By: Mason McDowell
Here we are again... The Rockies can’t seem to find themselves out of baseball prison once again. In 2025, the Rockies went 43-119 with one of the worst seasons of all time. Their rotation in particular was downright abysmal. Kyle Freeland led the staff with a 4.98ERA and a 4.18 FIP, and highly touted prospect Chase Dollander, unfortunately, struggled in his first year at the Major League level, posting a 6.52ERA while allowing 19 home runs across 98 innings, but he is definitely someone Rockies fans can be excited about heading into this season. Their bullpen was also sub par coming in at the 2nd worst era in the league at 5.18 although they did have bright spots like Victor Vodnik and Jimmy Herget.
The lineup was just as bad for the most part. We saw regression from Brenton Doyle and Ezequiel Tovar, who are both seen as key pieces in this Rockies rebuild, but posted-sub .700 OPS seasons. Michael Toglia was supposed to be a bonafide 30 homerun hitter, but was demoted to AAA after posting a -1.7 WAR as a first baseman in just 88 games. On the bright side, catcher Hunter Goodman was incredible last year. He posted an .843 OPS and broke the single-season home run record for Rockies `catchers with 31. They finally departed with longtime 3rd baseman Ryan McMahon when they traded him to the Yankees at the deadline for left-handed pitcher Griffin Herring and right-handed pitcher Josh Grosz.
The Rockies made some major changes to leadership in the offseason. The team hired Paul DePodesta (Portrayed as Peter Brandt in the Oscar nominated film, Moneyball) as President of Baseball Operations, and they also brought in Josh Byrnes as General Manager. It looks like the Rockies finally plan to adapt to the modern-day baseball blueprint.
The Rockies made some sneaky good moves this offseason. They traded for 2nd baseman Edouard Julien, who I think could really be built for Coors Field and definitely has offensive upside. It was just 2 years ago that he posted an .840 ops while showing some of the best plate discipline in the entire league. They also signed super utility man Willi Castro to a 2-year deal. Willi is a super solid baseball player; he is gonna provide league-average hitting with average defense, all while playing 5-6 positions for them. They also acquired veteran outfielder Jake McCarthy from Arizona and could leadoff for them while playing good defense and steal threat.
I think this team has a ton of bounce-back candidates. He couldn’t quite find his form during the injury-riddled 25’ season, but I expect Ezequiel Tovar to find his old form and be the centerpiece of this Rockies rebuild. Hunter Goodman will continue to slug at Coors field and I wouldn’t throw 40 home runs out of the picture for the young Rockies Catcher this year, and Edouard Julien is an early choice as a breakout candidate for me. Keep an eye on how this new rotation performs. The upside is still there at only 24 years old for Chase Dollander with two premium pitches and exceptional whiff rates posted across his minor league career, and I fully expect him to get lots of burn this season. with the additions of Michael Lorenzen and Tomoyuki Sogano, who really might look mediocre on paper but are improvements over last year's rotation.
Overall, I think this team is still in a bad place, but I truly hope that this new leadership group has a positive impact on the organization again. I believe the lineup is serviceable while the rotation does concern me.
Record Prediction: 50-112
MVP: Ezequiel Tovar
CY: Chase Dollander
Breakout: Edouard Julien
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