Report: Rockies used front-office staff as clubhouse attendants in 2020

The Colorado Rockies opted to use full-time front-office staff as clubhouse attendants rather than bring back furloughed part-time employees for the shortened 2020 campaign, reports The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal and Nick Grove.

The duties of the "clubbies" reportedly included shining shoes, cleaning laundry, and buying chewing tobacco for players in both the home and visiting clubhouses at Coors Field.

Colorado's use of more than a half-dozen front-office employees in these roles occurred for all 30 of its home games last season. Members of the analytics and player-development staff sometimes worked from 9 a.m to 3 p.m. in their full-time positions before assisting with clubhouse duties from 3 p.m. to 2 a.m., according to Rosenthal and Grove.

"I'd be holding a pile of dirty jerseys, and a coach would come up to me, 'Can I get this data for this pitcher?' (or) something like that," a former member of the Rockies baseball operations department said. "I'd be just like, 'I can't do that right now.'"

The employees who worked both jobs earned tips, which they shared with staff from other departments, per Rosenthal and Grove. However, most dual-staffers were reportedly unhappy about the situation they were put in by owner Dick Monfort, who was responsible for the decision.

"If they had said, 'This is just one year. Here's what's going on. We need you to do this, please. We're all in this together. We're going to help out as well,' I think that changes things," a front-office worker said. "But there was no clarity into how or why that decision was made. And once that decision was made, there was absolutely no follow-through."