year but made the playoffs this fall.

“I think anything is possible,” Black said on the final day of the season. “I’m optimistic.”

Black believes shortstop Ezequiel Tovar and center fielder Brenton Doyle are All-Stars in the making, loves the team’s defense and was encouraged by the performance of a rebuilt bullpen in the final five weeks of the season. But the manager still faces a big challenge. En route to a 61-101 record, the Rockies had one of the worst pitching staffs and worst offenses in franchise history, with strikeouts again a major concern.

“The consistency of the starting pitching has to be there … and our pitching was not that, especially earlier in the year,” he said. “It was too variable and didn’t lead to stretches of good pitching that would have enabled us to win some games.

“Offensively? We’ve talked about it ad nauseam. The strikeouts? We’ve talked about that. We need better contact. Maybe the roster changes. Maybe. But if a lot of the guys who are here come back, they have to cut the strikeouts down.”

Colorado tied with Seattle for the highest strikeout rate in baseball (26.8%), while their 1,617 strikeouts were just eight fewer than the Mariners. The Rockies’ strikeout rate and total strikeouts were both the highest in franchise history.

The affable Black, who takes pride in his ability to communicate with players, staff and media members, has a 537-657 record in Colorado. He’s the only man to lead the Rockies to the postseason in back-to-back years, in 2017-18.

He’s won more games than any manager in franchise history. But he’s also lost more games, largely because the talent-lacking club, depleted by injuries, dropped 103 games in 2023, followed by 101 games this season. It’s the only two times in 32 years the Rockies have lost 100 games.

Black, 67, was hired by the Rockies in November 2016. He took over for Walt Weiss, who left the club after the 2016 season ended when his contract expired.

The Rockies were 75-87 in Weiss’ final season, their best record since 2010. But Black faced a tough task trying to turn the Rockies into a playoff contender. The Rockies had not had a winning season since going 83-79 in 2010 and had not been to the postseason since ’09.

The longtime player, coach, and manager arrived in Colorado with a rich pitching background. Despite the challenges of pitching at Coors Field, Black helped develop a strong rotation in 2017-18 that featured young pitchers German Marquez, Kyle Freeland and Antonio Senzatela.

“I’ve watched as this young pitching has come up,” Black said when he was hired. “I’m excited about this group of players and this franchise and where it’s headed. There’s a couple of teams we need to chase down, which I think we’re gonna.”

Black adopted a tougher-than-the-rest attitude about pitching at altitude.

“You need talent, but also need guys who are mentally tough,” Black said during his first spring training with the Rockies. “We have to find and draft guys who are resilient, who’ll bounce back from a bad outing at Coors, and guys who don’t care about their ERAs.

“We have to have guys who will overlook the individual line stats — guys who truly don’t care about that — as long as they outpitch the other guy and we win.”