Grand Junction Rockies name Bobby Jenks Manager

Grand Junction, Colorado

"We are excited to welcome Bobby back for his second season in Grand Junction. We look forward to a terrific season ahead with him as our manager." Team President Mick Ritter said.

Jenks replaces Jimmy Johnson, who retired following the season.

"This is my first time stepping into a managerial role.” Jenks said… “unless you count my son's tee-ball team, which y'know is a little bit different level."

Despite never being a manager, Jenks knew that if the opportunity arose, it was something he wanted to do.

"It came about through multiple conversations with multiple people throughout the second half of the season once I knew Jimmy wasn't going to come back." Jenks said, "Really me stepping up and saying I wanted to do it."

Along with his pitching coach duties last year, Jenks also has coaching experience working as a roving pitching instructor in the Chicago White Sox organization.

"Those coaching experiences were fantastic, and I'm really appreciative of them," Jenks said, "but I found out I wanted to be somewhere permanent and working with a specific group hands-on. Once I got to Grand Junction, it was touching something inside my chest, and it was the right fit at the right time."

Jenks has big-league experience, pitching with the White Sox and Red Sox from 2005-2011. He was on top of the mound when the White Sox won the World Series in 2005. He also held the record for most consecutive batter retired, tying the high mark of 41 in 2007 before teammate Mark Buehrle broke it in 2009. Jenks is the only reliever ever to hold the record.

As far as taking coaching philosophies from his playing career, Jenks doesn't have any one specific mentor.

"I've been very fortunate and have played in places where I have had unbelievable coaches," from high school all the way through the minor leagues and into the big leagues," Jenks said. "There's some things you like and some things you don't, and you take the things you do like and work around that."

Coming from a pitching background, Jenks worked hard to build his coaching staff to match his philosophies and strengthen any weak points in his baseball knowledge. Part of that is hitting and how position players view the game. Jenks turned to former big-league catcher Toby Hall to fill the hitting coach role to assist with this.

"Catching background was a big reason I went with Toby." Jenks said, "It's huge. It's why you see so many managers who were ex-catchers. They really have the game in front of them. I can really lean on him in certain areas where I might not be thinking of a certain scenario that maybe he is with that catching experience in the big leagues."

Jenks still wants to be heavily involved in the coaching and development of the team's pitchers. For that, he will partner with first-time coach and former University of Oregon reliever Jesse Hobaica as the team's pitching coach.

"He's got a lot of the same philosophies and mindsets as me, but at the same time, he doesn't have a lot of experience, and it's an opportunity for him to learn the coaching side of the game." Jenks said, "Having him involved in this side of things was important to me so I can still have a hand in the pitching."

Being a manager as opposed to a coach will come with some changes.

"The biggest change is going to be game management." Jenks said, "When to pinch run and when to pinch-hit just taking a deep dive into the game.".

One thing Jenks doesn't want to change is his relationship with the players.

"I don't think [my relationship with the players] should change. I'm not going in to change the game. I'm going in with my baseball beliefs, and I want things done a certain way, but that doesn't change the relationships I had from last year and the work we did."

To help foster those relationships, Jenks plans on instituting an open-door policy.

"A coach is someone who is hands-on in my belief," Jenks said. "It's important to have those relationships to build trust and come into the office when something's wrong and not being worried about things they shouldn't be worried about."

There will be minor changes here and there with a new manager, but as Jenks said, he's not trying to change the game, and thus, many things will stay the same, including his dominance on the clubhouse ping-pong table.

"Just because I'm the manager doesn't mean I'm not their mentor in all aspects of life, including ping pong” Jenks said.

Jenks and the GJ Rockies begin their season May 25th at Ogden. The home opener is set for June 7th vs the Boise Hawks.