If you’ve seen any stories about the Rockies so far in the 2025 season, it probably hasn’t been for good reasons. With an 18-60 record so far, they are on track to better (worsen?) the record for most losses in a season that a putrid White Sox team set just last season. They’re already right around the 30 games back mark in the NL West. For reference, the 2024 AL East-winning Yankees didn’t finish 30 games ahead of anyone in the division last year. The Rockies are very bad.

All that being said, baseball is the ultimate team sport in that one person cannot carry a team. A historically bad record does not necessarily mean there are no good or worthwhile players on the team. Who on the Rockies could be an interesting target for the Yankees?

On the pitching front, the Rockies have been pretty poor, as you might be able to guess. In addition to being a bad team, they also play in the ultimate hitter’s environment. Of the six pitchers who have made at least six starts for Colorado, the “best” ERA is Ryan Feltner at 4.75, and he just crosses that six start threshold.

However, there are also some notable differences in some of the Rockies pitchers’ ERAs and FIPs. That means, there could be some candidates for some positive regression and/or better results in getting away from Coors Field.

Kyle Freeland is maybe the ultimate example of this, as he is worth 0.0 Baseball Reference pitching WAR — which uses ERA in its formula — but leads the team in FanGraphs pitching WAR — which uses FIP — at 1.4. In addition to the bounce back possibility, Freeland also has just 1.5 years, plus a vesting option for 2027, left on his current contract, meaning Colorado has no real reason to hang on to him long term. The flipside is that his deal does have a near $13 million AAV, which might be too much for the Yankees to take a “greener grass” gamble on.

There’s a not unsimilar argument to be made for looking into Germán Márquez, who has a slightly worse ERA (6.11) and FIP (4.13), but is also only under contract through the rest of this year. With the injuries in the Yankees’ rotation, that certainly is a spot the Yankees could look to upgrade, but they probably could do better than those two, even if there is any possible positive regression coming.

Reliever Jake Bird is in the discussion for Colorado’s best player so far this year with a 2.06 ERA out of the ‘pen. Meanwhile, Jimmy Herget has been pretty solid. Neither of them are about to hit the open market, but the Rockies would be smart — which isn’t always their m.o. — to see if their are any suitors this year, since bullpen arms can be fickle from season to season. Every contending team could always use another decent reliever, so those guys could be of interest.

As far as position players go, the Yankees are probably most in need of someone who could play third base regularly. The Rockies have a competent one of those in former All-Star Ryan McMahon. He’s never posted an above league average OPS+, but he’s always hovered right around that mark and provides good defense at the hot corner. He’s another that has 1.5 years left on his current deal, but someone the Yankees could take on if Colorado wants to move money

As mentioned, the Rockies aren’t always the most predictable team when it comes to roster movies. After all, this is the team that traded Nolan Arenado to get out of his contract, and then signed Kris Bryant to what’s become a way worse one not long after. All of that could mean that, hey, maybe the Yankees could fleece them on a deal. That could also mean that they behave very oddly this trade season and not do much of anything, as they have an industry reputation as an insular front office that often will simply not engage with other teams. One of the more infamous examples was the 2021 Trade Deadline, when the out-of-contention Rockies held onto impending free agent Trevor Story (much to his confusion).

All that being said, the Rockies aren’t bad because they have no players worth taking a look at whatsoever. You just might have to squint a little bit, and you might not get them anyway. What a strange organization.