Report: Rockies talked to Ottavino about GM job, 2 finalists now out
The Colorado Rockies' search for a new head of baseball operations has taken a fascinating twist.
The Rockies' two finalists for the vacant position - Arizona Diamondbacks assistant general manager Amiel Sawdaye and Cleveland Guardians assistant GM Matt Forman - have now been eliminated from consideration, sources told Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic.
At the same time, a surprising candidate emerged in former Rockies reliever Adam Ottavino, who's spoken with owner Dick Monfort about the job, a source told Newsday's Tim Healey.
Though Ottavino's discussions with Monfort were apparently "informal," the sides have remained in touch, Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post and Joel Sherman of the New York Post report.
Ottavino, who will turn 40 later this month, pitched three games for the New York Yankees in April before being released, and though he never officially announced his retirement, he was not picked up by another team. He spent seven of his 15 big-league seasons with the Rockies and ranks fourth in franchise history in appearances (361).
Running a baseball ops dept or managing has been a goal of Ottavino. Among the reasons he played Winter Ball in the D.R. after the 2024 season was prep for post career -- to improve his Spanish skills and better understand such a vital feeder system to MLB. https://t.co/oWUZqsMIJA
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) November 3, 2025
Former Rockies GM Bill Schmidt stepped down after the team he built went 43-119 in 2025, while posting the worst run differential (minus-424) by any team since 1899. The Rockies haven't finished with a winning record since 2018 - which coincidentally was Ottavino's last season pitching for the franchise.
Monfort, the Rockies' primary owner since 2011, pledged that Schmidt's successor would be someone from outside the organization. If he lives up to his word, it will mark the first time since 1999 that an outsider heads up Colorado's baseball operations, according to Thomas Harding of MLB.com.
Ottavino would technically be an outside candidate since he left Colorado as a free agent in 2019. However, his Rockies tenure overlapped entirely with that of Schmidt's, who was the team's vice-president of scouting when they acquired him as a waiver claim in 2012.
The now-failed candidacies of Sawdaye and Forman, meanwhile, remain a mystery. Both executives flew to Denver for in-person interviews within the last two weeks, Ghiroli reports, but it's unclear how close either of them got to being offered the job. It's not known if there are any other candidates being considered.
MLB's general managers' meetings are scheduled to begin on Nov. 11 in Las Vegas.