OCTOBER 26: Steve Foster is set to assume a similar role to the team’s now-vacant director of pitching position tweets Thomas Harding of MLB.com. Further coaching changes are also in the works, as the Rockies are parting ways with assistant hitting coach Jeff Salazar and Major League coach Tim Doherty.
OCTOBER 25: The Rockies are promoting bullpen coach Darryl Scott to pitching coach, reports Nick Groke of the Athletic. He’ll take the place of Steve Foster, who is stepping down to spend more time with his family. Groke adds that some in the organization hope Foster could still assume the director of pitching operations role that became available when Mark Wiley retired over the weekend.
Scott has spent the past two seasons leading the Colorado bullpen. He’d spent more than a decade prior in the organization in various capacities, serving as a minor league coach and as the club’s minor league pitching coordinator. The 53-year-old also briefly appeared in the majors as a player, pitching for the 1993 Angels.
Foster had been Colorado’s pitching coach for the past seven seasons, taking over the role during the 2014-15 offseason. Also a former big league hurler — he pitched for the Reds from 1991-93 — the 57-year-old Foster has been the pitching coach for Bud Black’s entire managerial tenure in Colorado so far.
Evaluating Rockies’ pitchers is challenging, given the high level of difficulty succeeding at Coors Field. The staff’s 4.91 ERA over Foster’s tenure is second-highest leaguewide, but park-adjusted metrics have pegged the pitching staff as closer to middle of the pack over the past few years. Players like Germán Márquez, Jon Gray and Kyle Freeland have all flashed impact potential at times, but only Márquez has settled in as a consistent top-of-the-rotation arm.
Regardless of whether Foster remains in the organization, it now seems Colorado will need to fill at least one vacancy on the coaching staff. Presumably, Black and general manager Bill Schmidt will now embark on a search for Scott’s replacement in the bullpen.
