Longtime Colorado Rockies GM Dan O’Dowd resigns

The Colorado Rockies hired Jeff Bridich to become the new general manager after longtime GM Dan O’Dowd resigned Wednesday.

Assistant general manager Bill Geivett also resigned following the Rockies’ fourth consecutive losing season. The overhaul in the front office comes after a 66-96 season that represented the second-most losses in club history.

“First of all I want to thank Dan and Bill for their years of commitment to the Rockies organization,” Rockies owner Dick Monfort said in a statement. “They have been friends and colleagues, and their families have been a part of the Rockies family, for a very long time.”

Bridich, 37, has spent the past 10 years as a member of the Rockies’ operations department. He has served the past three years as the club’s senior director of player development. Prior to joining the Rockies, Bridich worked in the Office of the Commissioner for Major League Baseball from 2001-04.

“We are very fortunate to have an extremely bright, energetic and talented group of individuals currently within our own organization that are ready and eager to utilize their skills and experience,” Monfort said. “I know Jeff is anxious to begin working on the goal of putting a championship team on the field that the Rockies staff, our fans and our region deserve.”

O’Dowd, 55, spent 15 years as the Rockies’ general manager, with four winning seasons and two postseason appearances. The highlight of O’Dowd’s tenure came in 2007, when the Rockies rode the wave of winning 21 of 22 games all the way to the World Series, where they were swept by the Boston Red Sox.

O’Dowd’s tenure, which began on Sept. 20, 1999, was the fourth-longest currently in the majors.

O’Dowd was instrumental in hiring four managers — Buddy Bell (2000-02), Clint Hurdle (2002-09), Jim Tracy (2009-12) and Walt Weiss (2013-14), with Weiss being hired under the arrangement in which the club’s day-to-day operation was overseen by Geivett.