Jeff Bridich Named Rockies GM After Dan O'Dowd Resignation

The Colorado Rockies' front office is set to receive an offseason overhaul as general manager Dan O'Dowd has decided to step down and was replaced by Jeff Bridich, senior director of player development. Director of major league operations Bill Geivett will also leave the organization.

Nick Groke and Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post first reported that manager Walt Weiss would remain with the team. 

Bridich and the Rockies held a press conference with a message to the fans via the Rockies' Twitter account:

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports first broke the news with Thomas Harding of MLB.com stating Bridich would take over as GM.

O'Dowd served in the role as general manager for 15 years. After some lean years early, he helped build the roster that led the Rockies to their first World Series in 2007, which they lost to the Boston Red Sox, and followed up with another playoff appearance in 2009.

The team's performance has been on a steady decline since that point, however. It's failed to crack the .500 mark since 2010 and has finished an average of 24 games out of first place in the NL West over the past four seasons.

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Geivett was moved into more prominent role in 2012, but his promotion did nothing to spark improvement on the field. Despite the presence of stars like Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez, the team's struggles to contend in one of the league's toughest divisions continued.

The Rockies finished 66-96 this season, 22 games out of a playoff spot.

Bridich is tasked with rebuilding a pitching staff that gave up 41 more runs in 2014 than any other team in MLB. Even factoring in the impact of Coors Field, it's an area that's going to need vast improvement to get back into the postseason picture consistently.

The change doesn't come as a surprise given the team's struggles in recent seasons. The Rockies gave the combination of O'Dowd and Geivett an opportunity to get things back on track, but there were few signs of progress over the past few years.

Now the organization hopes Bridich can begin the turnaround this winter.