Hurdle planning to 'go be a helper' for Rockies' struggling offense

DENVER -- Rockies catcher Jacob Stallings recalled receiving Clint Hurdle’s help -- well, first-world assistance, not dire need. Still, as Hurdle proved this week by stepping in as Colorado’s hitting coach to try to shake the team from a poor start, he is willing to lend a hand where needed.

Hurdle managed Stallings with the Pirates early in his career, and Stallings said he kept an eye out for him afterward.

“He called me one offseason after he was gone from the Pirates,” Stallings said. “He knew that I was a big Vince Gill fan. My dad [longtime collegiate basketball coach Kevin Stallings] is really good friends with Vince Gill. He [Hurdle] called and said he had a couple extra tickets to a Vince Gill/Amy Grant Christmas concert, and [he] asked if me and my wife wanted to go. We had tickets the next night.”

A ticket hookup doesn’t have anything to do with trying to shake the Rockies from their strikeout-prone doldrums. They tied a club record for a home game by striking out 17 times in Saturday afternoon’s 12-11 loss to the Nationals at Coors Field to drop to 3-16.

Yet, the potential winning run was at the plate as the game ended. Mickey Moniak -- who had a two-run second-inning homer -- tripled with two out. Jordan Beck, who had one of two two-run doubles in the eight-run seventh (Sean Bouchard had the other), took called second and third strikes from Nats closer Kyle Finnegan to end the contest.

But it helps illustrate Hurdle -- the long-ago Minor League and Major League hitting coach, the manager during a period that included the 2007 World Series and a special front-office assistant (primarily working in the Minor Leagues) until the club tabbed him on Thursday to replace hitting coach Hensley Meulens.

“You can talk about being a friend," Hurdle said on Saturday. “You can talk about being a helper. And in some situations, the best thing you can do is not talk about being a helper.

“Go be a helper.”

Before reading of how manager Bud Black and the players plan to make this move work, feel free to click through this presentation of Hurdle’s creative words:

As Hurdle said, he is “here to be Buddy’s hitting coach.” That’s optics be darned, since speculation that Hurdle is manager-in-waiting is unavoidable and will become rampant if struggles continue.

(FWIW, Hurdle not only expressed no interest in taking another person’s job, but he wasn’t interested in taking rookie outfielder Zac Veen’s No. 13. Hurdle, No. 55 in your program, wore 13 for most of his managerial tenure, except when he switched to 31 to accommodate veteran pitcher Jeff Fassero in 2004.)

Black said that he and Hurdle have had multiple conversations and that they have emerged in concert.

“There are some team concepts that we discussed on the phone prior to all this,” Black said. “There were some team concepts that we talked about yesterday, team concepts we talked about today. And also there were some individual things that I shared with him, on my thoughts that certain guys need.

“He has watched games. He’s been in this organization for a handful of years since he’s come back [special assistant to general manager Bill Schmidt since December 2019]. He watches our games. He watched Minor League games as well. He knows what he wants to do, based on what he’s seen from our group.”

The same hitters who have struggled will have to pull the team out of this mess, so it’s not certain how major changes will be.

“He’s a different voice who has a different perspective on a similar message,” said first baseman Michael Toglia, who has 35 strikeouts and one home run -- but much potential for power. “He’s got new ideas and he’s going to help us create an identity that I feel like we’ve been lacking the last couple of years.”

But Toglia’s numbers and inexperience (parts of three seasons before this year) point to a major issue. Of the 13 position players in Saturday’s game, eight of them came up under Hurdle’s influence as Rockies Minor Leaguers. But none of those eight entered 2025 with as many as two years of Major League service time.

Veteran second baseman Kyle Farmer, who leads the team with a .328 batting average, said for all the talk about players hearing a new voice, players need to find their own voice.

"It’s hard, because we have a young team,” Farmer said. “They’re trying to make a name for themselves. And we have veterans -- they’ve already made a name and they’re just relaxed, playing the game to win. So it’s two different aspects.”

Success is missing, but energy shows up. The Rockies trailed by six runs on Wednesday before threatening in an 8-7 loss at Dodger Stadium. Saturday was more of the same struggle, but also a flash of what’s possible, Moniak said.

“The message moving forward is get your work in and once you step in the box, compete -- get out of your own head and let the talent God’s blessed us with take over,” Moniak said.

Hurdle has shown a connection with younger players.

Shortstop Aaron Schunk, called up from Triple-A Albuquerque on Saturday as shortstop and club sparkplug Ezequiel Tovar went on the injured list with a left hip contusion, was designated for assignment when veteran reliever Scott Alexander signed during Spring Training.

“Clint Hurdle reached out to me right after that happened,” said Schunk, who earned his way back by hitting .283 with one home run and 10 RBIs in 13 games with Albuquerque. “He was like, ‘You can roll over or you can keep on fighting.’

“It hurts. You want to roll over. But you’ve got to wake up and choose to fight every day.”

Hurdle is joining this uphill fight.