Colorado Rockies news and links for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Recently, I’ve taken to writing a pre-season annual SWOT analysis in which I consider strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Given that the Colorado Rockies’ 2025 campaign has (mercifully) come to an end, it seemed worthwhile to revisit that and check in on what I got right and what I missed.
Reader, there is a reason I do not gamble.
As a starting point, I predicted the Rockies would go 61-101 — that they would be bad, but not historically so. But here we are the a final tally of 43 wins and 119 losses, so I (and, frankly, most folks) underestimated just how bad this team would be.
(Look for Skyler Timmins to publish his annual column marking Rockies “firsts.” There are a lot of them!)
But here’s how I did.
What I got right
• Promotions: I wrote that there would be a lot of traffic on the road between Triple-A Albuquerque and Coors Field, and on that front, I was correct. “If you like to watch prospects, this will be a pretty terrific season to be a Rockies fan,” I said then.
Did that ever happen.
The Rockies promoted a record 13 players this season. Some of that was the result of desperation (e.g., the system had no healthy infielders, so Ryan Ritter was promoted, and Adael Amador was recalled; when the Rockies needed a pitcher on the East Coast, McCade Brown got his first starts as a big leaguer). And in some cases, the Rockies wanted to see what a player could do (e.g., Yanquiel Fernández, Kyle Karros, and Warming Bernabel).
Say what you want about the 2025 Rockies, but they did, in fact, let the kids play.
I predicted, too, that Chase Dollander and Zac Veen would be promoted early and show they were ready.
While Dollander did get an early promotion, he finished the season with 6.52 ERA (3.46 on the road and 9.98 at Coors). He may well be the Rockies’ future ace, but first, he’s going to have to show he can pitch at elevation.
Veen played in only 12 games with the Rockies, earning a .118/.189/.225 slashline. For him, it was a season of figuring things out. He spent some time on the IL and made swing adjustments. After that, he had an okay season in ABQ (.289/.359/.464). I thought he might return to Coors Field in September, but that did not happen.
• The Kris Bryant conundrum remains unresolved — I wrote that his contract would remain “an albatross” (we need a new metaphor here), and I was right about that. A surgery that Bryant hoped would address his back issues was unsuccessful. The Rockies will need to address this issue soon because it seems possible that his career is over.
• A new-and-improved Tyler Freeman — I said playing at elevation would suit Freeman. In March, I wrote, “It won’t be a staggering change, but it will be notable.” Offensively, this was the case; defensively, not so much.
When it comes to hitting, Freeman was better with the Rockies than he was with the Guardians (91 wRC+ as opposed to an 84 wRC+), but he was significantly worse defensively (3 DRS with Cleveland and -10 DRS with the Rockies). Freeman said early on that playing a corner was harder than playing center due to the angles, so maybe that was it.
Also, luckiest man in baseball? That would be former Rockie Nolan Jones, who’s headed to the postseason with the Cleveland Guardians.
Good for all of them!
What I got wrong
I missed a lot.
• Bud Black was fired — Granted, I did not predict this one because it never entered my mind to add it. Dick Monfort’s commitment to Black seemed clear, and there was no reason to believe he would be removed from his position. On May 11th, that changed, and I did not see it coming. Whether its a prelude to additional changes remains to be seen.
• The Rockies rotation did not improve — I expected this part of the team to be better. It clearly was not.
Ryan Feltner, I argued, would be the Rockies best pitcher. However, he only appeared in six games (30.1 IP, 4.75 ERA) and was pretty much finished in May. Feltner’s health remains a big question for the Rockies going forward.
Also, I was too optimistic about Germán Márquez’s and Antonio Senzatela’s returns from Tommy John. I also expected a solid season from Austin Gomber since he is on the cusp of free agency. Instead, Márquez finished with an ERA of 6.70, and he’s probably done as a Rockie. Gomber was released (Hello, Chicago Cubs MiLB contract!), and Senzatela was moved to the bullpen, permanently, we learned yesterday.
As a whole, the starting rotation earned a final ERA of 6.65, by far worst the in MLB. (The next-worst Washington Nationals had a starting ERA of 5.18.)
Kyle Freeland was the Rockies best starter (4.98 ERA; 2.5 fWAR), and Tanner Gordon was a spotty, if occasional deadly, surprise (6.33 ERA; 0.6 fWAR) and the Rockies second-best starter.
• The defense was bad — Of all the things I truly believed, I really thought that the defense would be stellar, and I went so far as to predict that Michael Toglia would win a Gold Glove. Clearly, that did not happen (-3 DRS), and his days as a Rockie are probably numbered. Add to that, neither Brenton Doyle (1 DRS; 6 OAA) nor Ezequiel Tovar (-2 DRS; 4 OAA) is likely to repeat as Gold Glove winners.
In terms of the final numbers, the Rockies defenders had a cumulative -60 DRS (30th), -24 OAA (26th), and -17 FRV (23rd).
Similarly, I expected Doyle and Tovar to head to Atlanta for the All-Star Game to represent the Rockies, but both struggled with injuries and inconsistency. Instead, that honor went to Hunter Goodman. Truly, his excellent season was not something I saw coming. He had an extraordinarily successful 2025 (32 HR; 3.4 fWAR) and has probably shaken up the Rockies catching calculus.
What’s next
Now we wait. Will the Rockies make adjustments after their historically awful season? We’ll probably know soon enough. Yesterday, Patrick Saunders predicted changes are probably coming to 20th and Blake.
Stay tuned.
Also, feel free to leave your assessment of your own 2025 predictions in the comments. I’m surely not the only person who got so much so wrong.
A new front office will clean up after the Rockies horror show | Forbes
Daniel R. Epstein writes of the Rockies need for a front office housecleaning, “At this point, not doing so would be malpractice.”
Rockies set MLB record for worst run differential — minus-424! — in modern era | The Athletic ($)
No one predicted a run differential this historically bad, either. As Jayson Stark explains, “The previous modern record for worst run differential was minus-349, by the 1932 Boston Red Sox. That one held up for 92 years. Then these Rockies blew past it by 75 runs. That’s the equivalent of Aaron Judge or Cal Raleigh breaking Barry Bonds’ single-season MLB home run record (of 73) by hitting 89.“
If you’ve wondered how RyMac has adjust to life as a Yankee, Steve Serby has you covered. (Seriously, it’s a good interview.)
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Category: General Sports
