CLEVELAND — The rain fell at Progressive Field on Monday, bringing a quick end to what had been a reunion vibe just a few minutes earlier.

Nolan Jones and Tyler Freeman, swapped for each other when the Colorado Rockies and Cleveland Guardians made a late March deal, caught up with former teammates and team officials as Guardians batting practice became as much about hugs and handshakes as hitting pregame dingers.

For the vast majority of Major League players, former teammates stay friends long after they’ve exchanged jerseys. That’s evident from the words expressed by Rockies players before taking the field on Monday about Ryan McMahon, now a member of the New York Yankees after a trade out of Colorado on Friday.

“He was one of the best teammates and human beings. It was tough to see him leaving us,” Rockies starting pitcher German Marquez said from the visitors clubhouse at Progressive Field. “I wish him the best. He’s going to do great over there (in New York).”

McMahon was the first Rockies player dealt during the period before Thursday’s 4 p.m. trade deadline. If rumors and whispers are to be believed, he won’t be the last.

The absence of McMahon, who played his first 1,010 MLB games as a member of the Rockies, is a noticeable void in the clubhouse. While several Colorado players acknowledged the business side of baseball in making the trade and bringing back to the franchise a pair of pitching prospects, there are also the little moments unseen by the public where McMahon is missed as well.

That includes the postgame victory speech that McMahon led all season. Every time the Rockies won, the team would gather around to hear McMahon break down the win and name that game’s MVP.

Before this year, that duty was Charlie Blackmon’s. On Friday, with McMahon on his way to the Bronx and the Rockies squeaking out a one-run win over the Baltimore Orioles, the responsibility fell to Kyle Farmer, a nine-year MLB veteran in his first season with the Rockies.

“’Mac’ was a great teammate. He was a good leader,” Farmer told The Denver Gazette on Monday. “Quiet, but a good leader.”

That shift in leadership and roles will likely keep evolving for the Rockies as the trade deadline unfolds and the 2025 season enters its final two months. It will be needed for a team that was drubbed 23-1 in the final two games against the Orioles and still must win 15 of its final 57 games to avoid matching the most losses in MLB modern history.

“That’s the circle of life for every clubhouse,” starting pitcher Kyle Freeland said. “You bring young guys in and you teach them the best you can. You hope they pick up everything you teach them and that they not only become elite players but also really good leaders inside a clubhouse.”

Some of those young players are learning by fire on a team that has disappeared at the plate too often in 2025. Saturday’s 18-0 loss to Baltimore was the fifth time the Rockies had been held to two hits or fewer this season.

“We had this conversation last year, right around this same time, and I said we did see light at the end of the tunnel,” Freeland said. “Unfortunately, this season just got completely flipped on its head. This was a season that a lot of us believed that we were going to put something special together and start winning ball games.

“Unfortunately, it’s been a season of disaster.”

Now the Rockies will look to avoid an even bigger disaster by matching the 121 losses posted by the Chicago White Sox last season, the most in a season in modern baseball.

They could be doing so without key bullpen pieces such as Jimmy Herget and Jake Bird if more trades are made before Thursday afternoon. While the Rockies are building for the future, they’re also potentially dealing away some of their most effective players. For the Rockies front office, it’s a balance between weakening the active roster now to strengthen the farm system and the future.

The potential for losing more games this season won’t be viewed by the front office as a factor as the Rockies enter the deadline. There is a belief inside the Colorado clubhouse this team will avoid making the wrong kind of history, no matter which players are in the lineup or bullpen.

“We have two months of baseball left, and you look around and say, ‘This is the squad we’re going to finish out with,’” Freeland said of what comes after the trade deadline in Colorado. “There will still be transactions from Triple-A, but you look around and know who you are riding with for the rest of the season. Now let’s go see what we can do to build momentum going into the next season.”