The Rockies are still in the middle of a long rebuild, but this offseason swap with the Yankees is already looking like a win for Colorado.
TJ Rumfield has quickly become one of the more encouraging pieces in the organization’s position-player picture, right there with Hunter Goodman and Cole Carrigg. The 26-year-old didn’t just fill a hole at first base - he grabbed it and ran with it.
Colorado landed Rumfield from New York in exchange for reliever Angel Chivilli, and that deal opened the door for him to take over the Rockies’ wide-open first base battle in spring training. By the end of the season, he had done far more than survive the competition.
Rumfield put together a strong first year as Colorado’s everyday first baseman, hitting .300 and posting a .390 on-base percentage that led the NL. He was one of only seven qualified hitters to finish with a batting average at .300, and he added 16 home runs, 73 RBIs and 3.3 bWAR across 155 games.
Chivilli, meanwhile, showed some promise in New York with a sharp changeup, but he was mostly deployed out of the middle relief mix. He finished the regular season with a 3.78 ERA and 16 strikeouts in 16.2 innings.
For Colorado, the trade makes sense on both sides of the ledger. Chivilli had already run into the same problem plenty of pitchers face at Coors Field, while Rumfield found a much clearer path to meaningful playing time in Denver. On the Yankees’ side, Ben Rice at first base left Rumfield with no real route to the major league roster.
In Other News...
Hunter Goodman Deserved Better In An Award Snub Rockies Fans Will Hate
Hunter Goodman put together the kind of offensive season that should have made him impossible to ignore, even in a year when the Rockies spent most of their time buried in the standings. The catcher cleared the 40-homer mark and finished with an .839 OPS, production that stood out not just for Colorado but across the National League. More than half of those home runs came on the road, which only adds to the sense that his bat traveled better than the team around him did.
Still, Goodman was left off the list of finalists for the National League Hank Aaron Award, a decision that is hard for Rockies fans to swallow. The finalists came from a group whose numbers can be compared cleanly enough, but Goodman's omission invites the bigger question that hangs over plenty of Colorado seasons: how much does team context cloud individual recognition? For a player who delivered that kind of power in that ballpark and in that environment, the snub feels like more than just a small slight. [Read more 🡒]
Rockies Offseason Suddenly Carries Pressure Fans Have Been Waiting For
A 15-game jump and a finish with 58 wins have changed the tenor of the Rockies offseason, at least a little. Team president Paul DePodesta and club president Walker Monfort framed the winter around a club that showed progress in 2026, while also signaling that the next step has to come from a more aggressive approach to building out the roster and baseball operations.
There is now added pressure to translate that optimism into something tangible, especially with payroll decisions and a new minority investment from Penner Sports Group part of the backdrop. Colorado has already identified starting pitching as a clear area to address, and the organization also made sure to credit Warren Schaeffer for helping create a more competitive clubhouse tone, leaving the question of how far the Rockies are willing to go to push that momentum forward. [Read more 🡒]
Rockies Face One Offseason Decision That Could Define Their Rebuild
The Rockies are heading into another pivotal winter after finishing their fourth straight 100-loss season, and the front office has no shortage of questions to answer under president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta and manager Warren Schaeffer. The broad rebuild is already underway, but the next step is figuring out which young pieces are more than just part of the scenery and which ones can actually anchor the next competitive club.
At the center of that discussion is Hunter Goodman, the two-time National League All-Star and Silver Slugger winner who has become one of the clearest players to build around even as trade chatter follows him. Colorado also saw encouraging contributions from first baseman TJ Rumfield and infielder Cole Carrigg during the 2026 season, giving the organization a few reasons to believe the reset can take shape around actual performance, not just hope. [Read more 🡒]