Bill Schmidt and the Colorado Rockies front office: An interim grade at the 2023 midway point

Overall grade

Given the Rockies’ poor record, you’d expect Schmidt to rate badly for front office impact, and he does. He’s done a far better job unloading unproductive talent on other teams than nurturing his own.

Here’s the first half report card on the Rockies’ front office. Note that grades for players departing the organization are based on the reverse of those players’ WAAs with their new teams, and the overall score is calculated on that basis.

Mode                    WAA                   Grade

Acquired              -0.2                        C

Traded                  -1.0                        B

Signed                  -4.7                        F

Lost                       -1.4                        B

Rookies                -1.4                        D

Overall                 -3.9                        F

Overall, Schmidt has made 33 personnel moves since the end of the 2022 season impacting the fortunes of the 2023 Rockies. Thirteen of those moves produced positive value for Colorado, but 18 were negative; the other two were neutral.

The problem is that the negative impacts have been more impactful than the positive ones. Statistically, the three biggest personnel moves in the Rockies’ orb have all hurt; the signings of Jurickson Profar (-1.9 WAA), Harold Castro (-1.1) and the dalliances with rookie Noah Davis (-1.0).

The other problem is that Schmidt’s skill has thus far been in knowing what players to dump rather than keep. It helps his rating that Chad Kuhl and Connor Joe have stunk for their new teams, but it doesn’t do much for the Rockies.