Colorado Rockies Offseason Review

Introduction

When the expansion franchise Colorado Rockies first came into existence in the early 1990s, it could be forgiven if a team didn’t have a dedicated analytics department and instead relied on the traditional old school way of running a baseball team. It has been over 20 years since Michael Lewis’s 2003 book Moneyball popularized SABREmetrics and stastical analysis in baseball and I would say that it’s clearly a disadvantage for any team to not be utilizing the best analytical tools in every step of player development and acquisition. Dick and Charles Monfort, the majority owners lf the Colorado Rockies since 2005, never got that memo apparently, nor did they read the book, or even bothered seeing the Brad Pitt lead adaptation released in 2011, because during their ownership the Rockies have had either no stastical analysis/analytics department or one that was so inadequate as to be considered a joke.

The competitive disadvantage it has given the Rockies is very clearly demonstrated by the fact they have the worst winning percentage (.456) out of all the active MLB franchises, that they have only eight seasons with a winning record, and not once have they won the NL West division title. The last Rockies winning season was in 2018, when they had a 91-71 record. Somehow, even after the Rockies lost 103 games in 2023 and 101 games in 2024, it still was not enough for Rockies ownership to make any changes to the way organization is run. Only after spending the majority of the 2025 season on pace for theworstseason ever in MLB history and finishing with a 119 losses, did it finally prompt ownership to actually do something about it.

Now with the obligatory backstory out of the way, it makes it much easier to understand how the Rockies biggest acquisition of this past offseason wasn’t a free agent signing or a trade, it was the hiring of a new president of baseball operations, Paul DePodesta, who then brought in former Dbacks and Padres General Manager Josh Byrnes as the new GM. Never mind the fact that Paul DePodesta has not worked in pro baseball for nearly a decade, and instead had been the chief strategy officer for a terrible Cleveland Browns team in the NFL that has stayed pretty terrible. For a team that has essentially operated in the baseball equivalent of the stone age, it’s revolutionary move.

(Note: If you’ve only seen the movie, Jonah Hill’s character Peter Brand is a composite character largely based on Paul DePodesta, who didn’t allow his name to be used in the film)

Notable Acquisitions

UTIL Willi Castro (Two Years, $12.8m)

SP Tomoyuki Sugano (One Year $5.1M)

SP Michael Lorenzen (One Year $8m, ’27 Club Option)

SP Jose Quintana (One Year $6m) 

Claimed 1B Troy Johnston off waivers from Marlins

Claimed RHP Keegan Thompson off waivers from Reds

Acquired LHP Brennan Bernardino from Red Sox for minor league OF Braiden Ward

Acquired 1B/2B Edouard Julien and RHP Pierson Ohl from Twins for minor league RHP Jace Kaminska and cash

Selected RHP RJ Petit from Tigers with No. 1 pick in Rule 5 draft

Acquired OF Jake McCarthy from Diamondbacks for minor league RHP Josh Grosz

Traded RHP Bradley Blalock to Marlins for minor league RHP Jake Brooks

Traded RHP Angel Chivilli to Yankees for minor league 1B T.J.Rumfield

Offseason Summary and Review

The Rockies could have signed the top FA at every position and they still probably wouldn’t be competitive enough to win the NL West, especially with a top heavy farm system that lacks any depth. No executive is capable of turning around a historically bad MLB team in the span of an offseason, especially when it’s a franchise that hasn’t had a winning season since 2018. In the 25 years that I’ve been a fan of MLB i don’t think I have liked anything the Rockies FO has done. So it should speak for itself when I say that I actually like what Depodesta and Byrnes have accomplished so far in their short amount of time in charge of the Rockies, even if I don’t think there will be any immediate results. Claimingfirst baseman Troy Johnston off waivers, for example, might be one of the best under the radar moves by an NL West team during this past offseason. While not a top prospect due to his lack of power for a first baseman, his pro career reminds me of Christian Walker prior to getting a chance with the Diamondback. He looks primed now to breakout with Rockies while still being under team control for another five seasons.  T.J.Rumfield, who was acquired in exchange for RHP Angel Chivilli, gives them another option at first besides Johnston. Edouard Julien is a nice bounceback option at second base.

The real issue for the Rockies is and always will be the starting pitching. Although all three free agent starters signed are out of the bargain bin, it appears to me that there’s an actual strategy there of trying to finding pitchers with a large selection of pitches. RJ Petit was a no-brainer choice for the Rockies to take in the Rule 5 draft and he is just a solid cost-controlled young pitching option.

There appears to be strategy to mitigate some of the challenges of pitching with outfield defense. It’s baffling that that outfield defense has never been a priority considering how much Coors Field’s gigantic outfield punishes bad defense. Seeing a well past his prime Charlie Blackmon struggle with getting to any ball is why I like the Jake McCarthy trade so much for the Rockies. McCarthy actually seems like a great fit for Coors Field not only defensively, but offensively as well thanks to his speed on the basepaths and willingness to take extra bases

This is still a team that likely will finish in dead last not just in the NL West but all of MLB and even best case scenario still won’t win the NL West division title, but I think the most important thing for Rockies fans is that there’s now hope for their team to be competitive again

Grade B+