The Colorado Rockies have already made one thing clear this offseason: the mound is where the overhaul has to happen.
Offense showed real movement under the new front office, with Jake McCarthy, TJ Rumfield and Hunter Goodman helping drive that progress. But even with that step forward, the lineup still isn’t finished. The Rockies still need more power and a steadier presence on base, and while prospect Charlie Condon could eventually help there, the club would still be wise to keep looking for another impact bat.
Pitching, though, is the urgent problem.
That urgency is why the Rockies moved quickly to replace Alon Leichman after just one year, bringing in Ethan Katz as their new pitching coach. It’s a notable pivot for an organization that rarely makes that kind of coaching change so fast. Katz arrives with a resume built across seven different teams combined, while Leichman had never pitched in MLB and had never served as a head pitching coach before.
Leichman’s most talked-about move was his decision to call pitches from the dugout, a plan that was abandoned only a few weeks into the season. However much merit his analytics-heavy approach may have had, it never truly landed with the players, and the results spoke for themselves.
The Rockies had just one starting pitcher finish with an ERA+ above league average, and that was rookie Chase Dollander, who was limited to 44 innings because of injury. Everyone else in the regular rotation was below average, and the group got even worse as the season wore on, posting an ERA above 7.00 after the All-Star break.
So the Rockies changed direction.
The hope now is that Katz can bring a better blend of communication and relationships, along with whatever analytical elements he chooses to use. That part is still to be determined. What’s already obvious is that Colorado is betting on a different kind of voice in the room.
Even so, coaching alone won’t fix this.
The Rockies are going to need roster help, and free agency is not a simple answer. Tarik Skubal is not coming to Denver, and neither are the rest of the top names. That doesn’t mean the avenue should be ignored, but history says big spending on pitchers has not been a reliable solution for this team.
The recent additions of Michael Lorenzen, Jose Quintana and Tomoyuki Sugano didn’t move the needle much, though Sugano did stand out as their best pitcher for much of the season. Colorado still has to keep taking those shots, because the alternative is even thinner.
Finding lower- and mid-tier arms who can survive at Coors is always going to be a gamble. With Kyle Freeland likely in a post-Kyle-Freeland era, the Rockies no longer have a proven track record in the Mile High altitude to lean on. That means more trial and error is coming.
The clearest path forward appears to be the one hinted at in public comments from Paul DePodesta: use volume and competition to attack the problem.
Expect a lot of new faces at 20th and Blake next season, whenever next season actually begins. Expect active tryouts.
Expect the Rockies to lean back into the piggyback system, or what is now often called aggressive bullpening. That approach fits the moment.
It also fits a staff that doesn’t yet have a clear ace beyond perhaps Dollander.
For everyone else, the message is simple: prove it, four innings at a time.
How quickly this works will come down to two things. Which pitchers seize the chance and turn it into more opportunities? And will the Rockies stay flexible enough to make smart decisions in games and across the season?
In Other News...
Rockies Face A Jake McCarthy Decision That Could Shape Their Offseason
Jake McCarthy gave the Rockies exactly the kind of spark they were hoping for when they brought him over from Arizona in January, and his first season in Denver quickly made him one of the more interesting pieces on the roster. He settled in as a steady offensive presence and helped fill a leadoff role that had been a problem area, giving Colorado a clearer idea of what he can mean to the lineup going forward.
The question now is how that value fits into an offseason built around a much bigger need. Colorado still has to find ways to shore up its starting rotation, and with president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta making it clear the club will pursue pitching through multiple channels, every roster decision carries extra weight. McCarthys name is part of that conversation, even if no move has been made, and it is the kind of choice that could end up shaping the rest of the winter. [Read more 🡒]
Rockies Still Face One Problem New Leadership Can't Fix
The Rockies have spent the winter trying to reset the organization from the top down, adding Penner Sports Group as a minority ownership partner and bringing in Paul DePodesta to run baseball operations. With some veteran money coming off the books and a little more financial flexibility, the front office has more room to work than it did a year ago, which at least gives Colorado a cleaner path forward as it plans for the future.
Still, the hardest part of the rebuild is the one no new executive can simply wave away. Colorado has to convince impact free agents that it is a place to win and a place where pitchers can survive, and those are steep sells even with a fresh leadership structure in place. The Rockies need help on the mound most of all, but the combination of recent struggles and the realities of Coors Field means the club may have to keep looking for answers in-house and through smaller moves rather than a splashy market fix. [Read more 🡒]