Guardians assistant GM reportedly finalist for Rockies open GM position

Last week we found out that Guardians assistant GM Matt Forman had interviewed to be the Rockies’ head of baseball operations. 

We got a little more of an update on that on Wednesday, as The Athletic’s Brittany Ghiroli and Ken Rosenthal reported that Forman was a finalist for the position along with Diamondbacks’ senior vice president and assistant GM Amiel Sawdaye. 

According to Ghiroli and Rosenthal, there isn’t a timetable in place for the hiring though “it stands to reason they’d go into the GM meetings in early November with their new leader in place,” they wrote. 

Guardians assistant GM is finalist to lead Rockies baseball operations

Some clarity on Forman’s situation would help both the Guardians and Rockies because of the aforementioned GM meetings. Although the GM meetings don’t get as much press as the Winter Meetings, they’re still a critical time on the baseball calendar where teams make moves. 

Ghiroli and Rosenthal wrote that the next round of interviews are expected to begin later this week and could potentially get the new title of president of GM depending on who is selected. 

Whoever takes over the Rockies will need to help hire a new manager, which will be the top priority. The Rockies are already behind the 8-ball when it comes to hiring a manager (the Angels and Giants have already filled their vacancies), and getting the right person on the top step of the dugout will be incredibly important for a team with so many holes. 

The Rockies also lost executive Bill Schmidt and assistant GM Zack Rosenthal this month, which are two other holes the team will need to fill.

This will be Forman’s second time going against Sawdaye for an open position, as they both interviewed for the Nationals’ open general manager position earlier this season that went to Paul Toboni. Forman joined the Guardians as an intern and rose to his current role in January 2022. 

Forman and Sawdaye made it further Kansas City Royals assistant GM Scott Sharp and Toronto vice president James Click, who was the architect of the Astros’ World Series winning roster in 2022. 

The Rockies are coming off a 43-119 season where they only had one player hit better than .280 (old friend Tyler Freeman) and only three everyday pitchers who had an ERA under four. Colorado is a unique organization in that they play their games a mile above sea level, which can lead to pitches breaking differently and balls flying further. 

For some, those differences are obvious red flags. But for others, like Forman it seems, it’s a puzzle waiting to be solved. We’ll have to wait and see if he’s going to be the one to get a chance to solve it.