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The Rockies have tacked on three additional years to manager Bud Black’s contract, meaning that his deal now runs through the 2022 season. The team announced the extension on Monday morning:
The Colorado Rockies have agreed to terms with Manager Bud Black on a contract extension through the 2022 season. pic.twitter.com/1QWl9fhImI
— (@Rockies) February 25, 2019
Black, 61, will be by far the most experienced manager in the NL West once Bruce Bochy steps away from the Giants’ dugout at the end of this season. In fact, he replaced Bochy in San Diego when the likely future Hall of Famer departed for San Francisco following the 2006 season. Though Black never reached the playoffs in San Diego, he managed to stick around with the notoriously patient Padres for eight-and-a-half seasons, and to be fair, he had a couple really tough breaks — his Padres won 89 games but lost a wild-card play-in game to the eventual NL champion Rockies in 2007, and they won 90 games but lost in a win-or-go-home matchup for the NL West title to the eventual World Series champion Giants on the final day of the 2010 season.
After sitting out the 2016 campaign following his firing from the Padres, Black took the Rockies’ managerial job ahead of the 2017 season. In his first season, he helped them reach the playoffs for the first time since 2009 (marking his first-ever playoff appearance in his 10th year as a major-league manager), though they suffered a disappointing loss to the Diamondbacks in the NL Wild Card game. He one-upped that performance in 2018, as the Rockies defeated the Cubs in the Wild Card game before getting swept by the Brewers in the NLDS.
Obviously, he’ll be trying to help the Rockies to their first playoff series win since 2007 this year (unless you want to count the Wild Card game as a series) as they try to go all-out in what could be Nolan Arenado’s final season in Colorado. And beyond that, he seems well-equipped to shepherd a young core led by Kyle Freeland, German Marquez, Trevor Story, Brendan Rodgers, and David Dahl that looks primed to compete year-in and year-out in the NL West for the next half-decade, even if Arenado isn’t around after this year.