The Colorado Rockies are headed into another winter with plenty on their plate, and the biggest question is still the same one that has hovered over the franchise for years: how do they climb back to October baseball at Coors Field?
It has now been eight years since Colorado last had a winning season, and the club has not been to the postseason since 2018, when it finished 91-72. Since then, the slide has turned brutal. The Rockies are now staring at four straight 100-loss seasons, and after going 43-119 in 2025, the front office has to treat this offseason like a reset with no shortcuts.
There is at least a young core worth building around. Kyle Karros, Charlie Condon, TJ Rumfield and Hunter Goodman give the roster something to point toward, and the hope is that more help is on the way.
Rumfield, in particular, changed the conversation at first base. What had been a glaring concern became a spot he helped stabilize with his production this season, and the source material goes so far as to suggest he could be the best Rockies first baseman since Todd Helton.
But the pitching is where the real work starts. Kyle Freeland and Tomoyuki Sugano are the veteran free agents after the season, and Colorado will need to look for other short-term arms to fill that space. Both had their moments, but the bottom line is hard to ignore: together they finished with 24 losses, and those kinds of results simply do not move the needle.
Starting pitching has to get better, and it has to get better fast. Chase Dollander should be part of the rotation next season, which gives the Rockies a young arm to build around. Even so, Dollander cannot carry that group by himself, and the team needs depth behind him.
Freddy Peralta is one name that would make sense on talent alone, though the financial cost could be steep. Kevin Gausman is another possible target, especially with Colorado finishing last in strikeouts this season and needing more bat-missing ability in the rotation.
The Rockies also may need to look at the infield while their young core keeps developing. Yoan Moncada and Brandon Lowe are both mentioned as possible additions.
Moncada, who is coming off right knee surgery and has dealt with injuries in recent seasons, could be a one-year solution at age 32 and offers the ability to play second or third base. Lowe, meanwhile, brings a left-handed bat and has been productive enough to finish in the top 10 of MVP voting in both 2020 and 2021.
If the Pittsburgh Pirates do not bring him back, Colorado should be ready to get in touch with his agent.
There is also the possibility of bigger moves. The front office could explore trading Ezequiel Tovar or Tanner Gordon if the return is strong enough.
Tovar’s name is the tougher one to put out there, especially after a long, rough season that needed a strong finish. Still, the question remains whether the Rockies can keep waiting for him to become a consistent hitter, especially with durability concerns also in the picture.
The finish to the year was ugly. Colorado was terrible over the last six weeks, and while the team did improve by 15 games, the source material makes clear that the number should have been better if the bullpen had held up in key spots.
There are still more roster questions to answer. Will Condon get promoted next season?
Is Ethan Holliday ready to make a leap? Goodman remains Colorado’s best hitter, which is exactly why other teams will keep calling about him.
That situation is one to watch all offseason, because in this market, anything is possible.
For Paul DePodesta, the offseason is about more than filling holes. It is about making the right decisions in pitching and infield depth, and about steering the Rockies away from another 100-loss year.
He is ready to win the business of baseball. Now the challenge is turning that into wins on the field.
In Other News...
Rockies Face One Defining Offseason Test After Another 100-Loss Year
Paul DePodesta is heading into his first full offseason running baseball operations in Colorado with a clear read on the assignment. After a 58-104 season, the Rockies have now endured four straight years of 100 or more losses, and while the offense showed some improvement, the pitching side of the roster still looked far too thin to support any real progress. DePodesta has already spent time evaluating the clubs needs and said he is ready to move quickly when opportunities present themselves.
For the Rockies, the next few months amount to a defining test of whether that evaluation turns into something more meaningful than another winter of patchwork fixes. The club has to address the mound first and foremost, and the urgency is hard to ignore after another long season in the standings. What DePodesta does with that urgency, and how aggressively Colorado tries to reshape the roster, will say plenty about how serious the organization is about breaking the cycle. [Read more 🡒]