Nation Celebrates As Giant Asshole is Fired

On Monday, in a very quick statement and Zoom call, Rockies General Manager Jeff Bridich announced he had resigned from the organization and that Greg Feasel had been appointed a president of baseball operations. Both the departure of Bridich and the appointing of Feasel as the Rockies first president of baseball ops since Keli McGregor feels like an organization taking a new step, which direction that step is I don’t think I can tell you right now, but it’s a step in some direction regardless.

Feasel is a former NFL player and was the Chief Operating Officer prior to his appointment of his new role so it’s difficult to say whether he has a baseball mind for this. But, his job will more likely be calming Dick Monfort down and preventing the owner from meddling too much more than anything else. McGregor quite famously acted as a liaison between the business side and the baseball side and if Feasel can simply put a layer between Dick and baseball decisions, he will probably be doing his job well.

Bridich leaves as one of the most disliked sports executives of the modern era. Rarely does a leader have media, players, and colleagues all disliking them to this point but Jeff was able to pull off a rare “pissed off” trifecta.

The writing was likely on the wall since the posting of a Rosenthal/Groke diss tape on The Athletic back in March that used several leaks to paint a picture of a front office in complete disarray. The Rockies FO famously had a tight ship prior to this major leak, notably trading Troy Tulowitzki with zero leaks in the negotiation even shocking the player’s agent, but this article was littered with bombs from inside and outside the organization. The article and it’s plethora of leaks were likely the final sign that the regime had crumbled.

Rumors have swirled since that the article caused contention between Jeff and owner Dick Monfort, eventually forcing the oddly timed resignation, but the fact the post could have even happened at all shows this was just a matter of time. Loose lips sink ships as the saying goes, you don’t get these types of hit pieces without a department that no longer respects you.

Jeff Bridich was a very famous asshole. The Harvard graduate spent most of his time defending strange moves by calling other people idiots or bemoaning the media’s weird belief in having opinions. Several journalists posted tweets yesterday with barely hidden disdain for Jeff and his attitude as he departed. There were no “happy trails”, no “you may not have liked his demeanor but…”, no high fives out the door. Jeff Bridich’s departure was celebrated by just about all sides, a rare feat in this “both sides” world of analysis. It’s hard to say if any other front office executive would gather this much celebration upon their departure, maybe the GM/Youth Pastor of the Houston Texans, maybe the entire front office staff of some of the soccer teams that tried to join the Super League. I’m not sure.

Jeff appears to be in a class of his own with regards to animosity. The man will probably be most remembered for throwing Nolan Arenado to St. Louis along with 50 million dollars. Usually, when a move like that happens you get a divide amongst people, but nearly everyone saw through the bullshit for once and rightly blamed Jeff’s people skills for the end of the Nolan Era in Denver. (Well, everyone who isn’t working for a certain media outlet and trying to claim they know things they can’t share that is.) Beyond the Nolan Arenado trade that ripped open the chest of Rockies fans, Bridich spent hundreds of millions of dollars on free agents that floundered in Colorado and continued to acquire players that fit that mold of failure. Bridich’s most famous acquisitions are: Jose Reyes, Gerardo Parra, Ian Desmond, and 5 failed relievers. Not one of those players posted a positive impact in their multiple seasons in Denver. But, every GM makes errors. It’s an inexact science and even championship winning General Managers have acquired player failures in their time. Jeff’s crime wasn’t whiffing on talent, it was acting with contempt when anyone would dare question the moves in the first place. Jeff’s only consistency other than the players he brought in failing as his outwardly rude behavior. That, above all else, appears to be why you have to really dig to find a positive portrayal or relationship, if there is one at all.

It is rare to see not one member of the media or baseball universe defend or attempt to spin a positive narrative when a front office executive or coach is fired. Fans may have been dancing on his grave, but usually there is one hall monitor asking us to consider the good done during this time. This was absent. A nation rejoiced one of the assholes of our time facing consequences and everyone joined in.

During an era many have coined as “post-accountability”, you wouldn’t expect something like this. Bad teams now litter sports with the narrative that they will “get better” soon. The Tank Era has partnered with The Game Is A Business, Inc. to promote the idea that being bad pays more dividends than trying to be good. The Rockies are bad, it’s not crazy to expect the narrative machine to rev up in Jeff’s favor. But, instead, one of the game’s most reviled personalities has been removed and everyone from everywhere is pretty stoked about it. That’s wild!

The next time we’ll see Jeff’s name he will likely be the Director of Business Development for some evil corporation trying to make people pay for park benches. Not our baseball team’s problem! The end of the Bridich era in Denver is one with a lot of questions that remain unanswered but, at the least, we know that being an asshole only takes you so far.

This has been Talkin’ Rockies.