Paul DePodesta and Warren Schaeffer share their common vision for the 2026 Rockies

Paul DePodesta and Warren Schaeffer share their common vision for the 2026 RockiesStory bySamantha BradfieldThu, November 27, 2025 at 1:00 PM UTC·10 min read

On Wednesday morning, Warren Schaeffer was officially introduced as the eighth full-time manager in Colorado Rockies history. He and president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta then took questions from the media over Zoom, and here are some highlights:

The Hiring Process

DePodesta had an idea of what he wanted out of his manager, and he wasted no time in hiring Schaeffer to execute his vision.

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“I certainly explored the idea [of exploring other managerial candidates],” he told the media. “I thought it was important to do that and talk to a lot of people about different potential candidates, but ultimately, this is where I landed. And it was pretty quick. I mean, I would say even a week in with the number of people that I had spoken to, both in the organization and outside the organization, about ‘Schaeff’ it became pretty clear to me that this was a good direction to go.”

The two began communicating immediately after DePodesta was hired.

“As soon as Paul got the job, we were in constant communication,” Schaeffer said. “[There were] phone calls and text messages getting to know each other. [There was] no formal interview, but it felt like those conversations that we had, we got to know each other very well – as well as you can get to know somebody over three weeks on the phone. So I got to know him and got to see what he’s made of, which is good stuff. I’m excited to work with him.”

For DePodesta, those conversations were part of the hiring process.

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“There are different stages to any job opening, and the interview was one piece of that,” DePodesta added. “And the interview would typically be the last. So I did go down the road of some of those other stages to learn about other candidates, but ultimately, I didn’t feel the need to interview anybody else.”

When asked specifically what drew him to Schaeffer, DePodesta outlined numerous qualities:

• “The most important job a manager has is to be a great relationship manager.”

• “Not only is he a connector, but he just mentioned the importance he places on collaboration.”

• “I think he’s very open-minded.”

• “He works extremely hard and clearly has a really high care factor, both for the Rockies in particular and also for the job at hand.”

“So you start putting all those things together, and, at least in my mind, you say, ‘Okay, what else am I looking for here? We could go out and talk to a lot of different people, but this is exactly what we would be hoping to find,’” he concluded.

“So the fact that it’s right here and he does have the organization knowledge and already has the respect of everybody in the building, it just ultimately made it obvious that he was the right choice for us in this moment and going forward.”

The Vision

Communication and Relationship Building

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From what we’ve seen so far, communication and relationship building have been a hallmark of both Schaeffer and DePodesta. That theme resurfaced yesterday.

“Everybody talks about communication,” Schaeffer said. “But at the end of the day, if you’re a good communicator, you act on it. So it’s having constant communication with your players in the offseason, getting them on board and communicating with the leaders on the team constantly to get these guys that can push stuff to the younger guys. In terms of organizational communication, that’s going to be constant with Chris Forbes and the people who work under him in development.

“We have really good people,” he continued, “but there’s still going to be a shift in how we do things from top to bottom.”

He also emphasized the importance of communication with fans.

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“I’m always open to that,” he said. “I don’t know exactly how to do that in the offseason, but I would love to do that, too.”

Culture

A word that came up repeatedly during the interview was the importance of culture, a topic that is especially timely given the Rockies’ lack of a clear identity.

“I’ve known this organization for a long time, and I’ve seen a change,” Schaeffer said. “I’ve seen certain qualities stick and stay around because that’s who we are – loyalty being a huge one of them. But we have an organization full of hard workers where I think what we need, and has been addressed by Walker and Dick, is a director of baseball operations, like Paul, who has a vision of how to create a culture from top to bottom and have it working in perfect order.

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“And that takes time,” he emphasized. “But we have strong people in this organization that are going to lend to that. And my thought process is that if you get a leader like Paul in and the good people that we have will get better. They’ll be challenged in areas where they haven’t been challenged, myself included.”

Leadership

Schaeffer emphasized the importance of cultivating leadership, identifying players such as Kyle Freeland, Mickey Moniak, Jimmy Herget and Hunter Goodman as team leaders. But he also emphasized that every player has the opportunity to be a leader.

“It’s not just them, it’s making everybody in that clubhouse a leader in some way,” he said. “I don’t think a lot of people realize what goes on before a game, but there’s a ton of time to be able to cultivate one-on-one relationships that bleed into leadership skills. But it’s myself and my staff collaborating on how to go about making leaders and making it a priority. The more leaders you have in that clubhouse, and the more time I spend on that, I think the whole organization will benefit.”

Winning

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Over the last three years, the Rockies have accumulated three 100-plus-loss seasons, including last year’s historic 43-119 record. They have also seen a lot of players make MLB debuts whether they were ready or not. And that led to a lot of learning on the fly, especially in 2025. But the goal can’t always be “learning” – at some point the team has to start winning.

“The ultimate goal is to bring consistent winning seasons to this organization,” Schaeffer emphasized. “But that takes implementing processes to be able to do that. A lot of people talk about the process all the time, but when you’re really implementing a new process, you have to stick with the process and you have to be able to adjust off the process.

“These are all things that I’m really excited to have Paul around for in his vision, but I think you’re going to see winning baseball in Denver a lot sooner than you think.”

The Next Steps

Build a Coaching Staff

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Both Schaeffer and DePodesta said their first order of business is to build a coaching staff that, as Schaeffer put it, “can impact the players as best as we can.”

“Specifically what we’re looking for is leaders of men in each position,” he elaborated. “I think there will be discussions of what the makeup of the staff looks like, where there can be potential expansion. But we’re looking most of all to get leaders of men in there to give our players what they need, which is direction and expertise in each individual field so that we can get the most out of our players.”

Specifically, in terms of qualifications for a pitching coach, Schaeffer said “they need to know the data.”

“They need to be able to develop pitch arsenals to get out players better, and help them execute as best they can in the game,” he said. “We can’t leave any stone unturned. I know it’s a cliché, but it’s a must to get a leader of men and a forward-thinking collaborator in there with us.”

DePodesta offered insight on the front office side.

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“We really want to build a team of leaders,” he said. “It’s not necessarily going to bring in one person. I think it’s going to be a mix of people who have been here and people who are new to the organization. I think it’s probably important to add some different perspectives, but I also think there’s some really good people here and we need to be careful not to just try to change everything.”

Find a General Manager

On top of fleshing out the coaching staff, DePodesta has also expressed his desire to hire a general manager as well as his team of baseball operations people.

“We’re doing some of the same work that I did on the manager’s side, having different conversations and gathering as much information as I can on some different potential people,” he said. “But it’s actually not just the GM. I think we’re also talking about other potential roles because I really am trying to build a team of complementary skills.”

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His goal, he said, is to have more folks in place by the Winter Meetings in Orlando from December 7-10.

“I certainly wanted to have a manager in place by then, but also maybe a front office person or two and another coach or two would be terrific. But I don’t want to put an exact time frame on it because you never know – I want to make the right decision as opposed to just the quickest one.”

Closing Thoughts

After spending nearly 40 minutes in a Zoom press conference with both of these men, several things have become clear:

• Both have clear visions of what they want the Rockies to be and how they want to go about executing that vision. Yes, 2026 will be a building year, but they understand how to get back to the basics and build from there. It seems like 2026 will be a season of tough love for the greater good.

• They are both excellent communicators. Purple Row has witnessed that first-hand with Schaeffer over many years, and it’s something he’s always prided himself on. But meeting DePodesta for the first time also made this abundantly clear. They were both thoughtful, transparent and charismatic in their answers – something that has been missing in recent seasons.

• There will continue to be dramatic shifts in the makeup of this team from top to bottom. We’ve already seen some seismic shakeups, but they are still identifying who they want to keep and who they want to replace, so more moves (both on the roster as well as the staff) remain.

What are your thoughts on both Schaeffer and DePodesta, now that they have shared their common vision for the 2026 Rockies and beyond? Have your initial reactions changed? Let us know in the comments!

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Additionally, happy Thanksgiving to you and your families! We at Purple Row are always thankful for your continued readership and support!

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