Alon Leichman Brings Global Perspective, Innovation to Rockies' Rebuilding Pitching Staff
DENVER - Coaching pitchers at Coors Field is unlike anything else in Major League Baseball. The altitude, the ball movement (or lack thereof), the mental grind-it’s a challenge that’s chewed up and spit out plenty of good coaches over the years. But the Rockies’ new pitching coach, Alon Leichman, is no stranger to adversity-or to thinking differently.
Leichman’s baseball journey started far from the Rocky Mountains, in Kibbutz Gezer, Israel, where the sport barely had a foothold. There, if you were old enough to hold a bat, you were old enough to coach.
That’s how Leichman, now 36, found himself leading younger teams as a teenager. It wasn’t a fast track to the big leagues-it was a crash course in leadership, adaptability, and doing more with less.
“Growing up in Israel, we didn’t have much baseball-honestly, that’s an understatement,” Leichman said recently while on his honeymoon back home. “When you're 15, you're coaching the 13-year-olds.
When you're 16, you're coaching. It’s just how it works.”
That early hands-on experience shaped his coaching style. “Some of my coaches were just two years older than me,” he said. “I always felt I became a better player because I was coaching.”
Now, he steps into a Rockies clubhouse coming off a historically tough season. Colorado’s 43-119 record was the worst in franchise history, and the pitching staff was a major culprit.
The starting rotation posted a 6.65 ERA-the highest in the majors since ERA became an official stat in both leagues back in 1913. The bullpen didn’t fare much better, with a 5.12 ERA.
And the team’s -424 run differential? The largest of the Modern Era, dating back to 1900.
That’s the mountain Leichman is tasked with climbing. But if his past is any indication, he’s not afraid of steep climbs.
Last season, he served as assistant pitching coach with the Marlins, where he worked under Daniel Moskos and helped implement some outside-the-box strategies. One of those?
Calling pitches from the dugout late in the year-a move that raised eyebrows but also sparked curiosity. The Marlins even turned bullpen sessions into live batting practice, pushing pitchers to simulate game intensity between starts.
Those kinds of forward-thinking ideas caught the attention of Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer. The two first crossed paths in Denver when the Marlins were in town. Schaeffer, intrigued by the idea of dugout pitch-calling, chatted with Leichman on the field before a game-neither knowing they’d be working together just months later.
“We figured it could be an advantage,” Leichman said of the Marlins’ approach. “We knew teams would talk about it. Once we started, we knew others would start asking questions.”
Now with Colorado, Leichman and Schaeffer are open to exploring similar strategies. They’re not committing to having coaches call pitches just yet, but they’re clearly not ruling it out either.
And Leichman’s not new to the skepticism that comes with that kind of shift. He helped roll out the concept in the Mariners’ minor league system before it reached the majors.
“Catchers have a lot on their plate,” he said. “The fewer things they need to focus on, the better they can be at what really matters. It’s about benefiting everyone.”
Of course, MLB rules still don’t allow coaches to use PitchCom-the device used to relay pitch calls between pitchers, catchers, and infielders. But Leichman says there are ways to make sure signs from the dugout stay secure.
And make no mistake, the Rockies are searching for every edge they can find.
“We’re looking to get better,” Leichman said. “We know we’ll need to do things differently.
That doesn’t mean what was done before was bad-but it also doesn’t mean it was good. If we look at it through that lens, we’ll be much better.”
Leichman’s path to this moment is anything but conventional. After pitching in the Israel Baseball League at age 18 in 2007, he made his way to the University of California San Diego in 2015-16.
His age and maturity meant teammates often viewed him more like a coach than a peer. That perspective helped him transition into a player development role with the Mariners, where he served as a “coordinator of organizational learning” under Jerry Dipoto and Andy McKay-both of whom have ties to the Rockies.
That role widened his view of athlete development.
“It really opened my eyes to a lot of things, especially outside of baseball,” Leichman said. “How other sports take care of their athletes.
That sparked a curiosity. Seattle was big on learning.
We don’t know what we don’t know. That’s something I carry with me to this day.”
His coaching résumé is deep and diverse. From the Mariners’ Rookie-level Dominican Summer League team-where he learned Spanish to better connect with players-to Triple-A Tacoma in 2022, Leichman has made a habit of meeting players where they are. Not just geographically, but culturally and developmentally.
“It wasn’t about trying to speak Spanish to advance my career,” he said. “It was about connecting with guys, making them feel comfortable, and letting them be themselves.”
He’s also no stranger to altitude. Coaching in the Pacific Coast League with Tacoma gave him firsthand experience with the challenges pitchers face in high-elevation parks like Albuquerque and Salt Lake City-two places that share some of Coors Field’s quirks.
“I was lucky enough to coach in Triple-A in the PCL-it’s not easy, it’s going to be a challenge,” he said. “But I think you’ll be surprised. We’ll find some creative ways to combat that and be as bulletproof as possible in Denver and transitioning back and forth.”
Leichman’s international experience runs deep, too. He threw a scoreless inning against Team USA in the 2020 Olympics and served as Israel’s bullpen coach during the 2017 World Baseball Classic. He opted out of the upcoming 2026 Classic to focus on his first year with the Rockies.
“Out of respect to Israel and for the Rockies, I felt like I can’t be in both places,” he said.
That kind of commitment-and his track record of adaptability, innovation, and communication-makes Leichman a fascinating fit for a Rockies team that desperately needs a new direction on the mound.
There are no guarantees in Denver. But with Leichman, the Rockies are betting on a coach who’s never been afraid to challenge convention, and who brings a global perspective to a very local problem: how to pitch at altitude and win doing it.