After being hired as the Colorado Rockies’ president of baseball operations, Paul DePodesta hit the ground running last week at the General Manager’s meeting in Las Vegas. After he returned, he was introduced to the media and got to work.
There are a lot of decisions on his horizon, including hiring a general manager and a manager for his team on the field, but he made a trade on Tuesday afternoon that is a minor one, but one that adds depth to a bullpen that needs it.
The Boston Red Sox sent relief pitcher Brennan Bernardino to the Rockies for minor leaguer Braiden Ward, according to Chris Cotillo of MassLive.
Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images
It was a busy day for the Red Sox and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow. He made some trades to open up some roster spots and closed out the day by sending Bernardino to Colorado.
Bernardino will give whoever the Rockies’ new manager is options. He mainly worked out of the bullpen for the Red Sox, but he made three spot starts for manager Alex Cora in 2025. He had his ups and downs as the season went along, like most pitchers do.
He spent three years in Boston and averaged 56 appearances a season with 12 spot starts. He went 4-3 in 2025 with a 3.14 ERA in 51.2 innings pitched with 43 strikeouts and 26 walks with a 1.26 WHIP. Opponents batted .205 against him, but walks have been an issue with him issuing 4.5 per nine innings.
As for Ward, he was drafted in the 16th round out of the University of Washington in 2021 and spent his time with the Rockies in the minors. He has very good speed after stealing 57 of 64 bases this past summer between Double-A and Triple-A. He has a career slash line of .275/.395/.382 in just under 1,500 at-bats in the minors.
As for Bernardino, just what Colorado’s plans are for him remains to be seen. He is someone who can fill multiple roles out of the bullpen, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see DePodesta move him in another deal at some point.
The Rockies need everything this offseason that DePodesta can get, looking ahead to 2026. This is the first of many more moves to come as the roster rebuild is beginning. It’ll be interesting to see what other moves are coming for a team looking to bounce back from a historically bad season in 2025.