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Offseason Outlook: Colorado Rockies

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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

2026 financial commitments: $59MM
Total future commitments: $162.5MM

Arbitration-Eligible Players (service time in parentheses; projected salaries courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz)

Free Agents

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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Rockies Name Paul DePodesta President Of Baseball Operations

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Nov. 7: The Rockies formally announced DePodesta as their new president of baseball operations today.

“Paul’s previous work in MLB set the foundation for many aspects of the way the game is analyzed today and we are thrilled for him to be a key figure in our future,” executive vice president Walker Monfort said within today’s press release. “Under his leadership, we will evolve the Colorado Rockies into what we know will be an exciting new era. Hiring Paul is an essential first step to the evolution of our baseball department and we’re confident that he will not only maximize our current personnel but will also bring in additional leaders from outside the organization to help lead us forward.”

Nov. 6: The Rockies are reportedly in agreement with Paul DePodesta to run baseball operations. The team has yet to announce the hire, nor whether he’ll be the general manager or president of baseball operations. In any case, it’s a stunning move that brings DePodesta back to baseball after a decade.

DePodesta has worked with the NFL’s Cleveland Browns since January 2016. He has not been the general manager. His relatively vague title has been chief strategy officer. DePodesta has worked under a few GMs in Cleveland — the past five of which have come under executive vice president and GM Andrew Berry. He has seemingly held a high-ranking scouting/player acquisition position without ever having the top spot in football operations.

The Browns have made the playoffs twice in the past eight years and are coming off a 3-14 season that had them in last place in the AFC North. They’re currently 2-6 and at the bottom of the division as they’re amidst another rebuild.

Before his move to the NFL, DePodesta was a high-ranking baseball operations executive. He’s probably most famous for his time as the assistant general manager with the A’s under Billy Beane. That’s due largely to the success of Moneyball, the Michael Lewis book chronicling the A’s being at the forefront of using more advanced player metrics to succeed despite significant budgetary constraints. That was adapted into an acclaimed 2011 film in which Jonah Hill played a composite character that was largely based on DePodesta.

While Moneyball’s popularity makes DePodesta most associated with the A’s, his highest-ranking MLB position came when he accepted the general manager job with the Dodgers in 2004. DePodesta was just 31 years old at the time. He held the role for two seasons, winning 93 games and the NL West title in 2004. The team stumbled to a 71-91 showing the following year, and the Dodgers fired him at the end of the ’05 campaign. DePodesta worked as a high-ranking assistant with the Padres and Mets for the next decade before making the jump to the NFL.

Now 52, DePodesta returns to baseball almost 20 years since his last GM job. He’s facing a monumental challenge. The Rox are coming off a 43-119 season that is tied for the third worst of the modern era. Their -424 run differential was somehow even worse. They were the first team since 1899 to be outscored by more than 400 runs. They scored the second-fewest runs in MLB despite playing half their games at Coors Field. They allowed 122 more runs than the next-closest team.

Despite the abysmal state of the major league roster, the Rockies don’t have the kind of high-end farm system that one would expect from a club that has finished fourth or fifth in the division in seven straight years. Baseball America credited them with two Top 100 prospects on their latest update in August: recent top five picks Ethan Holliday and Charlie Condon. As a result of those consecutive lottery picks, the Rockies are prohibited by the CBA from picking any higher than 10th in the 2026 draft.

There aren’t many buildings blocks on the MLB roster. Shortstop Ezequiel Tovar, center fielder Brenton Doyle, and starting pitcher Chase Dollander have the best chance to be key pieces of a long-term contender. They’re all coming off underwhelming seasons. Hunter Goodman was the team’s best player in 2025. He was one of only four primary catchers to hit 30-plus homers, but he’s a 26-year-old coming off a breakout season in which his strikeout and walk profile was poor. He’s probably more of a good complementary player than someone who’d be one of the three to five best position players on a contender.

On top of all that, the front office faces the unique challenge of building a pitching staff that can succeed at altitude. They’re always likely to face heavier pitch counts and workloads over the course of a 162-game season at MLB’s most hitter-friendly park. Colorado hitters need to adjust to different pitch movements at home and on the road. They’re in a division with the two-time defending World Series winners. The Padres have won 90-plus games in two straight seasons. The Diamondbacks and Giants have been around average of late, but both teams have the kind of impact position player talent that the Rockies have not developed since the Nolan Arenado and Charlie Blackmon heyday.

DePodesta will be the surprise choice to turn things around. The Rockies had seemingly settled on Diamondbacks assistant GM Amiel Sawdaye and Guardians AGM Matt Forman as the finalists last week. Bob Nightengale of USA Today writes that Sawdaye rejected Colorado’s offer, while Forman took himself out of consideration. That led them to go well outside the box for DePodesta.

It’s Colorado’s first external GM hiring in more than a decade. They’d stayed internal with the promotions of Jeff Bridich and Bill Schmidt. DePodesta’s first task will be the final managerial decision of the offseason. Interim skipper Warren Schaeffer has been in limbo since the team moved on from Schmidt at the end of the regular season.

Thomas Harding of MLB.com first mentioned that DePodesta was a strong candidate for the position. ESPN’s Jeff Passan mentioned that they were nearing a deal, while The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, Brittany Ghiroli and Zac Jackson first reported the agreement was in place.

Image courtesy of Ken Blaze, USA Today Sports.

Thairo Estrada Elects Free Agency

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The Rockies announced Thursday that infielder Thairo Estrada passed through waivers unclaimed and elected free agency. Colorado also claimed right-hander Garrett Acton off waivers from the Rays. He’d been designated for assignment by Tampa Bay earlier in the week.

Colorado turned down its end of a mutual option on Estrada earlier this week, but since he has yet to accrue six years of major league service, he remained on the roster as an arbitration-eligible player. After Estrada missed most of the 2025 season due to injury and hit just .253/.285/.370 when healthy, the Rox will move on and Estrada will head to the open market in search of new opportunities.

Estrada, 30 in February, had a solid three-year run with the Giants from 2021-23, hitting a combined .266/.320/.416 with plus defense and plus baserunning. Injuries have tanked his production since late in 2023, however. Estrada suffered a broken left hand that year, then missed time with a ligament injury in his left wrist in 2024. He broke his right wrist when he was hit by a pitch this spring and, after returning, missed additional time due to thumb and hamstring injuries. He’s been limited to 546 plate appearances across the past two seasons and turned in a woeful .228/.258/.351 batting line in that time.

Second base has been Estrada’s primary position, though he’s also seen ample time at shortstop and briefer appearances at third base and across all three outfield slots. Statcast pegs him as a plus defender at second, though Defensive Runs Saved is on the other end of the spectrum. At the very least, he’s a fleet-footed utility man with experience at six defensive spots and a lower-than-average strikeout rate at the plate.

Acton, 27, signed a two-year minor league deal with the Rays going into 2024. He had undergone Tommy John surgery prior to signing that deal and missed the entire 2024 campaign. He was added to the 40-man late in 2025 and tossed one scoreless inning in the bigs. He threw 58 2/3 innings in Triple-A with a 3.68 ERA, 30.1% strikeout rate and 11.4% walk rate.

Rockies Claim Troy Johnston

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The Rockies announced Wednesday that they’ve claimed infielder/outfielder Troy Johnston off waivers from the Marlins. Colorado also reinstated Kris Bryant and righty Jeff Criswell from the 60-day injured list, adding both back to the 40-man roster.

Johnston, 28, was a 17th-round pick by Miami back in 2019 and has been a career-long Marlin to this point. He made his big league debut this season after a lengthy run of productive campaigns n the upper minors. The Gonzaga product hit .277/.331/.420 with four home runs in 121 plate appearances during his first run at the MLB level.

In Johnston, the Rockies are adding an older but controllable player with a strong minor league track record. Johnston is a career .281/.367/.458 hitter in seven minor league seasons. His .267/.345/.438 slash in parts of four Triple-A campaigns is weighed down a bit by an awful debut there back in 2022 (116 plate appearances), but he’s been an above-average hitter with the Marlins’ top affiliate in Jacksonville each season since.

Though Johnston has primarily been a first baseman in the minors, with more than 4300 innings logged at the position, he’s also suited up for 826 innings in left field and 492 innings in right field. Since his contract was selected to the 40-man roster for the first time this season and he wasn’t optioned back down thereafter, he’ll join the Rox with a full slate of three minor league option years remaining.

It’s not entirely clear who’s making roster calls in the Colorado front office at the moment. The Rockies fired GM Bill Schmidt shortly after the season, and longtime assistant GM Zack Rosenthal left the club shortly thereafter. Owner Dick Monfort and his son, executive vice president Walker Monfort, have been conducting a search for a new baseball operations leader over the past month but have yet to announce a hire. It’s possible they’re making calls with input from some of the still-remaining midlevel baseball operations executives while continuing through a hiring process that as of last week was down to two finalists but once again appears more wide open.

Rockies Decline Mutual Option On Kyle Farmer

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The Rockies have declined their end of a $4MM mutual option on infielder Kyle Farmer for the 2026 season, MLB.com’s Thomas Harding reports.  Farmer will instead get a $750K buyout and head into free agency.

The decision is not a surprise. Farmer, 35, has long been a glove-first utility guy in the majors. The Rockies signed him just under a year ago to provide a veteran boost to their young infield. The deal guaranteed him $3.25MM in the form of a $2.5MM salary plus the aforementioned $750K option buyout.

Farmer got into 97 games for Colorado this year, stepping to the plate 300 times. He slashed .227/.280/.365 for a wRC+ of 65. Even though he’s never been a huge threat at the plate, that was a drop from the .250/.310/.391 line and 89 wRC+ he carried into the year.

The Rockies, with no current front office leader, have made the easy decision to move on. They could perhaps bring Farmer back to serve as a multi-positional bench piece again, but they will have a few months to consider other available options as well. Farmer will look for his next opportunity, which could be a minor league deal or a major league pact at a lower price point.

Photo courtesy of Ron Chenoy, Imagn Images

Rockies Turn Down Mutual Option With Thairo Estrada; Estrada Remains On Roster

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The Rockies have turned down their end of a mutual option with infielder Thairo Estrada, reports Thomas Harding of MLB.com. For now, Estrada remains on the roster and the Rockies technically could retain him for 2026 via arbitration, though that seems unlikely.

Estrada, 30 in February, had some good seasons with the Giants. However, in 2024, he struggled enough to get outrighted off the roster midseason and became a free agent afterwards. The Rockies signed him to a one-year, $4MM contract coming into 2025. That broke down as a $3.25MM salary this year, followed by a $750K buyout on a $7MM mutual option.

If Estrada had bounced back to his 2021-23 levels, it would have been a nice buy-low move. Unfortunately, it turned into mostly a lost season. Estrada made separate trips to the injured list for a right wrist fracture, a sprained left thumb and a right hamstring strain. He only got into 39 games and slashed .253/.285/.370 for a wRC+ of 66.

Given that performance, the Rockies obviously weren’t going to crank up his salary by picking up the option. He does not automatically become a free agent, however, as he is still shy of six years of major league service. The Rockies could retain Estrada for 2026 via arbitration. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects Estrada for a $3.8MM salary through the arbitration process.

Even at that price point, the Rockies are probably planning to move on, since Estrada is now coming off two straight years of struggle. If the Rockies don’t tender him a contract, he will become a free agent later in the offseason. He would then be looking for another bounceback opportunity, which could be a minor league deal or perhaps a modest major league pact.

Photo courtesy of Ron Chenoy, Imagn Images

Rockies Have Spoken With Adam Ottavino About Top Front Office Job

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Rockies owner Dick Monfort has spoken with longtime big league reliever Adam Ottavino about the team’s top front office vacancy, reports Tim Healey of The Boston Globe. (That’ll presumably be a general manager but the title could change based on whomever they hire.) Meanwhile, Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic reports that Guardians’ assistant general manager Matt Forman and Diamondbacks’ AGM Amiel Sawdaye — previously reported to be finalists for the position — are now out of the running.

It’s unclear how seriously the Rockies are considering Ottavino as a candidate to run baseball operations. The 39-year-old not only has no front office experience of any kind, he’s still technically an active player. Ottavino pitched in the majors with the Yankees as recently as this past April. He made three appearances before electing free agency. He spent the rest of the season as a free agent but has not officially announced his retirement.

Ottavino has long been expected to find a front office or coaching role once he concluded his playing career. He was well-versed in using analytics as a pitching development tool. He’s also media savvy and has frequently appeared as a guest analyst on the MLB Network over the offseason. Still, it’d be shocking if a team hired him as their top decision-maker before he gets any kind of post-playing experience.

The Rockies have been one of the sport’s most insular organizations with front office and coaching hirings. They’ve already announced that they would not promote from within this time around. Ottavino would be an outside-the-box hire, but he also has close ties to the franchise and to Monfort. He has spent almost half of his MLB career in Denver. He posted a 3.41 earned run average over 361 appearances with the Rockies between 2012-18.

Ottavino is personally familiar with the challenges of pitching (and succeeding) at Coors Field. He discussed exactly that in an MLB Network appearance in May. It makes sense that the Rockies would want him in a front office role of some kind, yet a GM hire would obviously be a massive amount of responsibility.

There doesn’t appear to be a clear timetable for the Rockies to install anyone at the top of baseball operations. Forman and Sawdaye were the only two known remaining candidates coming into today. Ghiroli writes that they were indeed the only two finalists as of last week. It seems they’re now branching back out.

Latest On Rockies’ Front Office Search

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1:00pm: Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post reports this afternoon that there’s “no truth” to rumors that the Rockies’ search for a new front office leader have stalled or that they have begun looking at alternative candidates. That doesn’t necessarily mean a deal with Sawdaye or Forman is close or even expected, of course, but it suggests that the team’s search continues with the same group of finalists they had narrowed the field to in recent weeks. While Sawdaye and Forman are the only two names known to be in that group, it’s possible that additional finalists have been in the mix throughout the entire process who simply haven’t been named publicly.

11:50am: The Rockies have been on the hunt for a new head of baseball operations ever since GM Bill Schmidt departed the club at the beginning of October. With the offseason now officially upon us, the pressure to find the next person who will lead Colorado’s front office is growing significantly.

While Diamondbacks assistant GM Amiel Sawdaye and Guardians assistant GM Matt Forman both emerged as finalists for the job in recent weeks, today a report from Jon Heyman of the New York Post suggests that, at least for the time being, neither Sawdaye or Forman appear poised to be named the Rockies’ head of baseball operations. Thomas Harding of MLB.com adds that conversations with both Sawdaye and Forman have been “productive,” but the Rockies are still in the midst of their search and “the feeling was” that other candidates were still in the mix despite Sawdaye and Forman being the only two publicly identified finalists.

It’s not clear if Sawdaye and/or Forman are still in the running for the job or if they’re no longer under consideration, but at the very least it seems as though the Rockies will spend at least the first few days of the offseason without a proper head of baseball operations. That’s not completely unheard of, as the Astros famously parted ways with James Click early in the 2022-23 offseason and didn’t hire a new head of baseball operations until late January, with club chairman Jim Crane running baseball operations in that interim period.

As previously mentioned, Sawdaye and Forman are the only two names who have been confirmed as finalists for the role. Click and Royals assistant GM Scott Sharp were once part of the search but are reportedly no longer in consideration. Former Twins GM Thad Levine was connected to the position immediately after Bill Schmidt’s departure, but has never been confirmed to have even spoken to the Rockies about the role to this point.

Whoever ultimately ends up taking the reins of baseball operations in Colorado, their first decision will be one that becomes less flexible the longer the search drags on. The Rockies finished the season with interim manager Warren Schaeffer at the helm of the dugout, but his future in the role as well as the futures of the rest of the coaching staff in the organization are set to be determined by the club’s eventual baseball operations hire. If the team’s search for a new baseball operations leader drags deep into the offseason, the continuity offered by keeping Schaeffer and much of the Rockies coaching staff in the fold could become more valuable as other candidates settle into roles elsewhere around the league.

Kris Bryant Still Bothered By Back Pain, Not Considering Retirement

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Kris Bryant has played in only 170 games over his four seasons with the Rockies, and the 2025 campaign saw Bryant appear in just 10 games before his recurring back issues brought his season to an early close.  Lumbar degenerative disc disease has left Bryant feeling pain while performing basically every baseball activity not related to swinging, and the former NL MVP told the Denver Post’s Patrick Saunders, and this discomfort has now extended to his day-to-day life.

“It’s exhausting for me waking up and hoping to feel [better],” Bryant said.  “I can’t tell you the last time I woke up feeling I’m in a good spot….If you asked me two or three months ago, I would say [my back pain] was not affecting my everyday life.  But now it is, which is really annoying to me because usually when you kind of just rest, it’s supposed to get better.  So maybe I’m at a point where I should just do a bunch of stuff to see if that helps me.”

Bryant has already explored multiple avenues to try and fix his back, including an ablation procedure last May.  He isn’t currently doing any baseball activities, as Rockies head trainer Keith Dugger has Bryant on a regular Pilates regiment in order to help reinforce his core.  However, it remains to be seen if this treatment or anything will be able to get Bryant back on a path to regular on-field action, which is still his goal.

“That’s the thing that eats at me the most.  It’s tough to describe,” Bryant said.  “I’ve played this game for 30 years now, not professionally, of course, but it’s all I have ever known….But watching the playoffs and seeing some of my friends still playing, that gives me the motivation to try and play.  So I don’t have those conversations [about retirement], thank goodness, because I don’t want to.  I just want to be a baseball player.”

Three years and $78MM remain on the seven-year, $182MM free agent deal that Bryant signed with Colorado during the 2021-22 offseason.  The signing can unfortunately be considered one of the biggest misfires in free agent history, given how little has Bryant has played, and his lack of production when he has played (.244/.324/.370 and 17 home runs over 712 plate appearances in a Rox uniform).  The Rockies’ horrific 231-417 record over the last four seasons is far from Bryant’s fault alone, yet his contract has become somewhat symbolic of this low point in the franchise’s history.

A pivot point may be coming since the Rockies are searching for a new head of baseball operations, and focusing on external candidates in an attempt to finally bring some fresh ideas and new perspectives into the organization.  Given the lack of progress with Bryant, it is hard to call his situation a top priority for the incoming new executive, as there seemingly isn’t much to do besides hope that Bryant can get healthy enough to play.

Working out a deferred payment plan for the remainder of the contract may be the eventual outcome for Bryant and the Rockies, since he naturally isn’t going to retire outright and walk away from the money still owed.  However, Bryant (who turns 34 in January) isn’t ready to pursue that avenue yet, and only he knows when enough will be enough from a physical and mental standpoint.

Lucas Gilbreath, Aaron Schunk Elect Free Agency

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The Rockies outrighted infielder Aaron Schunk and lefty reliever Lucas Gilbreath off their 40-man roster, according to the MLB.com transaction tracker. Both players had been outrighted before in their careers and exercised their right to elect free agency.

There’ll be plenty of waiver movement as soon as the World Series ends. Teams need to activate everyone from the injured list and get their roster counts down to 40. The Rockies were already positioned to do so with Germán Márquez, Thairo Estrada, Kyle Farmer and Orlando Arcia hitting free agency. They’ll only need to reinstate Kris Bryant and Jeff Criswell from the injured list.

Colorado had also tried to sneak reliever Dugan Darnell through waivers this afternoon, but the Pirates intervened. Dropping Schunk and Gilbreath gets them down to 37 players. There could certainly be a few more cuts once they finalize a GM hire. Colorado has top priority on the waiver wire, which they should leverage to churn the back half of the roster next week.

Schunk and Gilbreath will each look for the second teams of their careers. Colorado drafted Schunk in the second round in 2019. The Georgia product has had brief MLB stints over the past two seasons. He has fanned 41 times in 131 trips to the plate, batting .222/.246/.302 over 55 games. The righty hitter owns a .291/.348/.468 line over parts of three seasons at Triple-A Albuquerque.

While that’s a solid line on the surface, it’s below average after accounting for the extremely hitter-friendly environment. The 28-year-old Schunk is a good defensive third baseman with a plus arm but hasn’t found much consistency at the plate. He was a two-way player with a mid-90s fastball at Georgia but hasn’t pitched in pro ball. Speculatively speaking, it’s possible another team would be intrigued to see if he’s willing to try his hand on the mound again.

Gilbreath, 30 in March, was a seventh-round selection back in 2017. He had a couple productive seasons as a middle reliever/setup man between 2021-22. He underwent Tommy John surgery in Spring Training ’23 and has barely been a factor since returning from the operation. Gilbreath made three MLB appearances late last year. He only pitched once in the big leagues this past season, striking out two while allowing an Alexander Canario home run in a mop-up inning in Pittsburgh on August 22.

Colorado optioned Gilbreath back to Albuquerque at the end of that game. He gave up a 7.59 earned run average with poor strikeout and walk numbers over 42 2/3 innings in the minors. Before the surgery, Gilbreath had a 93-94 MPH fastball and an 81-82 MPH slider that served as an excellent secondary pitch. The fastball dropped to 92 in 2024 and backed way up this year, as he was in the 89-90 MPH range. The breaking ball has also lost nearly three ticks relative to the pre-injury level.

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