A couple former friends gave the Rockies a swift kick in the baseball pants to send Colorado into the offseason.\n<\/p>\n
Colorado lost its season finale 4-2 on Sunday to the White Sox at Rate Field, as ex-Rockies outfielders Randall Grichuk and Brenton Doyle<\/a> both blasted two-run homers to lead Chicago to victory.\n<\/p>\n The White Sox, just two seasons removed from setting MLB\u2019s modern record with 121 losses, are headed to the playoffs via an American League wild card berth. The Rockies, amid a fourth-straight 100-loss season<\/a>, enter this offseason with plenty of questions still swirling as to how the club is going to turn this wrong-way train around.\n<\/p>\n Colorado\u2019s 104 losses are a 15-win improvement from last year\u2019s historic 119-loss season<\/a>, but it stands as the second-most losses in club history. The Rockies flashed glimmers of hope at times this season, but ultimately finished as baseball\u2019s worst team again while fading hard down the stretch.\n<\/p>\n The Rockies lost their final seven series of 2026, a stretch that included going 3-17 over their last 20 games. Colorado\u2019s clutch hitting disappeared and its rotation floundered over that span, as the last win by a Colorado starter came on Aug. 26 in Washington. The 29 games without a win by a starter is one short of the Rockies\u2019 longest single-season streak of 30 set in 2023.\n<\/p>\n Kyle Freeland<\/a>, making perhaps his last start in a Rockies uniform considering his upcoming free agency, allowed four runs on seven hits in four innings on Sunday. That finished the southpaw\u2019s ERA at 6.65 over 26 starts, just shy of his career-worst season of a 6.73 ERA over 22 starts in 2019.\n<\/p>\n First baseman TJ Rumfield<\/a>, who did not play Sunday, finished the year with a .390 on-base percentage (ranked first in the National League, just ahead of Milwaukee\u2019s Jake Bauers .389) and a .300 average (fifth). With that, Rumfield is the third rookie in MLB history to lead their league in OBP, along with Cleveland\u2019s Shoeless Joe Jackson in 1911 (.468) and Cincinnati\u2019s Walter Christensen in 1926 (.426 OBP).<\/p>\n Rumfield\u2019s breakout debut season also made him the fourth rookie in the Wild Card Era (since 1995) to hit .300 with an OBP of at least .390, joining Mike Trout (2012), Chris Coghlan (2009) and Albert Pujols (2001) \u2014 all three of whom won Rookie of the Year. However, Rumfield remains a darkhorse candidate<\/a> to win the NL honor this season.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n On another positive note, in Colorado\u2019s final win of the season on Saturday, a 9-6 win that eliminated the White Sox\u2019s chances of winning the AL Central, catcher Hunter Goodman hit two more homers.<\/a> His final longball tally is 41, tied for third in the NL with Atlanta\u2019s Matt Olson and behind likely MVP Pete Crow-Armstrong of the Cubs and the Phillies\u2019 Kyle Schwarber, both of whom hit 45.\n<\/p>\n Goodman, who led the majors with 25 homers on the road, is the ninth Colorado player to reach the 40-homer mark (15th time overall) as the tally is tied for the seventh-most in club history. The only NL catchers to hit more homers in a season are the Reds\u2019 Johnny Bench (45 in 1970) and the Braves\u2019 Javy Lopez (43 in 2003).\n<\/p>\n Colorado finishes the year with a 5.60 ERA, making the Rockies the worst pitching staff in baseball five years running.\n<\/p>\n