Welcome to the 2025 edition of Ranking the Rockies, where we take a look back at every player to log playing time for the Rockies in 2025. The purpose of this list is to provide a snapshot of the player in context. The “Ranking” is an organizing principle that’s drawn from Baseball Reference’s WAR (rWAR). It’s not something the staff debated. We’ll begin with the player with the lowest rWAR and end up with the player with the highest.
No. 9, Ryan Feltner (0.6 rWAR)
What does it say about the Rockies’ starting pitching when their second most valuable starter made just six appearances in 2025?
Ryan Feltner had quite a forgettable season with the Rockies as injuries nagged the right-hander, limiting him to just 13 appearances between the big leagues and Triple-A Albuquerque. After a strong showing in the latter half of the 2024 season, Feltner was looking to take the next step forward this year and cement himself as a rotation staple for the next few years.
Feltner got off to a good start in the third game of the season when he toed the rubber against the Tampa Bay Rays. He tossed five innings, allowing two runs on four hits with five strikeouts against one walk. It was more of what he has shown in the final months of last season, a reliable starter that could regularly go at least five innings while tallying strikeouts and limiting walks.
Things got a little shakier as April rolled on and Feltner battled some inconsistencies. He delivered some excellent outings, including six innings of one-run ball against the Milwaukee Brewers and later allowing just one run over seven innings against the Kansas City Royals. However, they were surrounded by a couple of short outings in which he allowed at least five runs in each of them.
Feltner’s start against the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 15 was by far the ugliest when he allowed five runs on five hits in 2 2/3 innings with an unsightly six walks allowed.
On May 2, after sitting out a few days, Feltner was placed on the 15-day injured list with back spasms, and the initial hope was that he wouldn’t be sidetracked for very long. Unfortunately, that was the beginning of a long and disappointing road for the rest of the season. The back issues continued to bother Feltner, and he was placed on the 60-day IL a month later, in June, as the Rockies needed some big league help and he wasn’t close to returning.
He was sent on an initial rehab assignment to the Arizona Complex League on June 16 where he tossed a scoreless 1 2/3 innings. Five days later on June 21, he was back in Albuquerque making a rehab start and fired three innings, allowing one run on two hits. Things didn’t go as well in his next outing as he coughed up six runs on seven hits over 3 2/3 innings with four walks. The following start was just as ugly but the takeaway was that Feltner appeared healthy enough to be activated.
However, he wasn’t assigned to the big league club. Deeming him healthy but needing more time to build up again, he was optioned to Triple-A on July 4. He went on to make just three more starts in July, giving up 12 runs over 10 1/3 innings. During his bid to return from the back injury, a shoulder injury appeared, knocking him out for the rest of the season.
The issue of a shoulder injury that may have a root in his back injury, Feltner walked 23 batters against 13 strikeouts in his 21 innings with Albuquerque—uncharacteristically highlighted by the nine walks issued in his final start of 2025.
In the year, Feltner posted a 4.75 ERA in 30 1/3 innings over six starts with the Rockies. He had 25 strikeouts against 12 walks with a 1.484 WHIP.
So, 2025 was a bust for Feltner, but the Rockies look poised to rely on him once again in 2026. He was tendered a contract along with the rest of the arbitration-eligible players and MLB Trade Rumors projected him to earn about $2.3 million in the coming season.
MLB.com’s Thomas Harding reported back in October that Feltner’s belief for the breakdown in 2025 was that he didn’t arrive at spring training as strong as he should have. He came in at 195 pounds compared to the 200 pounds in previous years.
“I still hit the weight room hard, but I cut my offseason short because I wanted to take the first month of the offseason to recover, and make sure that I was ready to go the next year,” Feltner said. “But I’ve learned a lot. Building capacity in the weight room is important for me, so that I have a higher workload capacity going into next season.”
Feltner has been dedicated this offseason to putting on and maintaining weight while keeping his athleticism. At 29 years old, Feltner still has a lot left in the tank, and with the well of uncertainty that surrounds the rotation, he needs to be able to come back and stay healthy as a productive member of the staff.
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