The Rockies announced that they have hired Walt Weiss as their next manager. The former shortstop now becomes the sixth manager in club history, dating back to 1993.

Colorado cut their field of candidates down to a field of six at the end of October with Weiss, veteran player Jason Giambi, bench coach Tom Runnells, Jerry Manuel, former Phillies bench coach Pete Mackanin, and current Diamondbacks bench coach Matt Williams in the mix. That field was brought down to a final four with Weiss and Williams eventually left as the remaining two candidates.

Weiss now takes the place of manager Jim Tracy who amassed a 294-308 record in his time in Colorado. Tracy's status as manager for 2013 was uncertain as he was said to have nothing more than a handshake agreement for next season. The skipper wound up walking away from the job before the club could move to fire him. While Tracy declined to go into detail about his reasons for leaving, it was widely speculated that he was less-than-thrilled with the front office's level of control in on-field decision making.

The 48-year-old has a good amount of history with the organization as he played for the Rockies from 1994-97 and worked as a special assistant to the GM from 2002-08. Weiss has no previous professional managerial experience but will now be charged with turning around a club that finished at the bottom of the NL West with a 64-98 record.