In his quest to become a better, stronger, more accomplished pitcher, Rockies Renaissance man Ryan Feltner is going back to the Stone Age.
That’s a big change for the cerebral right-hander, who’ll be counted on to return from injuries and provide stability to a rebuilt rotation coming off the worst season in major league history.
“He has what it takes to be an All-Star in this league,” new Rockies pitching coach Alon Leichman said Wednesday, a day before pitchers and catchers were scheduled to hold their first official workout of spring training in Scottsdale, Arizona. “He has some really cool pitches, and once he puts it all together, he will be a force in this league.”
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But “putting it all together” has been a challenge for the 29-year-old Feltner, whose career has been derailed by injuries and subsequent rehab stints. Those injuries overshadowed the second half of his 2024 season when he was one of the best pitchers in the National League.
Showing excellent command with all of his pitches, he finished the season with a 2.98 ERA over his last 15 starts, the first Rockies starter with a sub-3.00 ERA through a 15-start span since German Marquez during his All-Star campaign in 2021. Across five starts in September, Feltner posted a 1.78 ERA, walking 10 and fanning 23.
Back to basics at the gym
Feltner is the thinking man’s pitcher. In 2023, when Feltner was working his way back from the fractured skull suffered on a horrific comebacker to the mound, he turned to his artistic side as part of therapy. He created vivid, abstract paintings.
But this winter, Feltner went Paleolithic. As he worked his way back from back and shoulder injuries that wiped out most of his 2025, he packed away his easel and paint brushes and picked up the dumbbells.
“Painting probably would have been good for me, but I took my anger out in the weight room this offseason,” Feltner said with a laugh. “I went a little more caveman.”
Feltner, a Florida native, spent his offseason living in a small Quonset hut-style home next to the Intracoastal Waterway in South Florida.
“It was small and pretty shabby,” Feltner said. “But it was OK. I knew I wasn’t going to be at home much. I knew I was going to be at the gym doing PT, weight training and throwing. I kind of went back to my roots. That was kind of my therapy.”
Feltner’s routine was pretty simple. He got up, made breakfast, and walked over to the water.
“Then I’d spend the next six hours at the gym,” he said.
He trained under the watchful eye of Eric Schoenberg, a personal trainer at the Cressey Sports Performance in Palm Beach Gardens. The goal was not simply to make Feltner physically stronger, but to understand how his body moved and what he needed to do to stay on the mound and pitch at a high level for a full season.
“We wanted to find out, ‘What happens to my body after so many starts? This gets tight, that gets tight. Why? This gets out of whack. Why is that?’ ” Feltner explained. “I feel like we put our finger on a bunch of things. Plus, we did a lot of the traditional strength training stuff, which I did a ton of, so I put on some muscle.”
Added Leichman: “He worked hard and got himself ready. He’s put himself in a good spot.”
Ryan Feltner of the Colorado Rockies is taken out of the game against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the third inning at Dodger Stadium on April 15, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Luke Hales/Getty Images)
Moving past a frustrating 2025
Feltner doesn’t like looking back on the 2025 season, when he mostly watched from the trainer’s room while Colorado lost 119 games. He hates talking about it, saying that his interview with The Denver Post might be his final word on ’25.
“Last year was the most frustrating of my career, for sure,” he said. “Once this spring training kicks off, this might be the last time I talk to anybody about all of this stuff.”
Freeland made just six big-league starts, going 0-2 with a 4.75 ERA. The problems begin early in the season, with lower back pain. Still, on April 22, he pitched an excellent game, allowing one run on three hits over seven innings at Kansas City. But the pain reached a crescendo in his next start, on April 28 vs. the Braves at Coors Field. He gave up five runs on 10 hits in 4 1/3 innings, striking out four and walking one.
“I was in pain the whole time,” he recalled. “We kind of knew, going out there, that I probably wasn’t going to make it through my start. But I wanted to try anyway. But that was the nail in the coffin.”
Once his back settled down, Feltner began throwing bullpen sessions, only to have pain flare up in his shoulder.
“I just don’t think my back was able to rotate properly, and because of that, something else was going to take the stress,” he said. “That was the shoulder. It was all so frustrating.”
Now, Feltner said, his back and shoulder are “totally fine … I’m 100% healthy.”
Leichman is excited to see what the right-hander can do when his back is not seizing up and his shoulder’s not barking.
“He’s got what it takes,” Leichman said. “We are big believers in him, and I’m sure the league will find out how good he is. The main thing is being physically and mentally ready to take the ball when it’s his turn.”
Feltner throws six pitches — four-seam fastball, sinker, changeup, curveball, and two types of slider — and he likes the Rockies’ philosophy of utilizing expanded pitching arsenals to keep hitters offbalance.
“They have stressed to me that that’s my superpower, to be able to throw all of my pitches,” he said. “I can shape my sliders. So the slider I throw to lefties, you can call a cutter, and the slider I throw to righties, you can call a true slider. I have a plethora of pitches.”
Feltner likes the direction the Rockies are headed under a new front office and pitching staff as camp opens.
“I’m very excited,” he said. “Right when I walked into the meeting room last month at Fan Fest at Coors Field, I told somebody that the energy felt different, right away, when I was walking in.
“It’s so cool to see the guys have those conversations about our new approaches. It’s been a very forward-looking, stimulating environment. I’m going to make the most of it.”
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