Justin Verlander's brother Ben rips Rockies and Pirates for firing managers while ignoring the real issue at the top

Enduring dismal campaigns so far, the Colorado Rockies and Pittsburgh Pirates are sitting at the bottom of their respective divisions, unable to gather any momentum or consistency.

In a desperate attempt to stop the rot, both organizations announced that they would be parting ways with their managers over the past week. Derek Shelton, former manager of the Pirates, had been at the helm since 2019, whereas Bud Black, Colorado's former skipper, took charge in 2017.

According to Justin Verlander's brother, Ben, a baseball analyst, this appears to be more a case of 'making a scapegoat' instead of tackling the root of the problem. The larger issue, Verlander claims, is more a result of the ownership approach, rather than poor management from Shelton and Black.

Verlander made his comments on "Flippin' Bats with Ben Verlander," uploaded on YouTube on Tuesday.

"These two organizations are missing the whole problem at hand," Verlander said (Timestamp: 22:45). "Why are you firing Bud Black? Why are you firing Derek Shelton? They are clearly just scapegoats. They are not the problem. The problem is the top of the organization not spending any money.

"The Pirates owner, Bob Nutting, missing the problem. The Rockies owner, Dick Monfort, missing the problem. These managers are just being used as scapegoats at this point."

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Ben Verlander talks about how the Colorado Rockies' payroll is just a fraction of their NL West rivals

In the same podcast episode, Ben Verlander talked about just how much of a gap in investment between the Colorado Rockies and their competition in the NL West.

"The Rockies rank 20th out of 30 teams in all of baseball in payroll," Verlander said (Timestamp: 24:49). "They've invested $45 million less than the [San Francisco] Giants, and $53 million less than the [Arizona] Diamondbacks in their own division. They trail the [San Diego] Padres by $83 million.

"You could double their payroll, and they'd be just as far behind the [LA] Dodgers. ... When Bud Black took over as manager in 2017, they were 16th in Major League Baseball in payroll, they had fourteen million more on the books than they do now."

Bud Black looks on from the dugout - Source: Getty

Currently, at 7-34, the Rockies run a real risk of becoming the team that holds the unwanted record of the worst-ever MLB season if they fail to clean up their act quickly.