The calendar may show it’s the Thanksgiving season, but Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer is already looking ahead to spring.

Named as the eighth manager in franchise history on Monday, Schaeffer spoke on Wednesday about the changes he wants to make with the Rockies now that the interim tag has been lifted from his manager title.

“Spring training is going to look a lot different,” Schaeffer said on Wednesday. “Honestly, when we walk into spring training, even the guys who were with us last year, they’re going to be excited to see what’s new that’s going to happen here.”

Among those new things that Schaeffer mentioned on Wednesday was an emphasis on base running, something the Rockies often struggled with last season. Colorado’s 87 stolen bases ranked 23^rd among MLB’s 30 teams.

“We need to get way better in our base running,” Schaeffer said. “We’re going to spend way more time on that we need.”

Rockies president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta said that the decision to hire Schaeffer as the full-time manager was “pretty quick” because of a unifying message he heard from many within and outside the organization about Schaeffer’s abilities to connect with players and institute change.

“With the number of people that I had spoken to, both in the organization and even outside the organization about Schaeff, it became pretty clear to me that this was a good direction to go,” DePodesta said. “Schaeff had a lot of support. There’s no doubt that he left a great impression on a lot of people here, not just from his four-and-a-half months of managing the team, but even in all his years as a major league coach, as a minor league manager and even as a player.”

While Schaeffer has a long history with the Rockies as a player and coach, he said he and DePodesta, a newcomer to the franchise, quickly clicked on their vision for how to turn the Rockies around.

“I think the first thing you notice about Paul is he’s a process-oriented guy,” Schaeffer said. “Processes are important to me. Putting legitimate processes into play that push this thing forward and then can create a sustainable winning culture is the goal. That’s the ultimate goal is to bring winning baseball back to Denver. It can be done. It can absolutely be done, and Paul seems like the right guy to lead it.”

Schaeffer went 36-86 as Colorado’s interim manager last season, taking over when Bud Black was relieved of his duties on May 11. It was part of a 119-loss season that was not only the worst in Major League Baseball last season, but also the worst in Rockies history.

With that, some were surprised that Schaeffer was brought back as the full-time manager for 2026. However, DePodesta said the foundation poured by Schaeffer last season is the right one to rebuild the franchise upon.

“I think having those relationships already, knowing some of the capabilities of these players that are already in place, knowing some areas that they need to continue to improve upon, etc., I thought all that was valuable,” DePodesta said.

Update on Rockies general manager search

While DePodesta has now hired his on-field manager, there is still a big position to fill in the front office as the Rockies look for a general manager. With MLB Winter Meetings set to begin in Orlando on Dec. 7, DePodesta knows the clock is ticking.

“We’re very much in process,” DePodesta said. “Maybe a front office person or two by then, maybe another coach or two by then would be terrific, but I don’t want to put an exact timeline on it.”

However, there may be more at play than just the GM spot, DePodesta said on Wednesday.

“I’m doing some of the same work that I did on the manager side, having a lot of different conversations, gathering as much information as I can on some different potential people,” DePodesta said. “But it’s actually not just the GM. I think we’re also talking about other potential roles, because I really am trying to build a team of complementary skills.

“So it’s not so much that I would look for any one job, including the GM job, in a vacuum. You know, it’s, hey, if this person is GM, then we could bring in these other people in various complementary roles. Or if it’s this other GM, then it might be totally different people that we might bring in in complementary roles.”