Why the Rockies hired Sterling Monfort as one of the majors’ youngest pro scouting directors

“It’s not like he was given this opportunity because of who he was (in relation to Dick) — it’s because he was the right person to get the opportunity, period,” Rosenthal said. “Like the old saying in baseball goes, ‘You can’t trick scouts.’ He did it the right way, in their eyes.

“He cut his teeth, he worked his butt off, he scouted across the country, he came early and he stayed late. Schmidt and our guys truly believe in him as an evaluator.”

A graduate of Eaton High School, where he won two Class 3A state titles, and Arizona State University, where he played club ball, Monfort worked on the Coors Field grounds crew while in college. He began his baseball career as a coaching intern with the rookie-league Grand Junction Rockies in 2013.

From there, he got into scouting. He stepped in as the team’s full-time area scout for northern California in 2019 when the Rockies were left scrambling to fill that opening shortly before the season. The same thing happened in 2020 in southern California, a post he held for two years before getting his last promotion, which also involves scouting the Rockies and the Padres organizations.

It’s been a fast rise for Monfort, who has a reserved, thoughtful demeanor. He leans on the expertise of the scouts around him, but as Montgomery explains, “when he talks, he talks with substance.”