Rockies have bottomed out, and they have to gauge their climb beyond the standings

Boston Globe

4 days ago

This is his 50th year in professional baseball going back to when he was a first-round pick of the Royals in 1975.
'I've done hard and I did it here 20 years ago,' Hurdle said. 'You have to work through it and do it together. It can get done.'
But what the Rockies are experiencing now makes that 2005 season look like a minor inconvenience. Colorado went into the weekend on pace to lose 125 games and allow 1,008 runs.
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Only the 1899 Cleveland Spiders have been to such depths. They were 20-134 and gave up 1,252.
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The National League had the good sense to contract the Spiders after that season. The Rockies won't be extended that courtesy.
A visit to the Rockies clubhouse during their recent trip to Fenway Park found that there is little interest in the worst team in baseball.
Outside of a Boston-based reporter representing MLB.com and the team's radio and television announcers, no media was covering the Rockies. Newspapers and other outlets in Colorado have attended only home games this season.
Third baseman
Ryan McMahon
played for the Rockies in 2018 when they won 91 games and made the playoffs. They drew 3.01 million fans to Coors Field.
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It's been a series of lost seasons since.
'It sucks, to be honest with you,' McMahon said. 'Knowing what's possible here makes you want to get back. The city was crazy about the team.'
These Rockies have to find ways to gauge their progress beyond the standings.
'We've played better the last few weeks, more competitive,' McMahon said. 'A lot of good steps. But there are a lot of things we need to clean up.'
Righthanded reliever
Jake Bird
is one of the few Rockies having a good season. He has a 3.70 ERA in 39 appearances and is averaging 10.7 strikeouts per nine innings.
Clint Hurdle is unexpectedly back in uniform.
Geneva Heffernan/Associated Press
The Rockies lost 27 of those games.
'You can't let it bring you down,' said Bird, 29. 'You have to do your best and then let it go at the end of the day and come back and contribute the best you can.
'We weren't very competitive at the beginning of the season but lately it's been better. You have to hope that will turn into some more wins over time.'
Bird played for Falmouth in the Cape Cod League in 2016 and visited Fenway Park for the first time that season. This year was his second time back as a major leaguer.
'The first time I saw Fenway was in a video game and now I've been able to pitch here,' he said. 'You try to find positives like that.'
The Rockies
Warren Schaeffer
, who is 40 and managed in the team's minor league system from 2015-22.
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For Schaeffer, it's a day-to-day process. There's no point in dwelling on what put the Rockies in this position. That falls on ownership to fix.
'For me, you can't measure where we are right now on stacking a ton of wins together,' Schaeffer said. 'You have to stack games that you're playing well together and increase how the team is unifying together.
'We're playing more close games; we're playing the right way; we're trying to be aggressive. We're trying to instill things in the culture that we haven't necessarily done before. Just playing with less fear out there.
'For a team with a lot of young guys, that's a big deal. I see progress there.'
Catcher
Hunter Goodman
, 25, is a player the Rockies can built around. Left fielder
Jordan Beck
, 24, has been an above-average hitter.
Ezequiel Tovar
, a 23-year-old shortstop, had 45 doubles last season. He's been out since June 3 with an oblique strain but also has promise.
'I see a lot of young players that can be something over time,' Schaeffer said. 'There's a core developing here.'
Hurdle has been a sounding board for Schaeffer, offering advice when needed.
'I see young players playing the game with freedom,' he said. 'The older guys are showing them the way. Nobody wants to be where we are but we have to find a way out of this.
'I do believe we'll be better this season and win more games. We're learning that skill.'
Several of the Rockies players had their families with them in Boston and a group of kids were on the field before the game on Wednesday, taking the opportunity to pose for photos or throw a few pitches off the mound. Everybody was smiling.
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'It's not easy, but we're trying to make the best of it,' McMahon said. 'It has to get better at some point.'
Career change
Gonzalez has become invaluable to Red Sox
Romy Gonzalez has been crucial for the Red Sox.
Barry Chin/Globe Staff
Romy Gonzalez
hit .222 with a .600 OPS over 86 games for the White Sox from 2021-23. To nobody's surprise, he was designated for assignment before the 2024 season.
The Red Sox claimed Gonzalez off waivers, opening a spot on the 40-man roster by dropping righthanded reliever
Zack Weiss
.
Weiss has not been in the majors since and Gonzalez has been worth 2.3 bWAR over 132 games.
'I attribute it to health. That's No. 1,' Gonzalez said. 'Just being healthy and my body being able to do what I want it to do.
'That and the hitting staff has been great.
Rob
[
Refsnyder
] has been a huge help, too. Just everyone here, it's a great environment. We constantly bounce ideas off each other and we're always talking ball.'
Gonzalez, 28, gives the Red Sox another righthanded bat. Over the last two seasons, he started games at all four infield positions and center field, plus has come off the bench to play a few innings in right field and left field.
Alex Cora's
best teams have had players like that, from
Brock Holt
in 2018 to
Kiké Hernández
in 2021.
'AC has done a great job of giving me a day when I need it,' Gonzalez said. 'The training staff as a whole has been excellent. I love it here.
'People ask all the time about what happened between Chicago and Boston. I think it was just being able to stay on the field. It has been great to contribute to this team.'
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A few other observations on the Red Sox:
▪ The Sox were 13-9 with a .797 OPS and averaged 5.82 runs in their first 22 games after trading
Rafael Devers
. The Giants were 10-12 with a .657 OPS and averaged 3.59 runs.
Devers played all 22 of those games, posting a .706 OPS and going 2 for 14 with runners in scoring position with eight strikeouts.
He also has been limited to DH because of groin and back issues. The Giants still plan on him playing first base this season.
▪ The Sox did a fun thing for Cora on Wednesday.
It was Puerto Rico heritage night at Fenway Park and the team arranged for his 7-year-old twin sons,
Isander
and
Xander
, to throw out first pitches.
Unbeknownst to her father,
Camila Cora
took her brothers to the park and snuck them on the field. Cora didn't realize his sons were there until just before the first pitch.
He caught one of the pitches and
Mike Lowell
handled the other.
Alex Cora's family surprised him on the field on Wednesday.
Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
▪ The first three rounds of the amateur draft are Sunday night in Atlanta. The Sox pick 15th, 33rd, 75th, and 87th on the first day.
The Sox have not taken a pitcher in the first round since
Tanner Houck
(24th) in 2017. In the years since, their highest selection for a pitcher came last year when they took
Payton Tolle
with the 50th pick.
Now that they have a solid pitching infrastructure, might the Sox take a pitcher in the first round?
▪
Ceddanne Rafaela
will play for the Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic. He made his commitment to manager
Andruw Jones
in May when they met in Atlanta.
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'I'm excited about it,' said Rafaela, who is from Curacao. 'When [Jones] asked me, of course I wanted to.'
Xander Bogaerts
also has signed on with the Dutch.
▪
Lucas Giolito
turns 31 on Monday and will celebrate with his family in Boston. He'll stay in town to catch the Indiana Fever-Connecticut Sun WNBA game at the Garden on Tuesday.
Like everybody else, he wants to see
Caitlin Clark
play.
▪ Per the Hall of Fame,
Wade Boggs
,
Dennis Eckersley
,
Carlton Fisk
,
Pedro Martinez
, and
Jim Rice
are among the former Sox players who will return to Cooperstown for induction weekend.
David Ortiz
had a scheduling conflict.
▪
Bobby Jenks
, who
Jenks opened the season as a set-up man for
Jonathan Papelbon
,
but pitched his final game of the season on July 7 because of a back injury. He never played again in the majors.
Jenks had unsuccessful back surgery in December and then reached an agreement with the team to terminate his contract in 2012.
He later sued Massachusetts General Hospital and
Jenks was a quiet guy who seemed to embrace a new team, but like many things that season for the Sox, it went awry.
Etc.
DeBartolo inherits a big challenge
Mike DeBartolo has a lot to work to do as interim president of baseball operations of the Nationals.
Matt York/Associated Press
Mike DeBartolo
grew up in Bedford a Red Sox fan and graduated from Tufts. He joined the Nationals in 2011 as an intern and is now interim president of baseball operations following
The team also sacked manager
Dave Martinez
.
Think you have a lot to do at work? The Nationals have the first pick in the amateur draft, and DeBartolo will have to navigate the trade deadline for the first time as the chief decision-maker.
He also needs to find a new manager. (
Miguel Cairo
has the job on an interim basis.)
DeBartolo, 41, will run baseball operations at least through the end of the season. He's the leading candidate to replace Rizzo, a good friend and his professional mentor. But ownership will at least consider other possibilities.
The Nationals haven't had a winning season since
'The fans are right to be frustrated. We're all frustrated,' DeBartolo said. 'We have a lot of interesting, exciting, young pieces to build on. We have a lot more we need to build. Simply stepping up our game is not enough. We need real change.
'I'm excited to bring a fresh approach, a fresh voice to this role, and integrate more data, more technology, more innovation into our decision-making across the organization at all levels, and hopefully improve the performance of our players as well.'
Rizzo came from a scouting background. DeBartolo is grounded in analytics. His hope is to successfully blend those disciplines.
Unless the Nationals improve their revenue, returning to the postseason will be a tough task. Their payroll is in the lower third of the league despite playing in one of the largest metropolitan areas of the country.
Yet they don't have a stadium naming deal and didn't have a uniform advertising patch sponsor until AARP came aboard. Yes, 22-year-old All-Star
James Wood
plays with an AARP patch on his sleeve.
'Every conversation I've had with ownership is they want to build a winner, and they want to build a winner as soon as they can, and they're motivated,' DeBartolo said.
'They have a lot of questions about the best way to do it, and they've been asking a lot of good questions, and I can sense a desire from them to get us back to [being] a championship-caliber club, and it's of great importance to me.'
As DeBartolo takes on a big task, Rizzo announced Thursday he would pick up the tab for Nationals fans watching the Home Run Derby at two Washington sports bars on Monday 'as a way to say thank you for 19 amazing years.'
Extra bases
The All-Star Game will use
Dan Iassogna
, a UConn graduate, will be the crew chief for the All-Star Game. He has worked three World Series and 15 other postseason series … When
Jordan Montgomery
in 2017 … How did Cubs outfielder
Seiya Suzuki
have 77 RBIs through 89 games and not be an All-Star? …
Paul Skenes
is the first Pirate to make the All-Star team in his first two major league seasons.
Roberto Clemente
, you ask? He wasn't an All-Star until his sixth season. It took
Barry Bonds
until his fifth … The walkoff, inside-the-park home run by San Francisco's
Patrick Bailey
against the Phillies on Tuesday was the first for a catcher since
Bennie Tate
of the Senators in 1926. Tate had only four homers over 10 years in the majors, his last two for the Red Sox in 1932 at Fenway Park … The Yankees chowed down on roughly $22 million when they designated
DJ LeMahieu
for assignment on Wednesday. He had a .665 OPS over 248 games since 2023 … Happy birthday to
Pat Rapp
, who is 58. The righthander played parts of 10 seasons in the majors from 1992-2001, going 70-91 with a 4.68 earned run average for six teams. That included 37 games for the Red Sox in 1999. Rapp was signed as a free agent for $1.65 million and opened the season in the rotation. He had 26 starts in all and finished 6-7 with a 4.12 ERA. In the only postseason game of his career, Rapp pitched a scoreless ninth inning of Game 3 of the ALCS against the Yankees. Rapp finished third on the team in strikeouts that season with 90 — only 223 fewer than
Pedro Martinez
.
Peter Abraham can be reached at