Colorado Rockies

Colorado Rockies pitcher Jon Gray left Thursday's game against the San Francisco Giants in the fourth inning after he re-aggravated a toe injury, per Nick Groke of the Denver Post.

The Mercury News' Andrew Baggarly first reported Gray's injury.

Chris Rusin replaced Gray in the bottom of the frame.

Gray was removed from a spring training game against the Giants on March 24 with a sore left big toe.

Much is expected of the 25-year-old right-hander in 2017. He went 10-10 with a 4.61 ERA in 29 starts last year, though his FIP (3.60) was nearly a full run lower than his ERA, per Baseball Reference.

Colorado finished 75-87 in 2016—its best mark since 2010—and Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich made a statement by signing Ian Desmond to a five-year, $70 million deal in the offseason.

Gray is viewed as a key cog in Colorado's effort to get back to the postseason for the first time since 2009. Not only do the Rockies need him to stay healthy, they need him to anchor a rotation that doesn't boast much depth.

    

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Kris Bryant ran away with the National League MVP voting in 2016. By default, that makes him the favorite to win the award again in 2017.

But will a worthy challenger appear from the west?

At the least, Nolan Arenado is trending toward an MVP as he prepares to enter his fifth season with the Colorado Rockies. He finished eighth in the voting in 2015 and fifth in the voting last year.

The 25-year-old third baseman was mainly known for his defense in 2013 and 2014. But in the last two seasons, he's kept churning out defensive highlights while pacing the Senior Circuit in three notable offensive categories:

Year	HR	RBI	Total Bases
2015	42	130	354
2016	41	133	352

Forget the guy who put up an ugly 5-for-31 for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic. The real Nolan Arenado is the one represented by the above table and a trophy case with four Gold Gloves in it. He's one of the baddest dudes in Major League Baseball on both sides of the ball.

However, him leaping from fifth to first in the MVP voting will require more than just doing the same ol' thing and hoping for better results. He'll need to be better, and the Rockies will need to be better.

My faith that Arenado can handle the former is part of what made him my pick for the 2017 NL MVP going into spring training. Although it's hard to ask him to be better on defense than he already is—seriously, though—there still appears to be upside in his bat.

Arenado used to have a fatal offensive flaw. He was one of baseball's most aggressive swingers in his first three seasons, and a lot of what he swung at was junk outside the strike zone. He didn't strike out more than the average hitter despite this, but he left a lot of walks on the table.

Suddenly, he looked like a different hitter last year. 

He posted easily his lowest swing and chase rates and boosted his BB% to a career-best 9.8. He didn't have to sacrifice any pop to make that happen, as his big power spike from 2015 carried over into 2016.

Arenado's strides with his discipline are tied to improvements in his pitch recognition. He was already getting better at laying off breaking stuff, so it was probably just a matter of time before he started spitting on off-speed stuff, too. Sure enough, that happened in 2016.

His power, meanwhile, is becoming more potent every year because he's doing everything possible to hit for more power. Namely: more frequent fly balls, pulled balls and hard contact. Like so:

Year	FB%	Pull%	Hard%
2013	33.7	35.4	28.7
2014	41.8	45.3	33.9
2015	43.9	45.6	36.2
2016	46.7	45.7	37.9

Yeah, his pull tendency led to an increase in shifts last year. But he knew that was going to happen, and he might as well have said, "Bring it on."

"I'm going to see it more this year than I've seen it in the past—a lot of the homers I hit were to left, and I pull the ball a lot," Arenado said last March, according to Thomas Harding of MLB.com. "But that's OK. I really trust my swing, and I really like to use the whole field when I need to."

The shifts will be equally powerless in 2017 if he continues his pattern of improvements. Nobody should be surprised if he does even better than the gaudy numbers he's put up in the last two seasons.

But while numbers alone can win a player an MVP—see Andre Dawson in 1987, Alex Rodriguez in 2003 and Mike Trout in 2016—that's not going to happen for Arenado.

Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post hit on why in discussing Arenado's MVP chances last season:

Raising the fences in Coors Field might help Colorado pitchers, but it won’t help Arenado with the nationwide perception that any hitter can have a big year at altitude.

Since there's not much Arenado can do about that, the best he can hope for is that his big numbers are part of a larger MVP-friendly narrative that he was in the driver's seat for a contending team.

And there's the rub.

After winning just 75 games last year, the Rockies looked like a possible dark-horse contender at the outset of spring training. But they've since been attacked by the injury bug, which has felled young outfielder David Dahl and $70 million first baseman Ian Desmond. Right-hander Chad Bettis, sadly, needs chemotherapy treatment after learning an offseason bout with testicular cancer isn't over yet.

The Rockies are now projected for 76 wins at Baseball Prospectus and 77 wins at FanGraphs. There's quite a bit of distance between there and the 85 or so wins they'll need to contend for a Wild Card spot.

The only way the Rockies are going to outperform their projections is if a whole bunch of guys are better than expected at the same time. Improbable? Yes.

But possible? Also yes.

On offense, the Rockies will just need Charlie Blackmon, DJ LeMahieu and Carlos Gonzalez to pick up where they left off in 2016. And for Trevor Story to do the same and stay healthy this time. And for Dahl to build on his promising breakthrough once he gets healthy. And for Desmond to hit like he did in the first half of 2016 when he heals up.

On the mound, the absent Bettis is only one of four above-average starters the Rockies had last year. The other three are still around, and each has potential. Jon Gray is a guy with big stuff and ace potential. Tyler Anderson is a master of soft contact. Tyler Chatwood is a master of ground balls.

Then there's the bullpen, which Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post wrote was modeled after the pens of the Kansas City Royals. That's most evident in the trio the Rockies have lined up for the late innings. Adam Ottavino, Jake McGee and Greg Holland have all been elite relievers within recent history.

“I think we have a dynamic bullpen here, a lot of good arms,” said Holland, according to Saunders. “Plus, we have some veteran guys, which is good. From a standpoint of our talent, I think we are capable of being successful. That’s what we all anticipate.”

There's a lot here that needs to go right, but it's not as if the Rockies are hoping that a bunch of dead weight comes alive. They have a nice balance of young guys with upside and veterans with track records.

If it does indeed come together, Arenado will find himself standing before the MVP voters with shiny numbers in one hand and a shiny narrative in the other. It'll be hard for them to turn him away.

Data courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com, FanGraphs and Brooks Baseball. 

Trevor Story has already made a name for himself. All he needs to do now is make his name stick.

Far from a household name before 2016, the young Colorado Rockies shortstop got everyone's attention last year with a power display that included a record seven homers in his first six games and a final tally of 27 in only 97 games.

For his 2017 encore, he wants to prove that was no fluke.

"That's kind of how I always approach each season, with a chip on my shoulder," Story said in February, according to the Associated Press (via Fox Sports). "I feel like everybody has something to prove, so you can definitely say I have a chip on my shoulder."

For now, Story isn't just talking the talk. 

The 24-year-old has been hot in spring training, posting a 1.068 OPS and hitting four homers. The numbers look similar to the 1.199 OPS and six homers he had last spring. That's a good omen if there ever was one.

But with spring training only being spring training, maybe all this proves is that the thumb injury that knocked Story out for the final two months of 2016 has healed.

The actual 2017 season will be a different beast that will test Story and ultimately provide a clearer answer to the big question: Will he come back down to earth?

Spoiler Alert: Expect him to stay in orbit.

Before getting to the good stuff, this seems like a good place for a reminder that Story was more than just a masher of dingers last year. He took his walks and was a capable baserunner who accounted for four defensive runs saved on defense. His usefulness in 2017 won't live or die with his power stroke.

That power stroke produced legitimate results last season, however. Among hitters with 400 plate appearances, only one hit for power at a better rate than Story:

1. David Ortiz: .305 ISO
2. Trevor Story: .296 ISO

Although Story did most of his damage amid the thin air at Coors Field (.381 ISO), he also punished the ball on the road. He had a .219 ISO away from home, easily topping John Q. MLB Hitter's average of .158.

Although Story wasn't a blue-chip prospect before last season, it's not the biggest surprise that he flashed as much power as he did as a rookie. We were warned.

"Story possesses quick hands and tremendous bat speed, flashing at least average power with a slight uppercut in his swing," according to Michael Lananna at Baseball America.

It turned out that Story had more than just a slight uppercut in his swing.

Only Brandon Belt and Brandon Moss kept the ball off the ground better than he did in 2016. That might seem fishy, except Jeff Sullivan of FanGraphs pointed out that Story's ground-ball percentage had hit a similar nadir in the minors in 2015. This is his swing.

Story also hits the ball with authority when he gets it airborne. The average hitter hit fly balls and line drives at an average speed of 92.2 miles per hour last year. Story hit his at 95.1 miles per hour.

In hitting 40 percent of his batted balls to left field, Story also showed a slight pull tendency. That's yet another habit conducive to power hitting.

In plain English: Story proved himself to be an efficient power hitter. It's no wonder that most of his homers would've cleared the fence by plenty even at Kauffman Stadium:

Where Story's swing got him in trouble was with strikeouts.

He struck out in 31.3 percent of his plate appearances last season. Only four hitters—Chris Carter, Chris Davis, Steven Souza Jr. and Miguel Sano—whiffed more frequently.

This is the drawback of Story's offensive profile. Guys with loft in their swings forgo the most direct path to the ball, leaving them vulnerable to whiffs. To boot, pull hitters tend to prefer inside pitches, which opens a hole away.

It was apparent early on that Story's swing might lead to trouble, as he was mixing a 1.086 OPS in April with a cringeworthy 36.3 K%. That made it easy to theorize that pitchers would figure him out.

That's what happened in May, when he slumped with a .747 OPS and 32.2 K%. That could have been the end of him.

Instead, this happened:

• April-May: 34.1 K%, .882 OPS
• June-July: 28.1 K%, .940 OPS

Pitchers were still trying to force the issue after May, baiting Story with high-and-outside fastballs and low-and-away off-speed pitches. But he got better at laying off the slow stuff and cleared up a major weakness.

Here's a before (left) and after (right) look at his swing-and-miss patterns:

Story stopped whiffing on low-and-away junk. He didn't solve all his problems in doing so, but he made himself less of any easy out.

Even more important: He proved he can adjust on the fly.

That's going to be an important part of taking last year's success and carrying it over to 2017. He does what he does well, and pitchers will still know about the corresponding weaknesses. They're going to continue to attack those. A good guess is that they'll try to exploit his loft with more high fastballs. If he adjusts to those, they'll probably double back to the low-and-away well.

It'll be Story's task to keep adapting to whatever adjustment is being made against him. If he can do that, his strengths will overrule his weaknesses.

That's not to say he can stay on the 45-homer pace he was on last season. But he can crank north of 30 homers with enough patience to maintain a solid on-base percentage and enough athleticism to be of use on the bases and at shortstop.

That's a player whose name deserves to stick.

Data courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com, FanGraphs, Baseball Savant and Brooks Baseball. Spring stats courtesy of MLB.com.

The Colorado Rockies will likely be without first baseman Ian Desmond when the regular season begins after he fractured his left hand during Sunday's game against the Cincinnati Reds.

The Rockies PR staff announced Desmond's injury upon initial diagnosis and that he will see a hand specialist Monday.

Desmond was hit in the hand by a pitch during the fourth inning against Reds pitcher Rookie Davis.

The Rockies made Desmond their big free-agent investment this offseason. He signed a five-year, $70 million deal in December and was slotted to take over as the everyday first baseman, though he was previously a shortstop with the Washington Nationals and played mostly center field for the Texas Rangers last season.

In mid-December, Desmond told reporters he was excited to be part of the organization.

"From the outside looking in, this is an unbelievable group of guys with a ton of talent, and I wanted to be part of the opportunity to do something special here in Denver," he said, via Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. "We understand it is not going to be easy, but we're excited for the challenge."

The 31-year-old Desmond was named to the American League All-Star team in 2016 and hit .285/.335/.446 with 21 stolen bases, 22 home runs and 86 RBI.

In his previous two seasons, Desmond's offensive numbers had collapsed to .244/.302/.407. He made his first All-Star team while playing for the Nationals in 2012.

The Rockies showed improvement for the second straight campaign last season, winning 75 games with a talented young nucleus that includes third baseman Nolan Arenado and shortstop Trevor Story.

Desmond was going to provide additional support in their potent lineup, but with him potentially out for the time being, look for Mark Reynolds to handle first base duties.

It's a tough blow for the Rockies with three weeks to go before the season begins, but Coors Field has a knack for providing offense on its own, so Colorado can survive Desmond's absence and stay afloat in the National League West.

After missing the entire 2016 season, Greg Holland will look to rebound with the Colorado Rockies in 2017. The Rockies announced Saturday they signed Holland to a one-year deal with a conditional second-year option.

Yahoo Sports' Jeff Passan first reported the news Jan. 25.

The deal is for $7 million guaranteed, with non-closing incentives that could take the amount to $10 million and closer incentives that could bring the total to $14 million, per Passan.

A two-time All-Star in 2013 and 2014, Holland struggled in 2015. He had 32 saves in 40 appearances, but his ERA and FIP ballooned to 3.83 and 3.27, respectively—up from 1.44 and 1.83 in the year before, per Baseball-Reference.com.

More concerning, Holland lost more than two mph on his fastball and splitter. According to Brooks Baseball, he averaged 96.33 mph on his fastball and 88.58 mph on his splitter in 2015. In 2016, his fastball clocked in at an average of 94.29 mph, while his splitter came in at 86.54 mph.

It came as little surprise when Holland underwent Tommy John surgery in October 2015. His contract with the Kansas City Royals expired shortly thereafter, and unable to pitch, he went unsigned last season.

Holland held a workout in Phoenix for potential suitors in November. The Kansas City Star's Rustin Dodd reported over 40 MLB executives and scouts from more than 15 teams attended the showcase. Holland's fastball reached only 90 to 91 mph on the radar gun, well below his best days with the Royals.

FanRag Sports' Jon Heyman reported Jan. 11 that Holland was receiving interest from a number of MLB teams and that the expectation was that he'll have a slow adjustment back to MLB before taking a larger role in 2018.

The price for elite closers has skyrocketed, especially after late-inning relievers played pivotal roles in the Royals' and Chicago Cubs' World Series wins over the last two years.

Aroldis Chapman, Kenley Jansen and Mark Melancon have all signed new deals in the offseason, thus setting the market for top-end closers. Below is a look at the rise in average pay for the top 10 highest-paid closers from 2016 to 2017, per Spotrac:

Rank (2016)	Player (2016)	Avg. Salary (2016)	Rank (2017)	Player (2017)	Avg. Salary (2017)
1	David Robertson, CWS	$11,500,000	1	Aroldis Chapman, NYY	$17,200,000
2	Aroldis Chapman, CHC	$11,325,000	2	Kenley Jansen, LAD	$16,000,000
3	Kenley Jansen, LAD	$10,650,000	3	Mark Melancon, SF	$15,500,000
4	Craig Kimbrel, BOS	$10,500,000	4	David Robertson, CWS	$11,500,000
5	Mark Melancon, WAS	$9,650,000	5	Zach Britton, BAL	$11,400,000
6	Ryan Madson, OAK	$7,333,333	6	Craig Kimbrel, BOS	$10,500,000
7	Zach Britton, BAL	$6,750,000	7	Jeurys Familia, NYM	$7,425,000
8	Francisco Rodriguez, DET	$6,500,000	8	Cody Allen, CLE	$7,350,000
T9	Seung Hwan Oh, STL	$5,000,000	9	Ryan Madson, OAK	$7,333,333
T9	Jim Johnson, ATL	$5,000,000	10	A.J. Ramos, MIA	$6,550,000
T9	Santiago Casilla, SF	$5,000,000	----	----	----

Despite the risk, signing Holland makes sense. At his peak, the 31-year-old was one of the best closers in baseball. If he makes a full recovery from his surgery, he'll be a massive bargain.

Of course, there's still a chance Holland's days as a productive MLB reliever ended when he went under the knife. Many starting pitchers have successfully recovered from Tommy John surgery, but relievers are often more reliant on velocity, making the recovery more difficult.

Brian Wilson and Joba Chamberlain are two recent cases of previously effective late-inning relief pitchers who struggled to return from the procedure.

Still, the potential of Holland being a great closer again is worth the gamble.

The Rockies' closer job will likely be up for grabs in the spring. Jake McGee, who led the team with 15 saves in 2016, and Adam Ottavino, who had seven saves, will be the two likeliest candidates, and Holland's arrival will give Colorado another late-inning option.

By spending $70 million on Ian Desmond earlier in the offseason, the Rockies showed they're ready to make the jump to contender in 2017. Signing Holland is another move that could bolster Colorado's short-term ambitions.

The Colorado Rockies have signed veteran utility man Alexi Amarista to a contract. 

The team officially announced a one-year deal with Amarista for 2017. 

An agreement between Amarista and the Rockies has been in the works for weeks, with Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports reporting on Dec. 26 it would be a one-year deal with an option for 2018.  

The official announcement does not mention an option year in the contract, but the Rockies do upgrade their depth all over the field with Amarista next season. 

The 27-year-old Amarista has played six positions during his MLB career, including two brief appearances as a pitcher in 2015 and 2016. He was primarily an infielder with the San Diego Padres last season, shifting between second base, third base and shortstop. 

The Rockies have spent their offseason trying to add more versatility. Gerardo Parra has the ability to play all three outfield positions and Ian Desmond will be the team's starting first baseman and has experience at shortstop and center field. 

Amarista doesn't offer much with the bat, owning a .230/.276/.320 slash line in six seasons with the Padres and Los Angeles Angels. Moving to hitter-friendly Coors Field could provide a boost to his offensive numbers, but the Rockies are signing him for depth more than anything else. 

Colorado Rockies pitcher Chad Bettis has been declared cancer-free after a November surgery removed a malignant testicle.

"I'm feeling great. Got an early Christmas present. Doctor said I was cancer-free. Ready to push forward," Bettis said on MLB Network Radio on Wednesday.

Bettis, 27, is expected to be ready for spring training. He went 14-8 with a 4.79 ERA and 1.41 WHIP across 32 starts last season.

"My understanding is that I will be physically ready to have a normal spring training, and I greatly look forward to the upcoming season," Bettis told ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick. "I thank my friends and family for their love and kindness and ask that privacy be shown to both my wife and myself until spring training begins."

A former second-round pick, Bettis is 23-19 with a 5.01 ERA and 1.49 WHIP since first coming up to the majors in 2013. He has been part of the Rockies' regular starting rotation in each of the last two seasons. While his standard numbers aren't impressive, Bettis has posted a combined 4.4 WAR in 2015 and 2016, with his FIP indicating he's a product of bad luck, per FanGraphs.

The Rockies don't have much in the way of elite starting pitching, so Bettis' health is paramount to their 2017 chances. Bettis will likely be their No. 2 or No. 3 starter if he gets clearance from doctors to pitch in the regular season.

Of course, all of this pales in comparison to the good news that Bettis has been given a clean bill of health. Bettis said he will have to undergo a blood test every three to six months going forward, but he was not subject to any chemotherapy or radiation treatment, per Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post.

"This only reinforces my belief that each of us needs to be totally in tune with our own physical health, and that taking action sooner than later when we feel like something is off can sometimes literally be the difference between life and death," Bettis told Crasnick. 

       

Follow Tyler Conway (@jtylerconway) on Twitter.

BREAKING: Nolan Arenado and his family will live stream their #NewYearsEve Day Wiffle Ball game today!

1st pitch will be in 15-20 minutes. pic.twitter.com/bc1Cf0x9O1

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) December 31, 2016

Colorado Rockies All-Star Nolan Arenado can celebrate a successful 2016, during which he hit .294/.362/.570 with 41 home runs and won his fourth straight National League Gold Glove Award.

The 25-year-old counted down to 2017 by partaking in a family whiffle ball contest. Before you cite the MLB star's clear advantage, know that his cousin, Josh Fuentes, hit 13 home runs in Colorado's farm system last season.

Fuentes created a live stream of their New Year's Eve game for Instagram users. The 23-year-old corner infielder has previously shared snippets of his makeshift batting practice (warning: videos contain NSFW language):

Let's see how Arenado fares outside of the notoriously hitter-friendly Coors Field.

[Josh Fuentes, h/t Colorado Rockies]

When Mike Dunn gets $19 million from the Colorado Rockies, it tells you it's always great to be a left-handed reliever.

It also tells you Ian Desmond was right.

When the Rockies made Desmond's five-year, $70 million deal official this week, Colorado's new first baseman (or will he be an outfielder?) spoke of joining a team on the rise.

"They're close," Desmond told reporters, including Thomas Harding of MLB.com. "That's an industry-wide consensus. Ownership and management are committed to turning that corner. I'm right there with them on board."

I'm not sure I'd yet call it a consensus, but there is a growing feeling the Rockies are getting better. They haven't had a winning season since 2010, but even as they were losing 87 games in 2016, they won praise for their young talent, both on the big league club and in the system.

Already this winter, they're winning praise again.

"They're my sleeper team for this year," one National League scout said this week.

It's hard to consider the Rockies more than just a sleeper, given the presence of the high-spending Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants in their division. With all three teams needing back-end bullpen help this winter, the Giants spent $62 million over four years on Mark Melancon (a Colorado native), and the Dodgers topped that by spending $80 million over five years on Kenley Jansen.

Dunn isn't Melancon, and he isn't Jansen. He has four saves in eight major league seasons. Jansen had three saves in the 2016 postseason alone.

But spending what they did on Dunn (the $19 million is over three years) continues a winter trend for the Rockies. Instead of looking like a team trying to find its way, Colorado now looks like one pushing to win.

Signing Desmond to the second-biggest free-agent contract in franchise history (behind Mike Hampton's $121 million in 2000) was part of that. But so were the other moves the Rockies have tried to make, and the ones they still could pursue.

While the Rockies signed Desmond as a first baseman, his experience playing the outfield last season with the Texas Rangers opens the possibility the Rockies could sign someone else to play first—Mark Trumbo? Edwin Encarnacion?—and trade one of their outfielders.

Roch Kubatko of MASNSports.com reported the Rockies wanted Kevin Gausman from the Baltimore Orioles as part of a deal for either Charlie Blackmon or Carlos Gonzalez. Kubatko wrote the Orioles "aren't trading Kevin Gausman," which is no doubt true.

The bigger point, at least from the Rockies' perspective, is that general manager Jeff Bridich is thinking big when he looks for pitching help. As Yahoo's Jeff Passan tweeted during the winter meetings, the Rockies would like to trade for "a front-of-rotation-type pitcher."

The Rockies don't have one of those in their current rotation. They do have promising 25-year-old right-hander Jon Gray in the big leagues and equally promising 23-year-old right-hander Jeff Hoffman nearly ready in the minors. Hoffman was one of three prospects the Rockies got from the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2015 Troy Tulowitzki trade.

Trading Tulowitzki was a big move for the Rockies, one ownership had previously resisted. It turned the team and the clubhouse over to the next generation, a group that includes star third baseman Nolan Arenado and shortstop Trevor Story, who was a strong Rookie of the Year candidate before a thumb injury ended his season in July.

With Arenado, Story, National League batting champion DJ LeMahieu and outfielder David Dahl, there was a strong sense in the Rockies clubhouse that they are a team on the rise. Scouts who followed the Rockies said the same thing and cited more young players the club has coming in the minor leagues.

They'll go into 2017 with Bud Black as the new manager, which figures to be a positive not because Walt Weiss was bad (he wasn't), but because Weiss and Bridich admittedly weren't seeing eye to eye.

The challenges remain, from the payroll that will still trail the Dodgers and Giants by millions to the altitude that makes pitching in Colorado difficult and can make hitters believe they need a different approach on the road from the one they use at home.

It's not impossible for the Rockies to win. They went all the way to the World Series in 2007.

Ten years later, they won't be the preseason favorites to get there again. But at the very least, they seem headed in the right direction.

     

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball.

The Colorado Rockies have hired Bud Black as their manager heading into the 2017 season, the club announced Monday.

FanRag Sports' Tommy Stokke first reported the decision.

Black was the manager of the San Diego Padres from 2007 to 2015, accumulating a 649-713 career record in nine seasons. He was fired during the 2015 season after starting the year with a 32-33 record.

Although Black never led San Diego to the playoffs, he won the 2010 National League Manager of the Year award after helping guide the squad to a 90-72 record.

Padres players were quick to come to Black's defense after the team relieved him of his duties.

"The way that Buddy ran the ship around here was fine," pitcher James Shields said at the time, per ESPN.com. "We respect him as a manager and a man. As players, we've got to do a better job. It's up to us as players to figure it out, try not to put blame on anybody."

According to James Wagner of the Washington Post, the Washington Nationals reportedly intended on hiring Black to become their manager before the 2016 season, but negotiations broke down because of contract concerns. According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, Washington only offered him a one-year deal worth $1.6 million, which was "considerably lower than he anticipated."

He instead spent the year working as a member of the Los Angeles Angels front office.

The 59-year-old manager will take over a Rockies team that finished in third place in the NL West with a 75-87 record last season. Former manager Walt Weiss, whose contract was set to expire, stepped down at the end of the year.

Although the Rockies haven't finished with a winning record in the last six years, hitters such as Nolan Arenado, Carlos Gonzalez and 2016 batting champion DJ LeMahieu provide reason for hope in Colorado if Black can maximize the team's talent.