To say the Rockies have had a rough start to the season would be a major understatement. The club’s 7-34 record speaks for itself, and their struggles appeared to reach a crescendo late last week, when they lost four games in three days by a combined score of 55-12. That includes a demoralizing 21-0 loss to the Padres on Saturday. Longtime manager Bud Black was fired the next day.
It’s pretty much impossible to argue that Black, a well-respected manager with 18 years of experience between the Rockies and Padres, is at particular fault for the state of the team. The Rockies have issues that run far deeper than the manager’s office. Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts suggested as much in the wake of Black’s firing on Sunday, telling reporters (as relayed by Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register) that he didn’t believe Hall of Fame manager Casey Stengel “could change the outcome” of the Rockies’ season.
It’s difficult to argue with that point. The Rockies, after all, lost 101 games last year. They had the National League’s worst offense (82 wRC+), struck out more than any other team, and were middle of the pack in homers despite calling Coors Field home. The pitching was even worse, as Colorado had the league’s worst ERA (5.48), FIP (4.94), and SIERA (4.62). Even when adjusted for the park factors of Coors Field, it was a league-worst showing in virtually every category. Their best pitcher to make even one start last year was Ryan Feltner, whose pedestrian 4.49 ERA was three points better than average (103 ERA+) after adjusting for park factors. The back of the bullpen was no better, as saves leader Tyler Kinley ended the season with a 6.19 ERA.
That was last year’s ball club, and things have only gotten worse. The Rockies essentially stood pat over the winter, with outfielders Mickey Moniak and Nick Martini joining infielders Kyle Farmer, Tyler Freeman, and Thairo Estrada as the club’s primary additions. Estrada has yet to appear in a regular season game for the Rockies. The other four are all below replacement level according to both bWAR and fWAR.
Disastrous as the Rockies season has been, breaking the modern loss record just one year after the 2024 White Sox set a new one with their 41-121 season may seem far-fetched. Even a 101-loss club that didn’t add much over the winter shouldn’t usually be assumed to regress by more than 20 games.
That’s where the injuries come in. Colorado was able to stay in some of its games last year thanks to standout performances from Ezequiel Tovar and Brenton Doyle, who paired league average offense with Gold Glove-caliber defense at shortstop and center field. This year, Tovar played poorly across 16 games before going on the injured list. Doyle has remained healthy, but his 60 wRC+ is deeply disappointing and defensive metrics haven’t been nearly as impressed with his work in the outfield as in previous seasons. Feltner is also currently on the injured list alongside Tovar, and $182MM man Kris Bryant remains out indefinitely amid nearly half a decade’s worth of injury woes that have knocked him so far from his MVP status that he no longer plays every day even when healthy.
Typically, even the combination of a low-quality roster and frustrating injury issues wouldn’t be enough to make a team a contender for worst of all time. But Colorado plays in the NL West, which this year has not only has the reigning World Series champion Dodgers but a trio of strong contenders. The Padres and Giants are both in playoff position. The Diamondbacks, who went to the World Series as recently as 2023, are just a few games behind San Diego and San Francisco.
The other four teams in the Rockies’ division are a combined 98-67, good for a .594 winning percentage that translates to a 96-win pace over a 162-game season. If the Rockies were to double their current win percentage over their final 121 games this year, they’d finish the season with a record of 48-114, just seven games ahead of the White Sox’s 2024 record. Perhaps the only saving grace for the Rockies in this conversation is that the middle of May leaves ample time to turn things and get ahead of the .253 winning percentage from last year’s South Siders.
Where do MLBTR readers fall on this issue? Will the Rockies continue on this pace and wipe the White Sox’s 2024 campaign from the history books just one year after the fact? Or will they be able to turn things around enough to avoid that embarrassing fate? Have your say in the poll below:
They are the odds on favorite to break the record. Nothing has changed in player personnel to change that outcome.
They saw the White Sox from 2024, and said nah we can go lower.
They said “Hold my Blue Moon.”
I think you mean, “Hold my Coors.” 😀
I voted no. The record is ours and I refuse to believe any other team can be that bad. We might break our own record this year. Please, Rox! That’s the only record we’re ever gonna have under this regime.
Isn’t that the same as “Hold my water.”
Steve, Blue Moon Belgian White Ale was born at the Sandlot Brewery within Coors Field in 1995. The brewery, which is still active today, was the first to be located inside a Major League Baseball stadium. Don’t let the truth keep you from workshopping someone’s joke tho;)
What truth do you mean? Blue Moon is a Coors brand.
For the Rockies to achieve the loss record, they’d have to play no better than 33-88 over their remaining 121 games. This is a winning percentage of just .273. As epically bad as they’ve begun the season, this is how low the bar is set for them to avoid setting this dubious record.
Since you said the odds favor it, the point has to be made that in fact they don’t. The statistical projection for the Rockies currently stands at 115 losses. So, odds-on, this is how many games they will lose.
In Las Vegas, the Rockies are better than a even bet to beat the record as of yesterday. You will earn less money than you bet. That means an odds on favorite to beat the record.
O/U is a different bet.
Gamblers are not necessarily well-informed. If they were, they wouldn’t be gamblers.
True that. Odds makers at the casinos are exceptionally well informed.
Those odds are a function of betting activity. If a bunch of wagerers walked into Vegas casinos today and started placing bets on the Rockies to win the World Series, the posted betting odds of them doing so would increase, even though the real chance of it happening remained unchanged.
Oddsmakers set the original odds, then the odds adjust as betting activity happens.
The odds I posted were the ones set by the oddsmakers on the day Black was fired. They have changed slightly since then moving further into odds-on territory. There has only been a few hundred thousand in bets placed on that particular line so it hasn’t moved much.
On March 27th that same bet was +550, so definitely not odds-on. The line has moved and the greatest jump was the one the oddsmakers made when Black was fired.
Montfort is doing his best to make it a reality.
Nothing has changed in player personnel? Um, have you heard of Mickey Moniak?? That dude can hit a single like nobody’s business. About 20% of the time. And hold a glove in the outfield.
Good ol Mickey mantle moniak
I voted 120 or less, but I do think they’re a worse team. 2024 Sox were bad, but even being that bad, you need some bad luck to lose 121+.
True, but 2025 NL West is much better than 2024 AL Central. A lot, esp. if ARZ keeps playing well. LAD/SD look like league favorites. I get that you’re playing less divisional games now, but still enough that could put COL over the top.
I’m waiting for the Sox-Rox series, the ever popular toilet bowl.
Hahaha perfect name for the series
Are they? Or are all of them piling up wins against the Rockies?
Not much difference in piling up wins against the Marlins….
Or DC and Atlanta….
Well the Marlins are a lot better then the Rockies but the Al Centeal and Nl central might be highly underrated by the divisions run differential totals.
Owners should have 12 years to prove they have the desire, wherewithal, financial backing and aptitude to run a baseball team.
After that, if there’s no progress(or fan enthusiasm), sell the team and let another billionaire have a try.
This should all be spelled out in the original sales contract, so it’s nice and legal.
Nah, it’s up to the fans to fire an owner by not going to games, not watching them on TV/computer/phone, and by not buying the merch.
No, they will just end up leaving, blaming the local city for their problems. Oakland is the latest example of this.
“No, they will end up leaving..Oakland is the latest”…Oakland once had the iconic A’s, the iconic Warriors and the iconic Raiders and now has no major sports teams. You cannot put all of that on “bad” owners since it takes two to tango.
Oakland(like many cities) has issues that won’t be solved by running sports teams. Most cities(like Oakland)would be better off focusing on urban renewal, attracting employers, lowering crime and making the city more vibrant and liveable, than attracting and running sports teams.
@For Love of the Game
That worked great for Oakland…
The wealth and tourism in Las Vegas gave them a currency Oakland either couldn’t afford or declined to support – $1-$2 billion for a new stadium. That’s what doomed the A’s, not the failure of fans to go to games.
@For Love of the Game
But the fans did all of what you said and wasn’t even relevant because the owners had other plans already. The owners can’t remove themselves from a bad team unless they want to change it and as we saw with Oakland, the owner wanted a different city and is getting it. Fans aren’t that relevant to the decisions of the owners.
I think it’s important to point out that fans in Denver are still showing up in very healthy numbers to watch some really bad baseball. And the owners are still investing in the team and the park so you can’t just throw them down the same well as Fischer and Nutting. This is a weird situation where they apparently just need a new voice that the owners will listen to. Hope springs eternal, I guess.
You can make an apt comparison to the Angels. Plenty of investment coupled with an owner who meddles too much.
For Love of the Game —
Yes, and though never a fan of the Rockies I lived in Colorado, and went to many games at Coors. The fans support the team despite its yearly dismal chances.
No one is buying a small market team with the intentions of spending money to win.
Rockies fans are pretty loyal from what I’ve seen, so they need to do their part and stop going to games. I know as a White Sox fan, myself and my coworkers are done with them. No going to games, not watching them, nothing. We want Jerry Reinsdorf gone…
A lot of leagues are expanding. MLB should contract.
Actually, what should really happen is that MLB should expand to like 40 teams but use relegation so that only something like 20 teams are actually competing for the World Series in a given year.
“MLB should contract..but use relegation”…Very interesting. Previously, I’ve heard a couple of soccer style “relegation” ideas that maybe could work in MLB. Very intriguing indeed.
You’re never going to get owners to sign off on the possibility of being a AAA team. Especially if they’re running a $300M payroll. Not to mention the stadium headaches and tv rights issues this would cause.
Oh yeah, it would never happen. I don’t even know how you would do it with current AAA teams – they would have to become independent of MLB farm teams.
Muleor: The White Sox are already a AAA team. They don’t belong in the majors. In Premier League soccer in Europe, the bottom 3 (or 4) are relegated while the three best teams in the second tier are promoted. That would show Reinsdorf and Monfort that cheapness and stubbornness comes with a price.
Actually, the top 2 in the second tier are promoted while the teams finishing 3rd through 6th go into a play-off for the last promotion spot.
And the Premier League is in England.
Just a concept that would never work with American sports. The 2nd division English teams are nearly as good as the bottom of the first tier and largely play in similar stadiums.
Joke about the White Sox being a AAA team but they’d crush an actual AAA team. They’ll have 5 starters posting 4 and lower ERA’s against major league batters. No AAA team has a rotation of pitchers capable of that.
They’ll win enough weird games at Coors methinks
Just a very poorly run organization who makes (or fails to make) baffling move after baffling move. I know it’s easy to armchair this sort of thing, but I could run this organization better than the current brain trust.
What makes this seem different to me is that Rockies ownership still goes into the season thinking they can be a .500 club if a few things just break in their favor. That, or they just don’t care. At least with the White Sox that season, there was a consolation, in my mind, that they knew that they were just going to tank it through.
Rudy: I think you’re right. Reinsdorf did nothing last year to stop the losses from coming. He said near the end of the season that he was very unhappy with all the losses and that he would have something to say at the end of the season. He never did.
In 2021, the Rockies employed exactly ONE person to run their analytics dept. This person was also responsible for sitting in arb meetings. When they decided to expand it, they hired someone reputable from the outside who only stayed for six months.
The Athletics did a recent poll of players and 80% of them said analytics has helped their career. Players make free agent signing choices based on these factors. Monfort doesn’t care.
The NL west is too strong this year with the league being stronger than the AL as well so they have a high prob to do it
My favorite part of this is LITERALLY 24 hours earlier Bill Schmidt gave Bud Black the “vote of confidence” only to have him fired the next day.
The Rockies are a bleep show, and will almost always be as long as Monfort owns the club.
People can prattle on about a team being in Denver, but teams there have had success. But they’re poorly run, they invest in the wrong things — alarmingly consistently — and have shown no signs for several seasons there’s any effort to do anything differently.
Talent acquisition will always be a challenge for the Rockies. So pour money into development — a lot of it — and go from there. Problem is, of course, if these same people are making the decisions it’s not going to get much better.
I empathize with Rockies fans. Terrible ownership stinks.
Bud is gone. No.
I remember that smell from high school … and college … and my bachelor life.
And why stop now I ask myself?
I think the record is theirs. They play all their games in September vs the Mariners, Padres, Giants and Dodgers (except for three games vs. Miami); and all those teams will be out there trying to win to get good matchups in the playoffs instead of resting their stars.
I voted no, but you changed my mind. I think they will
How does a team like the Rockies lose 21-0? The opposition converted all its PAT conversion kicks.
You get that kind of ballgame every once in a while. Lose 21-0, suck it up and go back at it tomorrow.
I say run it like a minor-league team… don’t claim to field a winning team to attract fans
Just have fun at the ball game with more attractions, giveaways and make the whole outing an event … it doesn’t matter whether you win or lose it’s just fun to be there…
They’re already fielding a minor league roster anyway – just go to the next step
Major league clubs are already pivoting to the premise of “it’s fun to be there”. For instance, the Yankees are planning a Yogi Berra bobblehead night when they host the Red Sox next month. You never used to see anything like that during a Yankees-Red Sox series.
I wonder if they’ll have a worse W% than the 1899 Cleveland Spiders.
The Rockies will win 50-55 games. Every year they always get better in June and July mainly because Colorado in April is ridiculously stupid weather to play baseball in. Sure they get blown out, but they also have lost a lot of close games. Last night they lost while giving up only three hits. They are not THAT bad. I am not suggesting they are on the cusp of the playoffs or anything ridiculous like that. But they are better than their record indicates thus far.
The first week of the season they had the best starting rotation ERA in all of baseball and yet they were 1-6 mainly because the bullpen was awful. Since then, the bullpen has been in the top 10 in most categories but the starters have been getting roughed up. Eventually these things will even out.
There is a reason that the record for losses in a season stood for so long. Because it is not easy to lose that many games in a year. For it to happen two years in a row is just ludicrous.
I strongly believe they will break it. They are playing some really bad, ugly baseball. They are committing 0.85 errors per game this season. Last years Sox only committed 0.56 and far more in line with the rest of the league. In addition, the competition in their division is top-top tier
I don’t think they will surpass the 24 White Sox for their “achievement” but they are astoundingly bad. Bad luck. Bad scouting development, signings, ownership, thin air, whatever. I do think Coors plays with pitcher’s heads and maybe physically as well. But…geez
The Rockies more than maybe any other organization need a strong analytics department and they don’t have one at all. They need that to find talent that works given their atypical geography.
Good point, although I wonder just what kind of pitcher can actually thrive there. What magic elixir did Kyle Freeland drink in 2018 that was lost to history?
They don’t have one at all? Wow, I figured everyone had one for probably 10 years now. Just some invested in it more than others.
I think they will. They’re losing by 10 runs a game many times and they have to play Arizona, San Francisco, San Diego and LA a bunch. I’m a Tigers fan, but those guys are tougher than Chicago having to play Detroit, KC, Cleveland and Minnesota.
the dumbest thing is that there’s no point with the draft lottery
Rockies could draft #1 and it just won’t matter if the current organization remains in place.
They’d just have a trading chip in a couple years like the Pirates and Skenes.
No the dumbest thing is that since they won the #4 in this year’s draft, they have zero chance of picking higher than #11 next year no matter how bad they are.
Damn, that’s rough.
What I am most curious about is if the Rockies will be sellers at the deadline.
Unfortunately we don’t have much to sell. Márquez is having his worse season as a big leaguer. Kinley is also. Maybe Jake bird? Rockies tend to always trade players that can actually be consistent and play in altitude.
German had a really good start last time out, so his talent is still there. Coming back from TJ takes a little bit to get back into the groove. Kinley has actually been pitching very well since his godawful first week of the season. The problem for him is that his ERA was so bad that it still looks badnow even though he had pitched better. Austin Gomber would be a possibility if he pitches good when he gets back. I could see Ryan McMahon possibly being moved this year. They also have a couple of small possibilities like Jacob Stallings, Mickey Moniak, Kyle Farmer, Nick Martini, and Thairo Estrada if any of them get on a hot streak. I anticipate one or more of that group will be traded and probably one or more of that group will be released by August if not dealt.
All told I think Marquez, Kinley, and either Farmer or Estrada will all be traded in July. McMahon will go if the right offer comes along, but I don’t think it will. I think Martini and Stallings will probably be cut or dealt for cash. Moniak could go either way. I like him and think he could be a good fit with the team long term, but with Veen at AAA I don’t know if there is room for him.
As a player, do you want to break the record? If you’re gonna be terrible either way, may as well get your name in a history book.
I want to say they’ll do better, but then again the White Sox were 13-29 this time last year.
& it’s a lot harder to pick up wins against the NLW than the AL central.
True, but WSox were worse in ALC last year than outside of it. KC and Minn went 12-1 against them and Tigers 9-4.
The 1988 Baltimore Orioles were one game worse at 6-34 and still came back to finish the year with 54 wins. Odd fact, that team had two Hall of Fame players (Eddie Murray, Cal Ripken) and a possible third in Curt Schilling.
Perhaps the better question is: Will they (ownership) even care if they break the current record for losses? I don’t envision much changing until the ownership does.
THIS 100%
Until Montforts shows the slightest interest in adapting and changing their culture they’ll just be rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic (ie, firing the manager). New owner, new GM, a staff that believes in analytics, can figure out how to adapt their player development program to fit playing home games in altitude, it needs to change at the top, otherwise it’ll just remain embarrassing and the ownership won’t care.
Baseball was never meant for denver
No matter what they do or try, its just not a city scientifically or physically meant to play the game of baseball
Yet Denver supported Triple-A ball for many, many years before the Rockies came into existence.
It’s May. Don’t have a cow.
They’re bad, yes, but not 40-wins bad.
Their run differential is -129.. The next team, Marlins, closest is -72 with a 15-25 record. The White Sox finished last season at -306 with 41 wins. The Rockies are heading for a worst record.
No, it definitely looks like 40 wins bad, lol. They’re losing consistently 12-1, etc. They’ll probably play better at some point though. They could be just a bad team playing worse. If that made sense. Versus a good team playing bad. Not to mention they have to play them other teams in their division versus Chicago having to play their others
Salary floor and salary cap. Get on it!
The Rockies aren’t cheap, they just have no idea how to allocate their resources.
the way I see it: the only way the Rockies can compete and be on the winning side( .500+ season) ; they need to have guys that can mash- OR just hit HR’s. They have to out hit the other team- like in years past- when they were winning.
I think the record is theirs. The big difference between them and last year’s White Sox is that the White Sox had a serviceable rotation that couldn’t overcome their teammates pushing across about 3 runs per game. The Rockies are averaging just a shade above 3 runs per game but are allowing nearly 1.5 runs more per game than the White Sox did last year. It’s brutal, unwatchable baseball.
Casey Stengel is a rather ironic choice for Roberts’s statement, seeing as he couldn’t do anything with the 1962 Mets.
Owner’s fault!All that money and no plan.
I think they will. They certainly, not the players, of course, but management/ownership definitely deserves to.
I agree with you 100 percent. Line drive hitters would flourish in that park. Also, the pitching staff needs to wear out the infield grass. Ground ball pitchers.
The Rox were not good in 2019 and they were never any good because of Raimel Tapia who didn’t draw walks or hit over .300.
He was a singles hitter who played a corner OF slot. That team was good because they had other good players on the team. Arenado and Story were top 5 at their respective positions. They had an in prime Charlie Blackmon, DJ LeMahieu. Kyle Freeland and German Marquez pitching like they belonged at a top of the rotation instead of the depth starters they are now.
They’ve developed no pitching and very little hitting since then. Jordan Beck might be OK & Tovar is a decent SS. Goodman has been good this year but there’s no budding star coming up and rising the tide. Charlie Condon is off to a poor start to his pro career. It’s a disaster of an organization.
Bad ownership
+
Bad roster
+
No real prospects coming**
+
Playing in the best division in baseball
=
New loss record in 2025.
**Dollander looks like the real deal. Feel sorry for him.
Bud Black is a good manager but has worked for two really bad franchises…the Padres before Peter Seidler and the on going disaster in Colorado…actually give him a team that has MLB players and he could do something. The paycheck is one thing but he has to have loved doing the job because nobody could overcome Montfort in Colorado…I would love to see him get a chance to coach a real MLB team and how they would do…I’m surprised he stayed on as long as he did…that can’t be easy knowing your chances of winning are between slim and none and slim already left the building
If the Rockies continue at their current pace of winning 7 out of every 40 games they would finish 28-134. Even at 122 losses MLB should be embarrassed to have two franchises set loss records in consecutive seasons.
The Rockies might not even reach 30 wins, the way they’re playing.
If you were the GM, how would you turn things around? What would you do with the Bryant contract? Who do you sign for 2026? How do you attract/develop pitching in Coors?
The state of baseball is sad when back to back years of this is possible
Every sport has badly-run franchises.
Bud Black went into the year expecting to have a few proven performers, a lot of promising rookies, a recovering pitching staff, and an improved bullpen. Injuries and lack of performance, and the replacement players Schmidt came up with made it worse.. Firing Bam Bam, Bud, Red did nothing to address the problems. Schmidt is the one that should have been the one held accountable, unless you know of a way to fire the Monforts. That’s probably the only thing that would improve morale.
“Disastrous as the Rockies season has been” is NOT PROPER ENGLISH. You can’t just leave “as” out to begin the sentence. It’s not optional! Grammar is not optional when you’re being paid to write.