Q&A WITH ROCKIES GM JEFF BRIDICH
Harvard-educated GM happy to see Rockies have “maintained competitiveness”
Harvard graduate Jeff Bridich didn’t get a chance to visit his storied alma mater last week. He was too busy evaluating the Rockies’ performance against the Red Sox. He also took a day to fly down to the Southeast to evaluate talent for next month’s major-league draft. Bridich, 38, is in his second season as the Rockies’ general manager. He played catcher and outfield for Harvard and earned a degree in psychology. The team he’s trying to transform from perennial loser into a viable contender entered Sunday with a 23-25 record, 6½ games behind division-leading San Francisco in the National League West.
Bridich sat down with The Denver Post to discuss his job and the state of his baseball team:
Q: When you attended Harvard, did you have any idea you would work in a baseball front office and end up as a general manager?
A: Not really. I was focused on playing baseball and attending school. There were no grand designs from an early age to do this job.
Q: How did Harvard prepare you for this job?
A: One of the things that was most impressive about the university was the people I went to school with. You certainly learn a lot from the people around you at Harvard, because there was so much talent in so many different ways. That transfers to a job like this, where it’s too big a job to do everything yourself. It’s too big an operation and too big a job to try to micromanage and try to do it all yourself. Harvard helped teach me to learn to value and trust the people you have around you.
Q: Most outsiders are likely surprised that the Rockies have been playing at about .500 as we approach June. What are you pleased with so far this season?
A: There are definitely things to be pleased about. I think we played very well in April. I think we played more complete games in April. Over the last month, I think we’ve been going through stretches where we get good pitching, then bad pitching. We get good offense, then bad offense. Sometimes they have not meshed very well. That makes it tough to go on long streaks of winning.
At the same time, we have maintained competitiveness, and so we have managed to be in and around .500 for the first two months of the season. So there are things to be happy about. Q: What has not gone well? A: Some of the things we were focused on early, and especially during spring training, we have not done as well. Executing innings, winning innings and putting ourselves in a position to score runs in different ways, has really been a struggle for us lately.
We were doing it well early. But especially on the road, when you face tough pitching, and when you don’t do those little things, you are most likely going to pay for it. We know we can do it, we have shown that, but we need to get back to doing that. It has to be a team effort, it’s not just one guy. Q: Meaning what, exactly? A: The ability to generate offense has to show up when you have guys in the middle of the order, like CarGo (Carlos Gonzalez), who was struggling.
He knew it, everybody knew, and if we, as a team, don’t do the things we need to, especially offensively, it makes it really difficult to score runs.
It takes commitment from the players, yes. But it’s a full, organizational thing. It’s the players in our system, it’s the players up here. It’s the coaches in our system, it’s the coaches up here. It’s who we have to be, but we have gotten away from it lately.
Q: Jose Reyes is eligible to begin playing games in June when he returns from suspension for violating Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy. Do you have a game plan for when he returns? A: It’s a day-by-day (situation). Part of the agreement was getting him ready for June 1 and knowing that a two-week (minor-league) rehab stint is a probability. That’s part of the agreement. For his sake, for his health, we are focused on every day now, until the end of this month. That gets him into games in extended (spring) and so he’s ready to go.
Q: Fans are very eager to see starting pitcher Jeff Hoffman — the centerpiece of last summer’s Troy Tulowitzki trade — make his big-league debut. What is the game plan for him? Is there a timeline for his debut?
A: “For the most part, he has pitched very well. For his first stint in Triple-A, he’s done a nice job. There are very specific things — not large, general things — but very specific things, that he needs to continue to work on. But that’s actually a good thing. So we are not going to rush him.”
Q: If you are still in the race around the all-star break, would that expedite any of your decisions, on Hoffman or anybody else who could give you that boost in the second half of the season?
A: I think one of the things we are very focused on — in terms of what we do from a timing perspective — is that we want to put the player in the best position to succeed.
It’s like the Jon Gray decision. Everybody wanted Jon Gray called up, like, yesterday. But there were things he needed to work through, as we’ve all seen. The same goes for Eddie Butler. Now we are seeing better results. For most guys, it doesn’t just click and happen overnight.
So Jeff and some of the other players we think about as quality depth still are being challenged at Triple-A, and they have to meet those challenges to be ready for this level. But we are thrilled where Jeff is at. And remember, he’s not that far removed from Tommy John surgery (in 2014). So there is a lot that goes into it.
Q: How do you feel about your current rotation?
A: Fortunately, right now we have five guys who are very competitive in our rotation.
There are going to be little dips and bumps like Jon Gray had in St. Louis, where he wasn’t on his game. But to this point, with the five guys we have in our rotation now, that has not been the norm, it’s been the exception. So I feel good about it.