The Rockies finished with 58 wins, a 15-game jump that still fell short of where president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta wanted this club to be. Even so, he said Tuesday that the organization has to take something from the season it just lived through.
“One of the things we talked about internally is don't ever let a bad outcome go to waste, right?” DePodesta said during postseason media availability with club president Walker Monfort.
That mindset frames the Rockies’ offseason, and it starts with the fact that they have room to maneuver. According to Cot’s Baseball Contracts, Colorado ended the year with a $121.6 million payroll, which ranked 21st in Major League Baseball.
That total includes Kris Bryant, who was paid $27 million while missing the season with a back injury and still does not have a clear return timetable. He is due $27 million in each of the next two seasons as well.
A roster built largely around young players helped keep the number down.
The club’s financial picture has also changed thanks to Penner Sports Group becoming the franchise’s largest minority investor. Monfort said his family has no intention of selling controlling interest, with his father, Dick Monfort, still serving as owner, chairman and CEO. He said the new investment helped wipe away debt tied to the COVID-19 fallout and the collapse of the regional sports network model.
"We're in a much better position today because of that partnership," Monfort said.
That backdrop gives the Rockies a chance to be aggressive early in the offseason, and DePodesta said the front office plans to keep pushing in the same direction it did last winter. He said the organization’s investment in baseball operations - from scouting to player development to information gathering and implementation - will be “equal, if not larger” this offseason.
There is also continuity on the bench. DePodesta praised manager Warren Schaeffer, who moved from interim to full-time manager last offseason and is entering the second year of a two-year contract. The priority, he said, was restoring belief inside the clubhouse.
“What was critically important in terms of a goal for 2026, was sort of reinstilling belief in our clubhouse, that every single game we can go win that game - it doesn't matter who we're playing,” DePodesta said.
"I think that not only Schaeff but our coaching staff in general did a really, really good job of creating that atmosphere. It got challenging toward the end, and they still maintained it."
Still, every conversation about the Rockies ends up in the same place: pitching. Monfort pointed to the number of tight games the team played, saying 79 games were decided by two runs or fewer and the Rockies won 37 percent of them. He said the club has to find a way to win more of those games and, ideally, create more separation.
“I looked today, 79 games were decided by a margin of two or less runs,” Monfort said. “We won 37 percent of those games.
The key is that we played a lot of closer games. But on the other side of the spectrum, we have to figure out ways to win more of those games, and hopefully even decrease the number because we're winning by a wider margin.”
DePodesta was even more direct about the issue. He said the Rockies are already exploring trades and free agency, and the weakness in the rotation became obvious late in the year, especially during the final six weeks.
Offensively and in the bullpen, he said, there was progress. Starting pitching was the glaring problem.
“It was pretty clear what our biggest hole was, and that our starting pitching I think after the Trade Deadline had a 7 ERA,” DePodesta said. “For the year as a whole, our run differential was worse in innings 1 and 2 than innings 3 and beyond combined.”
The club experimented throughout the season trying to patch things together. Right-hander Chase Dollander got the opener treatment before a season-ending right elbow injury in May.
Antonio Senzatela, now with the Brewers, was shifted from the rotation to a multi-inning relief role. With no established closer, the Rockies brought in veteran Jordan Romano in July and then got their best stretch from the bullpen before the rotation fell apart again.
They also tried a few different wrinkles. Pitching coach Alon Leichman called pitches from the dugout early in the season, though that arrangement was mostly gone by midyear. Later, the Rockies found some late-season promise using right-hander Ryan Feltner in a piggyback role, with him entering games in the middle after functioning like a starter.
DePodesta said the club is still thinking through all of it.
“One of the things we've been talking about for the last few months has been, 'Let's think about 27 outs times 162, and you’ve got 13 [pitching] slots,'” DePodesta said. “How do we do that?
Let's start with a blank piece of paper and try to build it from scratch. It's also going to be heavily predicated on the players that we have at any given time.”
Not everything was a miss. Several position-player additions helped, and some of the season’s bright spots came from players acquired or promoted during the year.
Winter trade pickup TJ Rumfield won National League Rookie of the Month honors in June and July, while August callup Cole Carrigg earned the award in September. At the deadline, the Rockies added second baseman Connor Norby from the Marlins, starting pitcher Mason Adams from the White Sox, and relievers Nick Frasso from the Dodgers and Mark Manfredi from the Brewers.
Even with those gains, DePodesta made clear the season ended with a sour taste.
“It sort of sullied how we all feel about the season to some degree,” DePodesta said. “Like having a good meal and waiting 45 minutes for the check.”
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