I know, I know. The team has never been perennially great\u2014or even mediocre. The Rockies have had only nine winning records in more than three decades. But even the worst years never felt overly bleak. The Rockies always seemed to have a guy, or even a couple, that made following the team worthwhile\u2014Todd Helton<\/a> chasing a .400 batting average, Arenado<\/a> stockpiling Gold Gloves. And they hit lots of home runs.<\/p>\n Since 2019, though, there hasn\u2019t been much to cheer about. A relentless landslide of bad roster decisions (see: trading Arenado<\/a>) has led to some of the worst baseball the league has ever seen. I\u2019d give the front office a pass if the team was, in fact, rebuilding, but a new foundation is nowhere to be found. The Rockies continue to miss on high draft picks (pitchers Riley Pint and Ryan Rolison and first baseman Michael Toglia come to mind) and have failed to develop what few promising prospects they have (outfielders Zac Veen and Benny Montgomery seem incapable of escaping the minors).<\/p>\n The 103-loss season the team put together in 2023 was a new low. My family opted not to renew our season tickets for the following year. It was hard to give up something that meant so much to us\u2014and to my dad\u2014but it was clear Colorado wouldn\u2019t be winning anytime soon. We would not support the franchise with our wallets.<\/p>\n Our protest had no effect on the Rockies\u2019 utter ineptitude. In 2024, they lost another 101 games. So I decided to make the summer of 2025 as Rockies-free as possible.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t go to Coors Field. I didn\u2019t watch the team on TV or listen to games on the radio. I didn\u2019t check the box scores. I unfollowed DNVR Rockies, Blake Street Banter, and even the main team account on social media to limit the barrage of bad news.<\/p>\n The boycott turned out to be a good idea. The Rockies went 43-119<\/a>, just two games better than the worst record in modern MLB history. The team\u2019s first series victory didn\u2019t come until June, more than two months into the season. It was shut out 18 times, breaking the previous franchise record of 16. The pitching staff logged a 5.99 ERA, the ninth-worst mark of all time, and the club recorded the worst run differential of any team since the early 1900s, giving up 424 more runs than it scored. At one point, the Washington Post called Colorado \u201cmonumentally, laughably, historically bad.\u201d One modifier was not enough to describe the incompetence.<\/p>\n When news of the Rockies\u2019 historic dysfunction pierced my firewall, I was not surprised. I knew they had essentially fielded a AAA roster to compete with divisional powerhouses in the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres. And I\u2019d already spent years ranting about the Monforts\u2019 poor stewardship of the franchise to anyone who\u2019d listen. The Rockies were atrocious, and I wasn\u2019t sure if I cared.<\/p>\n When the Rockies arrived in 1993, Denver was desperate for baseball. The team set the MLB single-season attendance record during its inaugural season<\/a>, drawing nearly 4.5 million fans to the original Mile High Stadium, where a dirt diamond was etched into the north end zone while construction on Coors Field was underway. The demand was so great that team officials increased the capacity of Coors from 43,000 to 50,000 ahead of its official opening in the spring of 1995.<\/p>\n Success came quickly. The Rockies made the playoffs in 1995 behind a collection of home run hitters the city lovingly dubbed the Blake Street Bombers. There was Andr\u00e9s Galarraga, the team\u2019s first free-agent signing; Dante Bichette, the fiery, emotional heartbeat of the group; Vinny Castilla, the durable blue-collar third baseman; Ellis Burks, the veteran leader; and Larry Walker, the franchise\u2019s first icon. The group fully leaned into its home-field advantage: Denver\u2019s thin air, which allows a baseball to travel roughly 10 percent farther. The team led the National League in hits, runs, batting average, and slugging percentage that year. During the Rockies\u2019 first six years at Coors Field, the ballpark produced three seasons that rank among the 10 highest combined home and away home run totals ever at a single stadium. The 303 long balls hit during the 1999 season still stand as the most ever.<\/p>\n During those early seasons, my father made sure to remind me how lucky we were to be able to go to Major League Baseball games in Denver. When he grew up here in the 1960s and \u201970s, the city played host to a minor league team called the Denver Bears (later changed to the Zephyrs). He told my sisters and me that going to those games was fun but not as exciting as the Show, especially for a diehard baseball fan like himself. He\u2019d lived in San Francisco during his 20s and spoke fondly about bundling up for Giants games at Candlestick Park. He always said that even on nights when the wind came howling off the bay, it was worth hanging around to watch baseball. The arrival of the Rockies was everything my dad ever wanted.<\/p>\n But while fog and inbound gusts helped turn Candlestick into a pitchers\u2019 paradise, the thin air that gave rise to the Blake Street Bombers made it hard to build a winner at elevation. Not only does the ball travel farther in Denver, but it doesn\u2019t break as much when spun from a pitcher\u2019s hand. During the 1995 season alone, Rockies hurlers racked up a 6.17 home ERA, compared to a significantly lower 3.71 ERA on the road.<\/p>\n The offensive bonanza offered up by Coors Field led to some crazy outcomes. Just months after the stadium opened, the Chicago Cubs scored 26 runs in a single game. In May 1999, the Rockies and Cincinnati Reds combined for an MLB-record 81 total bases, including 10 home runs and 43 hits. The Reds won, 24-12. During those early years, my dad had a rule: We couldn\u2019t leave early unless one team was up by more than five runs. Rally caps had real power, and abandoning the team could ruin a wild Rockies comeback. \u201cEvery game there is like a football game,\u201d Hall of Fame pitcher Trevor Hoffman, who played for the San Diego Padres from 1993 to 2008, told ESPN. \u201cThe offense always has a chance. I cannot imagine playing 81 games a year like that.\u201d<\/p>\n The carnage was real\u2014and the question became whether the Rockies were going to do something about it. \u201cThe only person who tried to figure it out was Dan O\u2019Dowd,\u201d says Nick Groke, who covered the Rockies for the Denver Post and the Athletic. The franchise\u2019s longest-serving general manager, from 1999 to 2014, O\u2019Dowd came to the Rockies after spending more than a decade in the Cleveland Indians\u2019 front office and was considered ahead of his time for his emphasis on analytics. (Sure enough, he\u2019s now an analyst for MLB Network.)<\/p>\n During O\u2019Dowd\u2019s first few seasons in charge, he prioritized signing sinker-ball pitchers, the idea being that grounders limited the effects of Denver\u2019s thin air, which regularly turned routine fly balls into home runs. O\u2019Dowd committed a combined $172 million to free agent pitchers Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle in 2000. (Hampton\u2019s $121 million contract was the largest in MLB history when he signed it.) Both players finished their tenures in Denver with losing records and ERAs well above 5.00. Hampton was traded after two seasons, and Neagle\u2019s contract was terminated in 2004 after he was arrested for solicitation of a prostitute.<\/p>\n In 2002, the Rockies became the first team to install a baseball humidor: a temperature- and humidity-controlled room where baseballs are stored to counteract the effects of elevation. During the following decade, average total runs scored per game at Coors Field dropped from 13.6 to 11.1. In 2022, MLB mandated the use of humidors across the league to help standardize the way balls behave at each stadium.<\/p>\n O\u2019Dowd also became one of the first general managers to try a piggyback pitching rotation. The new approach, which he debuted in 2012, featured four starting pitchers (instead of the standard five) who would only throw about 75 pitches (the normal limit is around 100), along with three middle relief pitchers to supplement the shortened outings. The strategy aimed to offset the sluggish recovery and heightened physical toll caused by pitching at 5,280 feet. The pitching staff\u2019s ERA dropped from 6.28 to 5.22 in the first month after the piggyback rotation was implemented.<\/p>\n Ultimately, though, it did little to prevent the Rockies from losing games. The team finished 64-98 that year, and O\u2019Dowd later ditched the unusual strategy after players criticized the way it disrupted their routines. (Incidentally, multiple teams use a version of it today.) \u201cHe took a lot of grief, which in hindsight I think was unfair,\u201d Groke says. \u201cAt least he tried something.\u201d<\/p>\n Amid the flops, the Rockies also made their deepest playoff run under O\u2019Dowd\u2019s supervision. In 2007, a group led by future Hall of Fame first baseman Helton, 22-year-old budding superstar Troy Tulowitzki, and MVP candidate Matt Holliday won 14 of its final 15 games to storm into the playoffs. In the final regular season game, a loser-goes-home tiebreaker against the Padres<\/a>, the Rockies erased a two-run deficit in the 13th inning, sealing a postseason berth after a lumbering Holliday slid headfirst across home plate. The Rockies flooded out of the dugout, dogpiling Holliday, and Coors Field erupted into utter pandemonium. For the first time, an intoxicating idea crept into my mind: Was this the start of a championship run? <\/p>\n From September 15 to October 28, the Rockies went nearly undefeated. Fans packed Coors each night, turning downtown into a sea of purple. Colorado swept the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL Division Series and the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NL Championship Series. Until the magic ran out in the World Series, where the Boston Red Sox swept the Rockies, it felt like the team would never lose again.<\/p>\n The Rockies made another postseason run in 2009, but the team soon settled back into the familiar obscurity of the NL West basement. From 2010 to 2016, the club finished over .500 only once.<\/p>\n The Rockies\u2019 futility in the early 2010s aligned with the longest stretch of time I spent living away from Denver. While in college out of state and starting my career, I would still tune in to the Rockies\u2019 radio broadcast while studying or on train rides home. I remained obsessed with dissecting game notes and following reports about exciting new prospects. I called home to chat with my dad about Arenado\u2019s defensive wizardry or how reliable closer Huston Street was. We were excited for a young core that included an electric outfielder in Charlie Blackmon and a burgeoning ace in Germ\u00e1n M\u00e1rquez. It was easy to spot the outlines of a winning team.<\/p>\n My dad never got to see our optimism turn into on-field success. He died in 2016 after a long battle with cancer. When I moved back to Denver the following summer, I returned to Coors Field without him.<\/p>\n Despite the pang of not having him in the seat beside me, my timing couldn\u2019t have been better, as the Rockies stitched together back-to-back playoff campaigns in 2017 and 2018. Those teams were led by MVP candidates Blackmon and Arenado, along with DJ LeMahieu, a gritty, high-IQ infielder, and starting pitchers M\u00e1rquez and local kid Kyle Freeland<\/a>, who\u2019d graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School. I attended some 30 games each season in my family\u2019s seats, dutifully joining 50,000 fans shouting \u201cTONIIIIGHT!\u201d when Blackmon stepped up to the dish as the Outfield\u2019s \u201cYour Love\u201d blared through Coors. When Wade Davis struck out an incensed Bryce Harper to clinch Colorado\u2019s postseason spot in 2018, I high-fived at least 50 strangers. Little did I know, that was as good as it would get.<\/p>\n Following the 2018 season, the Rockies let LeMahieu walk. The team\u2019s spark plug, LeMahieu had won a batting title and three Gold Gloves during his time with Colorado. He was the Rockies\u2019 metronome on those playoff teams, famously belting his first walk-off homer in a September tilt with the Arizona Diamondbacks that helped the 2018 squad keep pace with the Dodgers in the divisional race. \u201cWhen we look at all the different things, not paying LeMahieu was the turning point,\u201d says Christian Saez, who covers the Rockies for DNVR. \u201cThat set them down the path of dysfunction. They didn\u2019t pay him, and they were pretty stubborn about it. I think the players saw that, and it led to a lot of frustration.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2019, the Rockies started 3-12 and finished 20 games under .500\u2014the first of a run of seven straight losing seasons. LeMahieu, meanwhile, was in the top five in MVP voting the next two seasons with the New York Yankees.<\/p>\n Even some of those directly involved in the decision to ditch LeMahieu say they have regrets about it now. \u201cI don\u2019t think you necessarily see the impact of the off-the-field stuff until you get further away from it and can really digest what the temperature of the team was following that change,\u201d says Zack Rosenthal, who served as the Rockies\u2019 assistant general manager for 11 seasons and vice president of baseball operations for four seasons before stepping down last fall. \u201cDJ was a quiet guy but brought a real toughness and accountability that we missed when he left.\u201d<\/p>\n The divide between the suits and the spikes came more clearly into view when Arenado, one of the best players in franchise history, openly expressed displeasure with the direction of the team in 2020 before requesting a trade ahead of the 2021 season. The star third baseman never fully explained his motivation for asking out. His on-the-record quotes on the subject were vague, but he was clearly frustrated with the Rockies\u2019 leadership. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of disrespect from people there that I don\u2019t want to be a part of,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n The Rockies ultimately traded Arenado to the St. Louis Cardinals for pitcher Austin Gomber and prospects, none of whom have come anywhere close to providing the value Arenado did. Even worse, the Rockies had to pay the Cardinals $51 million for the privilege to do so. At the time, Denver Post columnist Mark Kiszla likened the deal to throwing Arenado and $51 million in a dumpster and called it \u201cthe dumbest trade in Colorado sports history.\u201d<\/p>\n For players inside the clubhouse, the trade only confirmed concerns that had been building for years. A former player who agreed to speak to me in exchange for anonymity said there were often times when he and his teammates wanted the front office to add needed pieces via trade. In 2018, many players felt the team had the opportunity to trade prospects for a player who could strengthen the lineup, including Marlins catcher J.T. Realmuto, an All Star and Silver Slugger that season. Miami flipped him to Philadelphia the following year.<\/p>\n That former player also said that one of the biggest differences between the Rockies and other teams he played for was a dearth of resources to help improve performance. He specifically cited technology and analytics as areas in which Colorado lagged.<\/p>\n Eno Sarris, who covers analytics and MLB for the Athletic, agrees with that assessment. As an example, he points to the team\u2019s belated addition of a Trajekt pitching machine, which allows hitters to face video-simulated versions of real pitchers, in 2025. The system, which debuted in 2021, is especially beneficial for Rockies hitters because it can help them prepare for the contrast in how a baseball breaks (or doesn\u2019t) at different elevations. \u201cThey are just getting to things that people have been doing for five to 10 years,\u201d Sarris says.<\/p>\n Groke, the former Denver Post and Athletic beat writer, provided more stark evidence. In 2019, Blackmon changed his batting practice ahead of the first game of a road trip in an attempt to speed up his adjustment to how pitches moved at lower elevations. Instead of having a coach lob balls at him, he started using a three-rotor pitching machine that could duplicate the high spin rate and more dramatic break he would see during the game. Other players caught on, and the new method became commonplace. \u201cThis was a good thing that Charlie did. He was being proactive,\u201d Groke says. \u201cBut in reality, he should not have had to do all that work by himself. He should have been focused on that game, that day. I think every other club in the league would\u2019ve done that work for him.\u201d<\/p>\n In February 2020, Dick Monfort, the majority owner and CEO of the Rockies, made a bold proclamation: The Rockies would win a franchise record 94 games during the coming season. The declaration was greeted with skepticism by both fans and pundits, as the team was set to return a mostly identical roster to the one that had won only 71 games and racked up a National League\u2013worst 5.56 ERA the season prior.<\/p>\n The COVID-19 pandemic cut the season short, but the Rockies\u2019 26-34 record indicated they likely wouldn\u2019t have fulfilled Monfort\u2019s prophecy. His poor prognostication, though, was part of a disconcerting pattern for Rockies brass post-2018: They had a desperate desire to see a winning baseball team where none existed. Multiple times in the ensuing years, Monfort and general manager Bill Schmidt, the longtime head of Colorado\u2019s scouting department before he was promoted to run baseball operations in 2021, claimed the Rockies were just about to turn it around, that the next season would go better than predicted.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/5280-InFeedSubs-Mar2026.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Rockies](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/TicketsCombo.jpg\")
The writer\u2019s Opening Day commemorative tickets. Photo by Sarah Banks<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1995-game_Courtesy-of-the-Colorado-Rockies_95-0078.jpg\")
The Rockies dugout during a 1995 sellout at Coors Field. Photo courtesy of the Colorado Rockies<\/p>\n![\"Larry](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Larry-Walker-batting_Brian-Bahr_Getty-Images_GettyImages-72572365.jpg\")
Larry Walker in 1999. Photo by Brian Bahr\/Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"General](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Dan-ODowd_Courtesy-of-the-Colorado-Rockies_11-10649_Dan-ODowd_This-is-Our-Team-Summit.jpg\")
General manager Dan O\u2019Dowd in 2011. Photo courtesy of the Colorado Rockies<\/p>\n![\"Game](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2007-game_Courtesy-of-the-Colorado-Rockies_07-09921_Rockies-defeated-the-Philadelphia-Phillies-2-1-t.jpeg\")
Game 4 of the 2007 NL Division Series. Photo courtesy of the Colorado Rockies<\/p>\n![\"Shane](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Shane-dad_Sarah-Banks_Rockies_693a8204.jpg\")
The writer and his dad in the mid-1990s. Photo courtesy of Shane Monaghan, photographed by Sarah Banks<\/p>\n![\"Second](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Celebrating-players_Andy-Cross_the-Denver-Post-via-Getty-Images_GettyImages-1032425092.jpg\")
Second baseman DJ LeMahieu (left) and pitcher Kyle Freeland in 2018. Photo by Andy Cross\/The Denver Post via Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Todd](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Todd-Helton_Courtesy-of-the-Colorado-Rockies_07_October-15-2007-01-07-07875_Todd-Helton__NLCS.jpg\")
Todd Helton in the 2007 NL Championship Series. Photo courtesy of the Colorado Rockies<\/p>\n
![\"Nolan](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Nolan-Arenado_Matthew-Stockman_Getty-Images_GettyImages-697409120.jpg\")
Nolan Arenado hits a walk-off in 2017. Photo by Matthew Stockman\/Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Walker](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/PaulDePodesta_Courtesy-of-the-Colorado-Rockies_20251113_PaulDePodestaPressConference_GL002.jpg\")
Walker Monfort (left) and Paul DePodesta. Courtesy of the Colorado Rockies<\/p>\n![\"Shane](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Shane-Monaghan-1.jpg\")