This month, after the Rockies returned from a six-game road trip where they were swept in New York and St. Louis, a veteran player sat in front of his locker, speaking softly. He began by talking about the Arizona Diamondbacks’ decision in early September to fire general manager Kevin Towers. The player shook his head and asked rhetorically, “Why don’t we ever make changes in our front office? I don’t get it.”

The Rockies will wrap up their fourth consecutive losing season Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium. During that span, their only race in September has been to avoid losing 100 games.

The losing has taken its toll throughout the Rockies organization, affecting morale and leaving players, coaches and other staff members wondering if there is a vision to turn things around.

In talks with more than a dozen people within the organization — they did not want to be quoted by name out of concern of possible reprisals — the key concerns are owner Dick Monfort’s input in the day-to-day baseball decisions, the lack of accountability for general manager Dan O’Dowd and the scope of assistant general manager Bill Geivett’s job.

Mostly, everyone is sick and tired of losing.

“I mean, this is the major leagues, not the minors. It’s supposed to be about winning,” another player said. “We change a few players, but we never have enough talent. Things never change upstairs. Other teams make changes, but we never will.”

Monfort, fiercely loyal and at times just as stubborn, has consistently backed O’Dowd and Geivett.

“I have stuck behind both of them,” he said in July. “I think they are really good baseball people. I think, if you are looking to make a change, there has got to be a better option.”

However, given that the Rockies have posted another 90-loss season, he could change his mind as the team begins its end-of-season evaluations this week.

Monfort declined to be interviewed for this story. He has not talked to the media since midsummer, when he got into a running feud with Rockies fans via e-mail. O’Dowd also declined an interview request for this story.

It’s not believed Monfort will fire O’Dowd, to whom he has shown more loyalty than anyone else in the organization, but there is a chance O’Dowd might leave to take a position with another team, such as Atlanta, where former O’Dowd colleague John Hart is poised to take over as the Braves’ full-time general manager. O’Dowd worked under Hart in Cleveland before coming to the Rockies.

This season, when asked by KOA radio’s Dave Logan who was responsible for the Rockies’ poor record, Monfort said: “You would have to say it’s Bill Geivett. He’s responsible for the major-league team. Now, the talent that gets into the major-league team, (that) is the responsibility of scouting and development.”

Geivett responded by saying, “I am responsible, and I am accountable.”

“Huge blow” still being felt

Since O’Dowd took over as general manager in the fall of 1999, the Rockies have never won a division title. They have qualified for the playoffs only twice (2007 and 2009). They have had just four winning seasons.

Though O’Dowd is the general manager, Geivett runs the day-to-day, major-league operation. O’Dowd and Geivett report directly to Monfort. In the hierarchy at 20th and Blake, Monfort is the ultimate boss, followed by O’Dowd, then Geivett.

Geivett vigorously disagrees with the perception among some within the organization that Monfort is too involved in baseball decisions.

“That’s ridiculous,” Geivett said. “There is no place in today’s game where ownership is not involved. But when we make organizational decisions, everybody gets involved. Everybody sits down at the table.”

Monfort immersed himself in baseball details after the sudden death of team president Keli McGregor in April 2010. Monfort did not hire a replacement.

“Losing Keli was a huge blow,” said a longtime member of the organization. “He was able to step back, take a hard look, and then make tough decisions.”

McGregor’s death increased Monfort’s role.

“Dick is involved in every aspect of the club. That’s how he manages all of his businesses, from his restaurants to his hotels to the ballclub,” said one Rockies employee. “He’s the kind of owner who makes sure the right purple napkins are used at the table.”

Monfort was instrumental in the Rockies’ implementation of the four-man rotation in the summer of 2012. The Rockies dumped it after a three-month experiment.

The biggest question is why he has stuck with O’Dowd for so long while other losing teams shake up their front offices. Not only did the Diamondbacks ax Towers, the San Diego Padres fired GM Josh Byrnes in June.

“Dan has a brilliant mind, and Dick really trusts and respects his opinion,” a Rockies staffer said.

What’s more, Monfort believes that playing baseball in Denver’s mile-high altitude — O’Dowd calls it the Rockies’ “Goliath” — requires out-of-the-box thinking in regard to building a pitching staff and keeping players healthy over the grind of a long season. Monfort is convinced O’Dowd is the only one who truly has a handle on it.

Family-style loyalty

Some who work for Monfort admire his passion and work ethic but are concerned he remains too much of a fan and not enough of a hard-nosed baseball decision-maker. That was illustrated last fall when he said his plan was to always keep stars Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez, though their long-term contracts are eating up a larger percentage of the team’s payroll.

“Is that the smartest thing in the world to do? I don’t know,” he told The Denver Post. “But for our fans I think it’s the best thing to do.”

Those who know Monfort say his business style — from his attention to small details, to his family-style loyalty, to his independent streak — comes straight from his father, Kenneth. He changed the beef industry by combining several operations — beef feeding, slaughter, meatpacking, sales and distribution — into a Fortune 500 company.

Kenneth Monfort was not afraid to try new things, and neither is his son. In August 2012, six weeks after the four-man rotation, Dick Monfort helped create the present front-office structure in which O’Dowd, still armed with the power of a general manager, began traveling extensively to concentrate on player development. Geivett was put in charge of the daily operations of the big-league club and set up an office in the Rockies’ clubhouse just down the hall from then-manager Jim Tracy, who at season’s end walked away from a $1.4 million contract. The Rockies hired Regis Jesuit High School coach Walt Weiss, a former big-league shortstop, to replace Tracy.

The Rockies haven’t improved on the field, and a number of players, coaches and others within the organization say that Geivett’s position creates confusion and undermines Weiss’s authority. “Too many cooks in the kitchen,” one player said.

Said another: “There are times when I’ve felt that I couldn’t really go into Walt’s office and express my feelings about the direction of the club. I could never be sure that ‘Geivo’ wasn’t going to walk in, or that what I said wouldn’t get upstairs.”

Geivett said any fuss about him maintaining his office in the clubhouse is overblown.

“My only response is that I would hope everybody would feel free to talk about any situation they want to,” Geivett said. “That’s what I want, that’s what I believe we have.”

The season appeared bright for the Rockies in April and early May, before a series of decimating injuries and poor play made the Rockies also-rans by the all-star break. The Rockies insisted throughout the long, lousy summer that injuries were not a valid excuse.

“We built, we thought, enough extra pitching to where we could weather some of this,” Monfort told The Denver Post in July. “The injuries haven’t helped, but I’m not blaming this on injuries. We haven’t played real well.”

Said Geivett: “If you evaluate our record, it doesn’t look good. If you evaluated the team we had coming out of spring training, I think you take a different view.”

But injuries or no injuries, the Rockies’ history of failure under the current leadership has left no room for sympathy. Weiss clearly grasped that when he spoke the most truthful words of the disappointing season: “We haven’t earned the benefit of the doubt, and I understand that.”

Close to hitting rock bottom

Since Dan O’Dowd became their general manager at the end of the 1999 season, the Rockies have MLB’s fourth-worst record. MLB’s best and worst records during his tenure in Denver (through Friday):

BEST

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Team Record Pct. Playoffs 1. N.Y. Yankees 1,420-1,004 .586 12 2. St. Louis 1,363-1,064 .562 11 3. Atlanta 1,339-1,087 .552 9 4. Boston 1,331-1,097 .548 7 5. L.A. Angels 1,331-1,097 .548 7

WORST

Team Record Pct. Playoffs 26. Washington 1,138-1,288 .469 2 27. Colorado 1,129-1,300 .464 2 28. Baltimore 1,106-1,320 .456 2 29. Pittsburgh 1,071-1,354 .442 2 30. Kansas City 1,056-1,372 .435 1

Giant job security

Dan O’Dowd’s time with the Rockies is the fourth-longest among current general managers. How he ranks:

Team GM Start Pct. Playoffs San Francisco Brian Sabean 1996 .528 7 Oakland Billy Beane 1997 .532 8* N.Y. Yankees Brian Cashman 1998 .594 14 Colorado Dan O’Dowd 1999 .464 2 *A’s just one win/Seattle loss from qualifying for playoffs

Keeping up with Jones

Longest-tenured general managers in North America’s major professional sports, with their records:

Team GM Start Pct. Playoffs New Jersey (NHL) Lou Lamoriello 1987 .585 21-of-27 Dallas (NFL) Jerry Jones 1989 .535 12-of-25 Miami (NBA) Pat Riley 1995 .583 16-of-19 San Francisco (MLB) Brian Sabean 1996 .528 7-of-18

Mile-high management

General managers for all of Denver’s major professional teams, with their tenures and records: