D-Backs’ Amiel Sawdaye, Guardians’ Matt Forman are finalists for Rockies GM

The Colorado Rockies have begun to pare down their list for their next head of baseball operations, with Arizona’s Amiel Sawdaye and Cleveland’s Matt Forman two of the finalists for the job, league sources told The Athletic on Wednesday.

There remains a possibility that other finalists exist, but both Kansas City’s Scott Sharp and Toronto’s James Click — who garnered interest according to The Athletic’s previous reporting — are no longer under consideration, sources with knowledge of the situation said.

Sawdaye started his career with the Boston Red Sox and rose to director of amateur scouting before he followed former Red Sox executive Mike Hazen to the Diamondbacks.  Sawdaye is currently the Diamondbacks’ senior vice president and assistant GM and served as acting GM briefly in 2021 when Haven took a leave of absence.

Both Forman and Sawdaye were in the mix for the Washington Nationals’ top job that ultimately went to Paul Toboni. Forman is an AGM under Cleveland president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff. Forman started with Cleveland as an intern in 2013 and has steadily moved up within the organization. In January 2022, he became an executive vice president.

The notoriously insular Rockies publicly committed to hiring someone externally this time around. The front office search is being led by executive vice president Walker Monfort, the son of owner Dick Monfort, with the next round of interviews expected to begin later this week. Whether the new hire gets the title of president or GM depends on who it is.

Longtime Colorado Rockies executive Bill Schmidt stepped down as general manager earlier this month and assistant GM Zack Rosenthal resigned a week later.

There’s no known timetable for when the Rockies would like to have their new head of baseball ops in place, though it stands to reason they’d go into the GM meetings in early November with their new leader in place. One of the first tasks for the Rockies’ next hire will be to hire a new manager, as Colorado is one of six teams currently without one. The others are the Nationals, Baltimore Orioles, San Diego Padres, Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves. The San Francisco Giants on Wednesday were on the cusp of announcing University of Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello as their manager.