Picture this: A college baseball player looks to hopefully make a statement in a Major League Baseball organization and lo and behold, they get drafted by the Colorado Rockies. That’s got to sting, right? This team has been, for the most part since their inception, a complete dumpster fire of an organization.
The Rockies have yet to win their first World Series ring in franchise history. Sure, a few teams haven’t achieved that, namely the Milwaukee Brewers, Tampa Bay Rays, San Diego Padres, and the Seattle Mariners. However, these teams have placed themselves in position to go all the way for multiple years over the last decade.
At least there’s effort being made in these ringless teams putting themselves in position to make the playoffs. The Rockies, on the other hand, have yet to scratch the surface since 2018. All this team has done since 2019 is perform poorly, make questionable decisions on roster construction, completely disregard their franchise cornerstones, and overall show no fight in making this team competitive at the MLB level.
Since 2019, Colorado has placed fourth or lower in the NL West with a combined record of 402-629, a putrid .361 win percentage. 2025 was statistically the teams worst season yet in 26 years, allowing 1021 runs, the most runs given up in a season by any team since the turn of the century, losing 119 of 162 games.
In just five of the 33 seasons, the team has made the playoffs, with 2007, 18 years ago, being their peak. How can they return to a competent squad in the future? They are quite simply, the worst team in baseball, probably the worst professional sports team in North America.
More often than not, opponents can sit back and relax when the Rockies come up on the schedule. It’s arguably difficult to even find true die-hard Rockies fans in the stands, probably because the Broncos and Nuggets are more fun to watch.
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This wasn’t the case in the past, however. 1995, 2007, 2009, 2017, and 2018 saw the Rockies make some noise in the postseason, with 2007 being their best season so far in franchise history.
They even garnered Hall of Famers in Larry Walker and Todd Helton, both integral pieces in the Rockies playoff appearances. Other notable players who were fan favorites included Charlie Blackmon, Jon Gray, Dante Bichette, Andres Galaraga, Matt Holiday, Carlos Gonzales, Ubaldo Jimenez, Huston Street, Trevor Story, Troy Tulowitzski, and Nolan Arenado.
Even so, in the third season of the franchise, the Rockies made the playoffs, showing that Denver can become a city of baseball. A formidable young team too, in aforementioned players in Walker and Bichette, along with Vinny Castilla. With a 77-67 record in the shortened 1995 season, Colorado lost to the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS, who were in the middle of their fearsome dynasty. For a franchise that was recently added to the MLB, making it to the postseason in just the third year ain’t bad.
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The infamous 2007 season for Colorado saw a team competing for a playoff spot, hovering over .500 with a 76-72 record. Towards the September stretch turned was a magical moment for the team, going 14-1 in the final 15 games of September, finishing with a 90-73 record. The Rockies even snatched the final Wild Card spot away from their division rival Padres on a comeback 9-8 win in extras.
Adding more fuel to the fire, they outperformed the entire National League postseason teams, sweeping both the Philadelphia Phillies and Arizona Diamondbacks en route to their first World Series appearance. Of course, nobody was stopping the Boston Red Sox, as Colorado got a taste of their own medicine, getting swept in the Fall Classic.
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Looking back at this, what is now described as a one-hit wonder season, the Rockies tried to replicate their 2007 “Rocktober” in 2009, going 92-70 with a relatively similar core. To this day, 92 wins is technically a regular-season franchise record. In the 2009 playoffs, Colorado could only muster one win against the Phillies as they lost the NLDS in four games.
Fast-forward to yet another rebuild phase after missed playoff attempts with the core of Carlos Gonzalez, Charlie Blackmon, Nolan Arenado, Trevor Story, and DJ LeMahieu in 2017 and 2018, and Colorado was back in playoff contention, nearly winning the NL West Division over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Colorado advanced to the NLDS after beating the Chicago Cubs in the Wild Card game, but got swept by the Brewers in three games.
After 2018, the Rockies had a prime opportunity to retain the core that had sustained back-to-back playoff appearances and keep getting better, or so we thought. The first domino to fall was not retaining LeMahieu. The then two-time All-Star signed with the New York Yankees. No harm, no foul, the Rockies still had All-Stars in Story, Gonzalez, Arenado, and Blackmon.
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They were also focusing on extending their best player in Arenado. At this time Arenado was a 4-time All-Star, Gold Glove, and Silver Slugger. The Rockies offered him an 8-year, $260 million extension.
On paper, this seemed great for the slugging third baseman. He was earning $260 million for eight years, and he deserved it. Since 2013, Arenado has placed fifth among position players in rWAR with 39.1.
But there was more than meets the eye. Rockies owner Dick Monfort and Jeff Bridich both conspired against Arenado, purposely not mentioning to their All-Star that he had a no-trade clause and a 2021 player option on the contract. Arenado didn’t not ask for that.
The Colorado GM insisted on this deal because in reality, the organization had no intention of paying him the full amount. To put it mildly, they dangled this amount in his face and the league convincing all of us that this was a straight up deal with no caveats.
Arenado was clearly unhappy with the terms of this deal. He could have been the next Todd Helton or Larry Walker as clear mainstays on a team for the long haul. Additionally, the Rockies didn’t even attempt to build a contender around their franchise player, and completely regressed in 2019, going 71-91.
From 2016-2020, the players Bridich signed to, quote-unquote, “build around their stars” had a combined -8.1 WAR. These players included the likes of Ian Desmond, Daniel Murphy, Jason Motte, Gerardo Parra, Wade Davis, Mike Dunn, and Bryan Shaw. This regression permeated through the 2021 season, growing progressively worse. Former All-Star CarGo also regressed significantly after the 2018 season.
After some forgettable seasons in 2019 and the pandemic 2020, Arenado had enough, and made some unhinged remarks at the front office for the malicious contract and ineffectively building key players around him. Bridich could have been fired due to his inability to retain a playoff contender, along with contractual malpractice. Instead, the owner chose the organization over a future all-time great, sending Arenado to the Cardinals.
To put the icing on this disgusting cake, they forked away $50 million in cash considerations to the Arenado trade and received pitcher Austin Gomber, five prospects, none of whom remain with the team, with three never even reaching the Rockies’ major-league roster.
To this day, the return they got from Arenado has got to be one of the worst trades in MLB history. Bridich realized he made a mistake given the backfire and bad reception from fans and the media, leading him to voluntarily step down as Rockies GM. His departure put the entire organization further in no mans land.
All-Star teammate Trevor Story slowly watched the team fall apart after Arenado left and worked on getting himself out of Colorado in succession. He was an unrestricted free agent in 2022, so, naturally, it would behoove the Rockies front office to trade their shortstop before the 2021 trade deadline to acquire some value instead of letting him walk.
Instead, they kept Story past the trade deadline. An ill-fated decision as the dominoes were now in a freefall and no playoff contention was in sight. Story got out of there in a hurry and signed with the Red Sox in 2022. At this point, Charlie Blackmon and some expiring vets were left on the roster. Surely the Rockies looked to get back into a rebuild and start it all over again, right?
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This dilemma went from bad to worse. In a stunning move letting Story walk and trading away Arenado, the Rockies signed World Series champion, three-time All-Star and 2016 MVP Kris Bryant to a seven year, $182 million contract. Bryant’s deal included a full no trading clause, puzzling more MLB media and Rockies fans. Prior to signing the former Cubs third baseman, most assumed the Rockies waived the white flag and commenced another rebuild due to back to back losing seasons. Why would you sign an All-Star after removing two of your best players?
Bryant’s time with the Rockies thus far has been abysmal. Three years into the seven-year deal and the former MVP has posted slashlines of .222/.307/.335 with 12 home runs, 47 RBI and -2.2 WAR over 128 games. Due to poor performance and a litany of injuries since coming to the mile high city, Bryant has only played a little over 75% of a full season in three seasons. Aside from LA Angels’ Anthony Rendon, this probably is the worst contract in MLB modern history.
Charlie Blackmon, the lone piece of the mid-2010s core, stayed with the team as they crumbled into obscurity. He retired at the end of the 2024 season. The other current pieces have been on the roster and last witnessed Rockies playoff baseball are pitchers in Kyle Freeland, Antonio Senzatela, and Germán Márquez, who is now a free agent. These arms have essentially been in endless baseball purgatory and deserve to be moved to other teams.
After this long history lesson signifying a complete crash and burn, why have the Rockies been complacent in recent memory? The main problem is failing to follow through on contending or rebuilding. Once the Rockies have a chance to contend, they aren’t able to sustain it because there is no sense of urgency or an overabundance of signing has-beens. On the flipside, when a so-called “rebuild” starts, there’s no concrete plan or process.
Case in point, the abominable signing of Bryant is purely to make money. Grabbing a quick buck from fans because Kris Bryant for a time, used to be box office. Colorado is licking their wounds on this contract because now they cannot get rid of it.
The problem on this deal is that the Rockies can’t trade away Bryant and get some of the money back. Virtually no team wants to eat Bryant’s deal. Colorado will have to reap what it sows and essentially replicate what the Angels are doing with Rendon’s deal. Buyout Bryant’s contract on the final year, which will be in 2029.
Hopefully for Rockies fans, the team has seen the worst of itself coming off just 43 wins in 2025, the lowest wins in franchise history. A team that only secured 43 wins the prior season should only surmise one thing: This team needs to completely blow it up. In order to salvage the irreparable damage they’ve caused, they need to replace everything with a clean slate.
The first thing they need to do is hire a competent general manager and create a game plan loosely based on how they had relative success in 2007, 2009, and 2018. In 2007, the Rockies led the National League in AVG, hits, second in runs scored, walks, OPS, and placed 4th in slugging. On a pitching standpoint, Colorado impressively ranked 8th in ERA, BAA, and 4th in WHIP in the National League, given that they play half of their games at Coors Field.
Coors field, their home turf, is notorious for high octane offense due to the altitude.
Rockies need to lean on that in order to win ballgames.
On the pitching side, Colorado’s history of pitchers have had an especially tougher time throwing in this ballpark, specifically on balls that break downward. It’s a prime reason why Rockies pitchers produce around a 4 ERA on average.
Ubaldo Jimenez has been the only pitcher with relatively sustained success in Coors Field, mainly because during his short prime of three years, he relied heavily on his four-seam fastball, touching the mid to high 90s. This proved dividends to his stats, as he averaged a 3.45 ERA from 2008-2010 in 33.25 starts. As he got older, his fastball usage decreased because he couldn’t touch the mid-90s frequently.
Starting pitcher German Marquez has been with the Rockies since 2016. When he was in his early 20s, he threw more fastballs and sliders, and had at least 8 K/9 from 2017-2021, with a 10.56 K/9 in 2018. Since 2023, at 30 years old, Marquez relegated to throwing more breaking pitches, like curveballs, sinkers and changeups. The difference? His ERA shot up to the 6s along with his K/9 went down to the 6s. Marquez is using more of his breaking stuff, and it’s getting lit up like a Christmas tree.
In Denver, the air is so thin that curveballs and sweepers don’t break as much, defeating the purpose of using them in the first place to fool hitters. On top of the fact that they are slower than fastballs, expect a lot of hitters easily squaring up baseballs at a higher rate.
Foolish Bailey, creator of Foolish Baseball on Jomboy Media, posted a video on Youtube in 2021 analyzing citing how the Rockies “Stink” and how to fix them. It’s 2025 and his analysis can still apply today.
To find a solution, Foolish believes the Rockies front office needs to “prioritize hard throwers and limit the amount of breaking balls that break downward.” They also need to add position prospects who are “athletic, young, lanky and can cover extensive ground on the field.”
Think of a Nolan Arenado, Francisco Tatis Jr., Kevin Pillar, Willy Taveras type build. This will help Rockies pitchers because, especially in Coors, you can only do so much to mitigate the weather effects on the field.
This is the best approach in dealing with the altered weather effects in the Mile High City.
Given these solutions, will the Rockies finally admit they’ve dug themselves a gaping hole over the last six seasons and go back to the drawing board? On paper, they can try. The only thing that’s keeping them from executing is the lack of assets they have to offer teams in order to get top prospects. The Rockies farm system is in the middle of the pack, and they simply cannot tank any
It’s perfectly fine to go full rebuild and develop a core of young players that are suited to play well at Coors Field. Once you’ve developed that core, then surround them with veterans who have postseason experience. This blueprint is what many teams have done in order to achieve long-term success.
Aside from the front office has hiring a new president of baseball operations in Paul DePodesta, on November 7th, team has been overall quiet so far this offseason. Let’s see what the Winter Meetings on December 7th entail for the Colorado Rockies.
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