The Rockies already had their answer on John Brebbia once, and they may have gotten it right the first time.
Colorado brought the 36-year-old veteran into spring training as a non-roster invitee and gave him a real look across seven games. In 9.0 innings, Brebbia posted a 7.0 ERA, and the club decided before Opening Day that it had seen enough.
The Minnesota Twins later tried him as well, then moved on. By May, Brebbia was back on a minor league deal with the Rockies, and on June 21 Colorado selected his contract and added him to the big-league roster.
The results since then have only reinforced the original hesitation. Through three appearances after being called up, Brebbia carries a 10.38 ERA.
That’s a small sample, sure, but the broader picture is hard to ignore. Brebbia has been around a long time, with 379 games across nine major league seasons.
At his peak, he was a steady late-inning arm for the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants.
More recently, though, the numbers have gone the wrong way fast: a 5.86 ERA in 59 appearances in 2024, followed by a 7.71 ERA in 22 games in 2025.
His stint in Colorado fits that pattern. It’s not some isolated rough patch, and it’s not just bad luck.
His latest outing was especially rough. Against the Miami Marlins on June 31, Brebbia lasted 1.1 innings and gave up five hits and five earned runs, with two home runs mixed in.
No one is pretending the Rockies are a contender. They are not. And that’s exactly why the focus should be on building toward something else instead of burning innings on a struggling veteran.
There’s no postseason trip waiting in Denver. The priority should be evaluation, development and finding out what might matter next.
TJ Shook is one of the names that stands out. The 28-year-old right-hander was promoted on June 1, pitched in three games, and then was sent back down on June 7. In 3.2 innings, he put up a 4.91 ERA, allowed four hits and two home runs, and struck out three.
It’s another tiny sample, but compared with the damage Brebbia has been taking on, Shook at least looks like a reliever worth a longer look.
For a rebuilding club, that’s the point now: find the pieces that could help later and trust the decision they already made back in March.
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