Rockies To Select T.J. Rumfield, Brett Sullivan
The Rockies will carry first baseman T.J. Rumfield and catcher Brett Sullivan on their Opening Day roster, manager Warren Schaeffer announced over the weekend (link via Thomas Harding of MLB.com). Colorado also tabbed Ryan Feltner as their fifth starter, meaning Chase Dollander will begin the season in the bullpen.
It’s the first major league call for the 25-year-old Rumfield. Colorado added the lefty-swinging first baseman in a trade with the Yankees in January. They sent hard-throwing reliever Angel Chivilli to New York. A former 12th round pick who went unselected in December’s Rule 5 draft, Rumfield isn’t a highly touted prospect. He’s coming off a strong season in Triple-A, though, and the Rockies offered a much clearer path to playing time than he would’ve had behind Ben Rice and Paul Goldschmidt in the Bronx.
Rumfield hit .285/.378/.447 with 16 homers across 587 plate appearances in the minors last season. He worked walks at a 12% clip while striking out at a lower than average 18.4% rate. Rumfield’s middling batted ball metrics probably held him back from getting a look as a Rule 5 draftee. His 36.6% hard contact rate and 87.8 mph average exit velocity would be at the lower end for an MLB first baseman.
At the same time, Rumfield doesn’t have much more to prove against minor league pitching. He has posted above-average numbers at every stop, including nearly two full seasons in Triple-A. He’s an advanced contact hitter with a quality approach. That was on display this spring as well. Rumfield batted .280 with four homers and remarkably struck out just one time in 58 plate appearances in camp.
There’s a decent chance he’s the starting first baseman on Opening Day. Colorado had the worst first base group in the majors a year ago. They moved on from Michael Toglia over the winter, acquiring Rumfield and Edouard Julien as options at the position. Julien could also factor in at second base depending on how the Rox use utility player Willi Castro.
They can move Castro between second and third, though Schaeffer announced that infielders Ryan Ritter and Kyle Karros also made the team. They account for two bench spots, while Sullivan wins a third as the backup catcher. (The final bench spot is undetermined, as infielder Tyler Freeman is questionable for Opening Day with back soreness.) Sullivan beat out Braxton Fulford for the #2 catcher role; the latter was officially optioned yesterday.
Colorado added Sullivan on a minor league deal over the winter. The 32-year-old played in three big league games with the Pirates last year. He has 43 games and 112 MLB plate appearances under his belt, batting .204/.250/.291 with a pair of home runs. Sullivan had a big camp, hitting .378 with a pair of homers and three walks and strikeouts apiece in 16 games. Fulford hit .270 with three longballs, eight strikeouts and one walk.
Sullivan showed enough that the Rox want to keep him around to back up Hunter Goodman. He’s out of options, so he’ll need to stick on the MLB roster or be exposed to waivers. The Rockies will need to officially select Rumfield’s and Sullivan’s contracts on Wednesday. They can do so without designating anyone for assignment. Pierson Ohl and RJ Petit recently underwent Tommy John surgeries and can be placed on the 60-day injured list.
Meanwhile, the news on the pitching side comes as a surprise. Feltner and Dollander were competing for the final rotation spot behind Kyle Freeland and free agent signees Michael Lorenzen, Jose Quintana and Tomoyuki Sugano. Neither pitcher seized the job during camp. Feltner gave up 13 runs while walking 10 batters in 11 2/3 innings. Dollander surrendered 11 runs (10 earned) with seven walks and three hit batters across 14 frames.
Given Dollander’s pedigree as a former top 10 pick, it seemed that a rebuilding Colorado team would prefer to have him continue to start. They’ve opted for Feltner instead but apparently don’t believe Dollander would benefit from working out of the Triple-A rotation. He’ll join Antonio Senzatela as a multi-inning arm out of the bullpen.
Aside from Freeman’s health, the bullpen is the last unknown part of the Opening Day roster. There a couple middle relief spots up for grabs and one out-of-options player (Keegan Thompson) trying to maintain his spot on the 40-man roster.
Rockies Notes: Rotation, Gordon, Amador
The Rockies made a pair of camp cuts on Tuesday, optioning right-hander Tanner Gordon and second baseman Adael Amador. Both players will open the season in Triple-A Albuquerque.
Gordon made 15 starts a year ago, holding a rotation spot throughout the second half. The 28-year-old righty allowed a 6.33 ERA with a modest 18.4% strikeout rate. Gordon pitched well this spring, striking out 12 against two walks across 11 innings. He only surrendered eight hits and two runs. It wasn’t enough to overcome last year’s regular season production to hold a spot in a revamped Colorado rotation.
The Rockies signed Michael Lorenzen, Jose Quintana and Tomoyuki Sugano to one-year deals. They’ll all hold rotation spots behind Kyle Freeland, whom the Rox have tabbed as their Opening Day starter for a third straight season (and franchise-record fifth overall). That leaves one spot in the season-opening staff up for grabs.
Thomas Harding of MLB.com writes that the Rockies still haven’t decided whether they’ll go with Ryan Feltner or Chase Dollander. Feltner is the more experienced pitcher and made 30 starts with a 4.49 ERA and league average peripherals back in 2024. He was limited to six MLB appearances last year by injury, most notably back spasms.
Dollander is coming off a frustrating rookie season, allowing a 6.52 ERA across his first 21 starts. He pitched fairly well on the road (3.46 ERA with a 22.2% strikeout rate in 52 innings) but was destroyed for 55 runs over 46 frames at Coors Field. The 24-year-old Dollander is a former top 10 overall pick who is one of the most important players with the organization in a complete rebuild.
Neither pitcher has done much to impress this spring. Dollander has walked seven and hit three batters in 14 innings. He has given up 11 runs (10 earned) on 18 hits with 10 strikeouts. Feltner has been rocked for 13 runs with 10 walks in 11 2/3 frames. Gordon handily outperformed both of them in camp, but he’s a lower-ceiling pitcher whom the front office evidently wasn’t seriously considering for a spot on the Opening Day roster.
The Rockies are expected to keep Antonio Senzatela in a long relief role. Dollander and Feltner both have minor league options. Whomever doesn’t win the fifth starter job will probably begin the season alongside Gordon in the Albuquerque rotation. Gabriel Hughes and McCade Brown are the other depth starters on the 40-man roster. They were both optioned out in early March.
As for Amador, it’s moderately disappointing that he didn’t win a roster spot. The switch-hitting infielder has been one of the team’s more well-known prospects for a few seasons. Amador hasn’t hit at all in 51 MLB games over the past two years, batting .176/.242/.250 through 164 plate appearances.
His Spring Training production (.229/.270/.429 with two homers in 12 games) wasn’t good. Amador is coming off a strong .303/.405/.478 season with more walks than strikeouts in Triple-A, though that comes with the caveat of Albuquerque’s very hitter-friendly environment. Colorado acquired Edouard Julien from the Twins and signed utilityman Willi Castro to a two-year free agent deal to factor in at second base. They can each move to a corner infield spot (first and third base, respectively) if the Rockies decide to take another look at Amador midseason.
Rockies Place Chase Dollander On Injured List
September 13: The Rockies today officially announced Dollander’s placement on the injured list with a left patella tendon strain. Blalock was recalled to the majors in a corresponding move.
September 12: The Rockies will place Chase Dollander on the injured list with a knee injury, reports Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post. The 2023 ninth overall pick would have been lined up to start Saturday’s game in San Diego.
Instead, it appears his rookie season will come to a slightly premature end. Dollander will technically be eligible to return in the final five days of the season, so it’s possible he makes one more start, but there’s no incentive for him to pitch through any kind of discomfort. He’ll likely finish his debut campaign with a 6.52 earned run average across 21 starts.
Dollander had a very difficult time pitching at Coors Field. He allowed nearly 10 earned runs per nine innings during his 11 home starts. His road numbers are much better. The 6’2″ righty pitched to a 3.46 ERA in 10 starts outside Denver. Dollander held opposing hitters to a .200/.297/.324 slash in his road starts. His strikeout (22.2%) and walk (11.3%) rates on the road aren’t as strong as the ERA or slash line, but there are at least some encouraging signs. That included a solid final appearance in Los Angeles on Monday, as Dollander held the Dodgers to one run on a lone hit with five strikeouts in as many innings.
The 23-year-old Dollander is the Rox’s most talented young pitcher. He’ll obviously need to be far more competitive at Coors Field to have long-term success. There’ll be plenty of opportunity to do so in a Colorado rotation that doesn’t project to be much better in 2026 than it was this season. Germán Márquez is likely to walk in free agency. Neither Tanner Gordon nor McCade Brown has pitched well enough to merit an Opening Day rotation spot. Antonio Senzatela performed so poorly this year that the Rox have demoted him to long relief. Dollander and Kyle Freeland should be joined by three offseason acquisitions.
Colorado will need to call up a fifth starter or run a bullpen game in Dollander’s place tomorrow. Bradley Blalock is on the 40-man roster and would probably be the choice if they recall a starting pitcher from Triple-A Albuquerque. Former first-round pick Gabriel Hughes could also be a consideration. He’s not on the 40-man but would need to be added this offseason if the Rockies don’t want to expose him to the Rule 5 draft. That could lead them to give Hughes a couple starts down the stretch, as they’re doing with Brown.
Austin Nola Elects Free Agency
Aug. 15: Nola has indeed elected free agency, per the transaction log at MiLB.com.
Aug. 13: Nola has cleared waivers, and the Rockies have sent him outright to Triple-A Albuquerque, according to the transaction log on his MLB.com player page. He has the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency, but he can also choose to accept the assignment and rejoin the Isotopes. He is currently listed on their roster on MiLB.com.
Aug. 11: The Rockies announced Monday that they’ve designated catcher Austin Nola for assignment. His roster spot will go to righty Chase Dollander, who’s been recalled from Triple-A Albuquerque and will start tonight’s game versus the Cardinals in St. Louis.
Nola, 35, has spent the bulk of the season with Triple-A Albuquerque after signing a minor league contract over the winter but had his contract selected to the big league roster in early July. He’s gotten into 15 games for the Rox but turned in a lackluster .184/.225/.211 batting line in a small sample of 41 plate appearances. He was far better in 26 Triple-A games, slashing .347/.411/.474 in 106 trips to the plate.
The older brother of longtime Phillies starter Aaron Nola, Austin has appeared in parts of six big league seasons. He was excellent early on after breaking through with the Mariners as a 29-year-old rookie. The older Nola brother hit .280/.351/.476 in 377 plate appearances with the M’s in 2019-20, pairing that plus offensive output with the ability to play not only catcher but multiple infield and outfield spots.
The Padres coveted Nola’s production and versatility enough to surrender a package of prospects that included Andres Munoz, Ty France and Taylor Trammell to pry Nola and relievers Dan Altavilla and Austin Adams away from Seattle in 2020. Nola’s bat fell off to about league-average levels from 2020-22 following the trade before cratering in 2023. The Friars cut him loose after the ’23 season and he’s since bounced to the Brewers, Royals and now Rockies.
With the trade deadline behind us, the Rockies’ only course of action will be to place Nola on waivers. He’ll be made available to all 29 other teams, beginning with the worst record in the league and climbing through the best. Nola is out of minor league options, so any team that claims him would need to add him right to the big league roster. If he goes unclaimed, he’d have the right to reject an outright assignment to the minors in favor of free agency.
Latest On Rockies’ Expected Deadline Approach
The Rockies dropped to 21-71 with today’s loss in Boston, putting them on a 37-win pace for the season. That’d have them four wins shy of last year’s White Sox, the worst team in modern history. The Rockies are obviously going to be deadline sellers, but the extent of that sale is complicated by the organization’s track record of holding onto players that any other team would have traded.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic writes that the Rox intend to be more willing to listen on veteran players than they have been at prior deadlines. He suggests they’ll seriously entertain interest in the likes of third baseman Ryan McMahon, reliever Jake Bird, and starter Germán Márquez. That broadly aligns with a report from Jon Heyman of The New York Post last week. Heyman reported that the Rockies are open to offers on McMahon, specifically, after they pulled him off the trade market early in 2024.
However, that increased willingness to deal veterans doesn’t mean the Rockies are completely open for business. Rosenthal writes that the team remains unlikely to trade young players whom they view as core pieces. He lists shortstop Ezequiel Tovar, center fielder Brenton Doyle, and rookie righty Chase Dollander in that group. Rosenthal more surprisingly adds relievers Seth Halvorsen and Zach Agnos, plus starter Ryan Feltner, as players who may fall in the latter category.
McMahon, Márquez and Bird are Colorado’s three most obvious trade chips. They all featured prominently on MLBTR’s initial list of the top 40 trade candidates last week. McMahon is a plus defensive third baseman with power and strikeout concerns. He had an abysmal April, raked in May, and has cooled back off since the beginning of June. He’s hitting just .210/.310/.373 on the season and has been a well below-average hitter (.207/.305/.350) over the past calendar year.
There’ll nevertheless be interest in McMahon, particularly given the scarcity of infield talent that may be available. The Yankees need to acquire a third baseman and have reportedly already checked in. The Cubs and Tigers are speculative possibilities. McMahon is playing on a $12MM salary in his age-30 season and will make $16MM annually between 2026-27.
Márquez is an impending free agent who is making $10MM. He was an above-average starter earlier in his career but hasn’t been as sharp since undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2023. He’s sitting on a 5.84 ERA with a subpar 15.3% strikeout rate over 18 starts. The 30-year-old righty is coming off his best month of the season, though, working to a 2.97 mark while striking out 21% of opponents in June. His fastball still sits around 95 MPH, so teams could view him as an upside play outside of Coors Field. He’s unlikely to be a qualifying offer candidate, so there’s little reason not to trade him.
Bird, 29, had quietly been one of the league’s best relievers until he was blown up by the Red Sox on Tuesday. That outing jumped his season ERA by nearly a full run, up from 2.79 to 3.70. Bird has fanned more than 27% of opposing hitters and has generally done well to keep runs off the board. He looked to be a fairly nondescript middle reliever entering the season. He’s under club control for three seasons beyond this one, but this is a breakout year for a reliever approaching his 30th birthday. The Rockies would be wise to cash him in this summer while his trade value is at its peak.
The Rockies have a few other veteran players, though they’d have little to no trade value. They’ll presumably hope to find a lottery ticket prospect for the likes of Thairo Estrada, Austin Gomber and Tyler Kinley. It’s not surprising they’re reluctant to move Tovar or Doyle, both of whom are struggling through down years but looked like potential cornerstones a season ago. Dollander has been hit hard in his debut campaign and was recently optioned back to Triple-A, but he’s a recent top 10 pick and the organization’s best hope of developing a front-line starter.
Feltner is a back-of-the-rotation starter who has missed most of this season rehabbing a back issue. He just returned from the injured list last week and has been limited to six starts. The Rox could get a notable return for Halvorsen, a fireballer who has gotten a look in the ninth inning. He’s only 25 and controllable for five more seasons. A team in Colorado’s position should arguably be willing to trade any reliever, but there’s more of a case for holding Haloversen than there would be with Bird. It’s tougher to see the logic in including Agnos as a potential building block. He’s a rookie reliever with a 5.19 ERA and 15 strikeouts in his first 26 career innings. Agnos, a former 10th-round pick, has good but not elite velocity and has never been a highly-regarded prospect despite excellent minor league numbers.
Rockies Option Chase Dollander
The Rockies announced today that they have optioned right-hander Chase Dollander to Triple-A Albuquerque. Fellow righty Bradley Blalock has been recalled from Albuquerque as the corresponding move.
Dollander, 23, was called up to the majors in the first week of April. The ninth overall pick of the 2023 draft, he tore through the minors last year, posting a 2.59 earned run average, 33.9% strikeout rate and 9.4% walk rate in 118 innings. He was already a top prospect after being drafted but that performance shot him up even higher on the rankings. After just one Triple-A start this year, he was up in the show.
Thus far, he hasn’t been able to deliver on that prospect hype. Around a brief stint on the injured list due to forearm tightness, he now has 15 big league starts under his belt with a 6.68 ERA. His 16.8% strikeout rate and 10.7% walk rate are both subpar.
Not every prospect comes up to the majors and finds immediate success, so it’s not necessarily a concern that Dollander has struggled so far. On the other hand, Coors Field is a notoriously challenging venue to pitch in and that seems to be a factor here. Dollander has a 4.25 ERA on the road but a massive 9.37 mark in the mountains. His 20.3% strikeout rate on the road is much better than his 13.7% clip at Coors.
Getting major league hitters out is tough in any stadium but the Coors effect only heightens the challenge. Batted balls fly farther in the thin air but breaking pitches also move less, so there may be a steep learning curve as Dollander tries to make his stuff work at altitude.
Given his struggles, it’s not necessarily a shock to see the Rockies send him down. It’s also possible that the upcoming All-Star break will allow them to recall him fairly quickly without missing more than one or two turns through the rotation. With some upcoming off-days, the Rockies might just use a four-man rotation for a while, or perhaps give Blalock a spot start or two.
Though the decision is defensible, Dollander is likely to be personally impacted by the move. A baseball season is usually 186 days long but a player needs only 172 days of service to be credited with a full year of service time. Dollander was called up just ten days into the season, so he was on track to hit the one-year mark. That almost certainly won’t happen now as an optional assignment for a pitcher has a 15-day minimum.
The Rockies could technically recall Dollander in less than 15 days if someone else goes on the injured list, but barring that scenario, Dollander no longer has a path to one year of service. As a top prospect, he could also earn a full year by finishing in the top two of Rookie of the Year voting but it’s hard to fathom that possibility with his current stats.
Put it all together and Dollander’s path to free agency has almost certainly been pushed by a year. Had he stayed up, he would have been on track for free agency after 2030. It now appears that post-2031 will be the earliest he could hit the open market. His path to arbitration could also be impacted, depending on how long this optional assignment lasts.
Those are long-term questions which will be answered in time. In the shorter term, the focus will be on Dollander’s on-field abilities and figuring out how to reach his potential. The 2025 Rockies are one of the worst baseball teams of all time and there aren’t many reasons for long-term optimism either. If Dollander can start looking like a potential ace again, that would provide a glimmer of hope, but it’s not there right now.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
Rockies Make Several Roster Moves
The Rockies announced a slate of roster moves Tuesday, reinstating young righty Chase Dollander from the 15-day IL and placing fellow right-hander Tanner Gordon on the 15-day IL in his place, due to a strained left oblique. Gordon’s IL placement is retroactive to May 31. Colorado also placed righty Zach Agnos on the bereavement list and recalled right-hander Angel Chivilli. Additionally, infielder Aaron Schunk and outfielder Nick Martini cleared waivers and were assigned outright to Triple-A Albuquerque, per the MiLB.com transaction log. Martini elected free agency. Schunk has the right to do the same, by virtue of a prior outright assignment earlier this year, but there’s no indication he’s done so.
Dollander, 23, was the No. 9 overall pick in 2023 and entered the season ranked as one of baseball’s top pitching prospects. He’s had a handful of rough starts since making his MLB debut in April but looked to be righting the ship prior to landing on the IL due to forearm tightness. Dollander held opponents to two runs or fewer in three of his four appearances prior to the injury and had rattled off 10 2/3 innings with three runs allowed (2.53 ERA) and a 13-to-5 K/BB ratio in a pair of road starts against the Rangers and D-backs.
Dollander will slot right back into the Rockies’ rotation and start tonight’s game in Miami, per the team. As one might expect, the right-hander has been far better on the road in his young career than at Denver’s hitter-friendly home park. Dollander has made four starts at Coors Field and four on the road, working to an 8.66 ERA at home compared to a 4.29 mark in other venues. Overall, he carries a 6.28 ERA with a roughly average 22.1% strikeout rate, an elevated 10.5% walk rate and a massive 2.33 HR/9 mark (with six of his ten home runs allowed coming at home).
The 27-year-old Gordon was a sixth-round pick by the Braves back in 2019. He landed with the Rox alongside reliever Victor Vodnik in the trade that sent Pierce Johnson to Atlanta a couple years back. Gordon was rocked for an 8.65 ERA in eight starts during last year’s debut campaign but has provided a more serviceable 4.24 ERA with a 14.1% strikeout rate, 4.2% walk rate and 41.4% grounder rate in three starts (17 innings) so far in 2025. The team didn’t specify the severity of Gordon’s strain, nor was a timetable for his return provided.
Martini, 34, was designated for assignment last week. He totaled 111 plate appearances as a Rockie and hit .225/.288/.294 despite being deployed almost exclusively in platoon-friendly situations. Only five of the lefty-swinging Martini’s plate appearances came versus southpaws.
Over a six-year span from 2018-23, Martini batted .268/.362/.412 with an 11.2% walk rate in 412 plate appearances in the majors. He’s always walked at a huge clip and has been an on-base machine in the upper minors, playing parts of eight Triple-A seasons churning out a .294/.399/.454 batting line in that time. He’ll be a depth option for teams looking for left-handed bats, but he’ll probably need to sign a minor league deal after struggling at the plate in both 2024 and 2025.
The 27-year-old Schunk went 6-for-28 with a double in 29 plate appearances in his second year of partial MLB work with Colorado. The 2019 second-round pick hit .234/.265/.330 in 98 big league plate appearances last year. Schunk shows solid contact skills in Triple-A and has played all four infield spots — primarily third base — but doesn’t walk often or provide much power.
Schunk is a career .291/.346/.469 hitter in 880 Triple-A plate appearances, but given the intensely hitter-friendly nature of the Pacific Coast League (and Albuquerque’s home park, in particular), that’s actually about 12% worse than league-average, by measure of wRC+. Assuming he sticks with the organization, he’ll give the Rockies some righty-hitting infield depth at multiple positions.
Rockies Place Chase Dollander On IL With Forearm Tightness
5:00pm: Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post relays that the club doesn’t consider Dollander’s issue serious. Gordon will start tomorrow’s game and they expect Dollander to return after a minimal IL stint.
12:35pm: The Rockies announced that right-hander Chase Dollander has been placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to May 19th, due to right forearm tightness. Fellow righty Juan Mejia has been recalled as the corresponding move.
To this point, the Rockies haven’t provided any specifics about Dollander’s injury or how long they expect him to be out. He started for the club on Sunday and everything seemed fairly normal at the time. He tossed 98 pitches over 4 2/3 innings, striking out six Diamondbacks. He allowed one earned run, which came on a solo home run off the bat of Ketel Marte. His velocity was in line with his previous starts.
Perhaps the Rockies are just being cautious with a young pitcher. After all, they have nothing to play for in the short term. Their 8-41 record is easily the worst in baseball and puts them on pace for one of the worst seasons ever. Dollander is one of the best prospects in baseball and only debuted last month. It would make sense for the club to pump the brakes on any minor issue with his throwing arm.
However, there’s always concern when a pitcher’s throwing arm is in the spotlight like this. If Dollander requires any kind of lengthy stay on the injured list, it would further dampen the mood for the Rockies, if that’s even possible with their current status. His 6.28 earned run average through eight starts doesn’t look too impressive but at least his 22.1% strikeout rate and 10.5% walk rate are close to average. His .260 batting average on balls in play, 62.8% strand rate and 18.9% home run to flyball rate are all on the unfortunate side of average. Some ERA estimators indicate he has deserved betters results, with his SIERA at 4.35.
Ideally, the one silver lining of this frustrating season would be plenty of opportunity for young players to develop and emerge as key pieces for the next competitive window. If this is just a precautionary breather for Dollander, he could still get a lot of starts under his belt in the remainder of the season. But a lengthier stint on the IL would obviously be unwelcome.
Perhaps the club will provide more information in the coming days. Regardless of the details there, they will have a rotation spot to fill. Germán Márquez, Antonio Senzatela and Kyle Freeland have three spots. Rookie Carson Palmquist has recently been promoted and will presumably stick around. Ryan Feltner and Austin Gomber are both on the IL with uncertain timelines. Bradley Blalock and Tanner Gordon are both on the 40-man and have made big league starts this year, so one of them will probably get the call.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
Rockies Promote Chase Dollander
TODAY: The Rockies officially selected Dollander’s contract, and optioned Bradley Blalock to Triple-A in the corresponding move.
APRIL 4: The Rockies are going to promote their top pitching prospect, reports Patrick Lyons of Just Baseball. Right-hander Chase Dollander will make his major league debut when he starts for the club on Sunday. There’s already an opening on the 40-man roster, so the club will only need to make a corresponding active roster move.
Dollander, now 23, has been a hyped-up name for a while now. He put up big numbers for Tennessee and was ranked as one of the top players available in the 2023 draft. The Rockies selected him with the ninth overall pick and then signed him to a slot-value bonus of $5,716,900.
He made his professional debut last year in impressive fashion. He tossed 118 innings over 23 starts, going from High-A to Double-A in the process. He allowed just 2.59 earned runs per nine, striking out 33.9% of batters faced while giving out walks at a 9.4% clip.
Going into 2025, the industry consensus is that he’s one of the top prospects in the league. Baseball America currently lists him #7 overall and MLB Pipeline #24. FanGraphs had him at #12 to start the season, but with the now-graduated Dylan Crews as one of the guys ahead of him. ESPN had Dollander at #14, though also behind Crews. Keith Law of The Athletic was more bearish, putting Dollander down at #75, with concerns about some of his results in Tennessee.
The Rockies reportedly gave some consideration to having Dollander in the season-opening rotation. They sent him to Triple-A Albuquerque instead, where he made one start, allowing one earned run over four innings. The big league club started the season with just four games before their first off-day, having Kyle Freeland, Antonio Senzatela, Ryan Feltner and Germán Márquez start those.
Austin Gomber likely would have had a fifth spot but he started the season on the 15-day injured list with shoulder soreness. He made a rehab start for Albuquerque but was scratched from making a second due to inflammation in that shoulder, per Thomas Harding of MLB.com. Perhaps due to Gomber’s setback, Dollander will get an early-season call-up.
The big unknown will be how Dollander handles the challenges of pitching at Coors Field, the most hitter-friendly venue in the big leagues. Geoff Pontes of Baseball America believes Dollander is well-positioned to succeed, even though plenty of other talented arms have struggled there. Pontes points out that pitchers with low release heights, such as Dollander, have previously fared well at Coors. The piece also cites the spin efficiency of Dollander’s fastball, which sits between 96 and 98 miles per hour, as a factor that could work in his favor. In addition that fastball, he throws a changeup, a curveball and another breaking ball that is characterized as either a slider or a cutter by various sources.
If Dollander can thrive at Coors, he could become the most important arm in the rotation for their next competitive window. The club has been losing for a long time now but have seen some young players come up and establish themselves as building blocks, such as Ezequiel Tovar at shortstop and Brenton Doyle in center field.
In the rotation, there’s little long-term certainty. Márquez and Gomber are impending free agents while the contracts for Senzatela and Freeland are only guaranteed through 2026, with options for 2027. It’s possible the Rockies sign new deals with those pitchers but they’re all in their 30s now regardless. At 23 years old, Dollander could potentially be the rock of the group for many years to come, if everything breaks right.
Though he wasn’t on the Opening Day roster, he is getting called up early enough to potentially earn a full service year in 2025. A baseball season is 187 days long but a player needs only 172 days on the active roster or injured list to get a full year. If he’s not optioned down to the minors at any point, he would be on track to qualify for free agency after the 2030 campaign, though a notable optional assignment would push that trajectory by one year.
If he does stay up, the Rockies would be eligible to potentially receive an extra draft pick. The current collective bargaining agreement introduced measures to combat service time manipulation. One such measure is that a team can earn an extra draft if they promote a top prospect early enough to earn a full service year. To qualify, a player must be on two of the three Top 100 lists of BA, ESPN and MLB Pipeline. The player must then win Rookie of the Year or place in the top three of MVP or Cy Young voting in their pre-arbitration seasons.
Those will perhaps be factors later in the year. For now, one of the best young pitchers in the game is coming up to the majors. Facing big league hitters for the first time is always a fascinating challenge for any pitching prospect but the interest level is arguably even higher in this case, given the unique circumstances of Coors Field and Dollander’s potential importance to the franchise.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri and Steven Branscombe, Imagn Images
Rockies To Consider Young Pitchers For Starting Rotation
There’s a likely scenario in which the Rockies enter the 2025 season with a rotation full of familiar faces: Germán Márquez, Kyle Freeland, Ryan Feltner, Austin Gomber, and Antonio Senzatela. All five of those pitchers have been in Colorado’s Opening Day rotation multiple times before. Yet, general manager Bill Schmidt is not ruling out the possibility that one of the team’s young pitching prospects could supplant an established arm (per Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post). Accordingly, the GM says his team is open to the idea of moving a veteran starter to the bullpen to accommodate a fresh face in the rotation. On a similar note, manager Bud Black told Saunders he’s also open to some young pitchers making the team – as long as they’re ready.
As Saunders lays out, the three prospects most likely to wiggle their way onto the Opening Day roster are Chase Dollander, Carson Palmquist, and Sean Sullivan. Dollander, 23, is a consensus top-100 prospect and widely considered the best pitching prospect in the Rockies system. He looks like a future frontline starter with the upside to be a perennial Cy Young contender. However, it has been less than two years since Colorado drafted him, and he only has one year of professional experience under his belt. Thus, there’s a good chance the Rockies would like their star prospect to get some more reps in the high minors before they expose him to big league competition – at Coors Field, no less. To that point, Schmidt made it clear that the Rockies have no interest in rushing Dollander to the show. They will not consider calling him up to pitch out of the bullpen; he won’t be in Colorado until he’s ready for a role in the rotation.
However, director of player development Chris Forbes suggested that Palmquist, 24, could see his MLB debut out of the bullpen (per Saunders). The team still envisions him as a starter long-term, and he could still impress enough to earn a starting role this spring, but he could also see time as a multi-inning arm in the ‘pen. The young left-hander is not as highly regarded of a prospect as Dollander – he looks more like a back-end starter than an ace – but he could be closer to the big leagues. The Rockies took him with the 88th overall pick in 2022, and he has quickly risen through the ranks of their minor league system. He has made 46 starts across four levels, including nine starts at Triple-A. In 27 starts between Double-A and Triple-A last year, he pitched to a 3.98 ERA and 4.43 FIP with an impressive 29.0% strikeout rate, although his 12.1% walk rate was rather high.
Sullivan, 22, was Colorado’s second-round pick in 2023. Most evaluators have doubts about his long-term prospects as a big league starting pitcher. Baseball America describes him as a “depth starter,” while FanGraphs sees him working in middle relief. However, the team at Baseball Prospectus included him on their list of the Rockies’ top 10 prospects, suggesting he could become a “highly efficient” number four starter. If his 2024 performance is anything to go off, that outcome certainly seems possible. Over 21 starts between High-A and Double-A, Sullivan tossed 115 1/3 innings with a 2.11 ERA and 2.83 FIP. Most impressive was his pinpoint control; he walked just 3.4% of the batters he faced. After a year like that, it’s not hard to understand why the Rockies will give him an extended look this spring.
As for which of Colorado’s veteran starting pitchers could wind up moving to the bullpen, Senzatela might be the most likely possibility. The oft-injured 30-year-old missed almost all of the last two seasons recovering from an ACL reconstruction and Tommy John surgery. His last productive season was in 2021, and even then, he failed to pitch enough to qualify for the ERA title. It would not be surprising to see him struggle in camp after so much time away, in which case it might be best for all involved to ease him back into an MLB role via the bullpen. Márquez is another name to keep an eye on this spring, considering he has also missed most of the last two seasons due to injury. He was durable and reliable for Colorado over the previous six years, so he is likely to have a much longer leash than his fellow Venezuelan right-hander. In other words, the Rockies are highly unlikely to move Márquez to the bullpen. However, if he needs to go back on the injured list, a spot in the rotation would open up.