The Colorado Rockies are in search of a new manager after Walt Weiss stepped down from the job after four seasons with the club on Monday.
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Perez On Rockies’ Radar
Saturday, Oct. 8
On Saturday, Thomas Harding of the Rockies’ official website reported that the team is looking at Atlanta Braves first base coach Eddie Perez as a possible candidate. Perez “acknowledged” that he’s been contacted by the organization, according to Reyes Urena of Venezuelan publication El Emergente (via Harding).
Other than Perez, Harding noted any other Rockies coaching candidates have remained unknown at the moment, although Triple-A manager Glenallen Hill’s name was mentioned during a conference call after it was announced that Weiss would not be returning.
Perez is currently spending the offseason coaching Tigres de Aragua of the Venezuelan Winter League and has been a coach with the Braves for 10 seasons.
Last season, he won the Winter League title with the Venezuelan club and advanced to the Caribbean Series, where his team fell in the finals to Mexico’s Venados de Mazatlan.
That kind of managerial success was expected from his former teammate and future Hall of Famer, Chipper Jones, via David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
I’m not surprised at all of Eddie’s success as a manager. It is just a matter of time before he is experiencing success as a big league manager. He’s learned a ton, as have many coaches, from the great [former Braves manager] Bobby Cox. Some of the same traits that made him an all-time favorite teammate for countless players, are also what makes him a great manager now, and in the future.
The 48-year-old previously spent 11 years in the majors from 1995 to 2005 as a catcher and first baseman mostly for the Braves along with two one-year stints with the Cleveland Indians and Milwaukee Brewers.
He posted a .253 career batting average with 40 home runs and 172 RBI as he spent a large portion of his career backing up Javy Lopez in Atlanta. However, his finest moment came in 1999 when he was voted NLCS MVP for batting .500 with two home runs and five RBI against the New York Mets in six games:
Whether it be Perez or another candidate, the new manager of the Rockies will have their hands full in turning around an organization that has been irrelevant for the better part of seven years.
The 2016 season was the first time since 2010 that the Rockies didn’t finish fourth or last in the National League West Division. They haven’t had a winning season since that 2010 season and haven’t made the playoffs since 2009.
Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.
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