The 119-loss Rockies were one of the worst teams in baseball history. Can a front office shakeup (and an unexpected choice as the new baseball operations head) get the organization pointed in the right direction?
Guaranteed Contracts
- Kris Bryant, 1B/OF: $78MM through 2028
- Ezequiel Tovar, SS: $56.5MM through 2030 (includes $2.5MM buyout of $23MM club option for 2031)
- Kyle Freeland, SP: $16MM through 2026 (deal contains conditional player option for 2027)
- Antonio Senzatela, SP/RP: $12MM through 2026 ($14MM club option for 2027)
Option Decisions
- Thairo Estrada, 2B: Rockies declined their end of $7MM mutual option for 2026 (Estrada received $750K buyout, then elected free agency after being outrighted off 40-man roster)
- Kyle Farmer, IF: Rockies declined their end of $4MM mutual option for 2026 (Farmer received $750K buyout)
2026 financial commitments: $59MM
Total future commitments: $162.5MM
Arbitration-Eligible Players (service time in parentheses; projected salaries courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz)
- Jimmy Herget (4.069): $1.5MM
- Mickey Moniak (4.027): $4.2MM
- Ryan Feltner (3.071): $2.3MM
- Tyler Freeman (3.046): $1.8MM
- Brenton Doyle (2.161): $3.2MM
Free Agents
- Estrada, Farmer, German Marquez, Orlando Arcia, Lucas Gilbreath
The fact that Colorado is the last Offseason Outlook entry published (even after the World Series teams) speaks to the unusual length of the team's front office search. The free agent market opened yesterday, and the leaderless baseball operations department has already been making some transactions since the World Series officially ended, though the decisions to decline mutual options on Thairo Estrada and Kyle Farmer were both routine and expected.
The Rockies' struggles are usually attributed to owner Dick Monfort's extreme loyalty to longtime employees, resulting in an organization that has fallen behind the curve in fresh ideas and in most aspects of modern roster construction. Three straight 100-loss seasons and a gruesome 43-119 record in 2025 was enough to make even the notoriously insular Monfort realize that changes needed to be made. Manager Bud Black was fired back in May, and GM Bill Schmidt was let go at season's end.
This winter marked the first time that Monfort had actually done a formal external search for a head of baseball operations. Dan O'Dowd was already the general manager when the Monfort brothers bought the team in 2005. O'Dowd continued in the job until 2014, and successors Jeff Bridich and Schmidt were internal promotions.
Walker Monfort's new role as Colorado's executive VP led to some inevitable accusations of nepotism, though reports indicate that the younger Monfort (Dick's son) has been pushing for the Rox to adopt a new approach. The impact could be seen in Paul DePodesta's hiring as president of baseball operations, plus the fact that the other known candidates for the top job in baseball ops -- Guardians assistant GM Matt Forman, Diamondbacks assistant GM Amiel Sawdaye, Royals assistant GM Scott Sharp, and former Astros general manager James Click -- had no prior ties to Colorado's organization.
In classic Rockies fashion, however, the front office search wasn't exactly routine. It seemed like Forman and Sawdaye were the finalists, except reports then emerged that the two were out of the running, with Sawdaye reportedly turning down a job offer and Forman taking himself out of the process. Former Rockies reliever Adam Ottavino unexpectedly then emerged as a known candidate, throwing another curveball into the process that was ultimately ended when yesterday's news broke about DePodesta's hiring.
DePodesta has two decades of MLB front office experience with five different teams, including a two-year (2004-05) run as the Dodgers' general manager and five years working as Billy Beane's chief lieutenant with the Moneyball-era Athletics. It's the kind of distinguished resume that most Colorado fans were probably hoping to see from the Rockies' hire....except for the oddity of DePodesta spending the last decade working outside of baseball as the Cleveland Browns' chief strategy officer.
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Just light Bryant on fire already. Even if he bounces back, what does that look like? A 110 wRC+ out of the DH spot? And that’s best case, right?
Open up the spot, use it on somebody who might do something like Lewin Diaz or Jarred Kelenic (or, ideally, a minor league FA, but I couldn’t find a good list up yet)..
No reason to not send him home and give him his money. Sunk cost fallacy at this point.
He’s not bouncing back. Pay the man to go away.
I agree. Nobody in the league is more cooked than Bryant. My point is, even a miracle wouldn’t be something the Rox miss.
Exactly. It is time to let KB go home and raise his kids during the season, and not occupy an off-season 40-man position. Good luck to KB on a healthy recovery over the years.
As a thing to excite fans they could blow a wad on the son of a former Rockie star, Bo Bichette, but they’d need to grossly overpay to get him or any decent free agent I’d figure. They do have the budget space though.
That’s exactly what they shouldn’t (and won’t) do right now. We need a bridge to at the very earliest 2027, so everything should be for that.
Bo would have to be okay not contending for a championship, let alone a playoff spot for at least half of his Colorado career,
As a Red Sox fan I’d love to see them send Yoshida and one or two of their pitching prospects at risk of getting snatched in the Rule 5 draft in exchange for Kyle Freeland. He’s been good away from Coors and it would free up the DH spot for an Alonso/Schwarber signing
Colorado should be using the OKC Thunder as an example. Grab prospects for taking on bad contracts, then flipping those veterans at the trade deadline. OKC got a first round pick to take on Al Horfords contract then traded him to the Celtics the next year for another 1st.
Yoshida is owed 37MM. It’ll take a lot more than a couple rule 5 risks to have anybody eat that contract.
You got me curious, according to BTV, Yoshida’s got a surplus value of -31.3, whoofta. Red Sox only have 5 players in their entire organization that would at least offset his negative value according to them.
They could even trade Goodman for example to the Rays for Lowe plus several prospects. Same with Tovar to Boston for Story plus a bunch of prospects. It’s time to think high floor and quantity.
Goodman, Tovar and Doyle are not players you want to trade away. Story is getting paid $25m and the Rockies won’t pay that. I really like Trevor, but Tovar is a player to build around.
There are some stories where a pay wall makes no sense.
Maybe, but not this one. Good stuff as always
Polishuk drew the shortest straw and got the Rockies outlook.
What do you do at this point? No one can pitch, they used to get extra offense from Coors and now their lineup isn’t even great. And it’s sad to see Dollander struggle so badly. I hope they can be competitive again because they do seem to have a big fan base but it’s hard to see a path to success.
Yeah, it’s going to take a total redo at this point.
The 2024 CHW made history for posting the worst record ever, and only lost 2 more games than the 2025 Rockies. What’s really crazy is the CHW had a -306 run differential compared to a -424 run differential from the 2025 Rockies. It’s pretty nuts to play in Denver and almost score the fewest runs in baseball finishing 29th and just 14 runs ahead of the Pirates.
The Rockies will lose 105-110 games in 2026. Thats the real outlook.
105 losses would be a 13 game improvement.
“Former Rockies reliever Adam Ottavino unexpectedly then emerged as a known candidate, throwing another curveball into the process…”
*ba dumm tiss*
what an organization Monfort has developed.! and now he hires a guy from the Cleveland Browns’ front office to run his team…Perfect ! The Browns front office is an obvious leader in NFL. man……..
He was selected from a group of candidates who withdrew, and had no experience, , while the one he offered said no to his offer.
I wonder why.
I was thinking more about guys like David Sandlin (#13 Sox prospect) and Shane Drohan, both of whom are Rule 5 eligible. 2 guys like that plus Yoshida and some cash for a 33 year old Freeland and his $16 mil plus an option seems reasonable for both sides.
I think I’d rather have Yoshi. It’s possible Freeland could do better, but he also allows a lot of HRs. I think we’d be better off trading Duran for a #2 type and hoping for a 110+ out of DH.
Bryant’s payroll is $27M each 26-28 year, for a payroll total of $81M. The $78M figure used in the article is the contract AAV of $26M per year.
A key will be who is hired as GM. Thad Levine (DePodesta’s child friend) or someone else, with Adam Ottavino in some special assistant FO role for training for the future.
Depo is an “analytics first” type for sure. i remember when he was the dodger GM (got rid of Beltre bc he didnt walk enough) and all i can say to Rockies fans is “good luck”