‘You have to really start over': Former Rockies watch and weep at futility of 2025 team

New York Times

2 days ago

Watching from afar, unable to avoid headlines about the historic futility of his former franchise, Nolan Arenado can envision a path forward for the Colorado Rockies. What he can't say for sure is whether the team will take it.
'The only way you get out of this, my opinion, is you have to really start over,' said Arenado, the St. Louis Cardinals third baseman who spent the first eight seasons of his MLB career in Colorado. 'Trade guys that have value and deal with the restart. But I don't know if that's what (owner Dick) Monfort wants to do. That's not really what they like to do.'
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Arenado, a cornerstone of Rockies contenders in the 2010s, said he doesn't follow the club closely these days. But the decline is hard to ignore. Unwilling to attempt a rebuild, the team is suffering through a full-blown implosion. Only a year after the Chicago White Sox set a new big-league record with 121 losses, Colorado entered Monday with a 12-53 record, on pace to finish 30-132.
And last week was the team's best of the season. A three-game sweep of the Miami Marlins offered a rare opportunity for Colorado's social media team to gloat. Then the team returned to Coors Field and promptly weathered a three-game battering by the New York Mets that concluded with a 13-5 defeat on Sunday.
It has been that kind of season. The Rockies finished April at 5-25. When Monfort and general manager Bill Schmidt fired manager Bud Black on May 11, the team was 7-33. Warren Schaeffer, the Rockies lifer who replaced Black, won once in the next 10 games. They are the first team to have lost 50 games before winning 10 since the 1876 Cincinnati Red Stockings. Last week's sweep of the Marlins represented the team's first series victory of the season, ending a streak of 22 consecutive lost series.
Playing baseball in Colorado features inherent challenges. The altitude at Coors Field hampers pitchers and hitters alike. The franchise has never won the National League West and never won more than 92 games in a season. But the team is not far removed from contending. Colorado made the postseason in 2017 and pushed the Los Angeles Dodgers to a Game 163 in 2018. The current state of the club is painful to watch for veterans of those seasons.
'You want to see them do well, and it's tough to see, how it's going right now,' said Boston Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story, who spent the first six years of his career in Colorado. 'Yeah, it's hard. Don't necessarily want to speak on anything further than that.'
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As the team has continued to spiral, The Athletic spoke with several prominent former Rockies about the state of the team. Several players conveyed their pity for the current situation and their lingering affection for the franchise. (The latter sentiment was not universal. Reached via text message, Troy Tulowitzki responded with a one-sentence answer. 'I don't comment on that organization,' said Tulowitzki, who made five All-Star teams for Colorado before being traded in 2015.)
The conversations offered glimpses into why Colorado has cratered, with six consecutive losing seasons heading into the ignominy of 2025. DJ LeMahieu cited the ongoing health woes of former National League MVP Kris Bryant. Tyler Anderson noted a lack of success in the draft. Arenado mentioned the team's unwillingness to acknowledge the reality of the situation and embrace rebuilding through trades. Several players conceded the team lacks the data-driven planning that powers other clubs.
'I think they're a little behind, for sure,' said LeMahieu, who signed with the New York Yankees heading into 2019 after seven seasons in Colorado. 'That doesn't necessarily translate to wins and losses. It's not like I'm going to point to that and say that's the reason. But I think (joining the Yankees), it was like, 'Wow, they're really, really on top of things here.' That was, like, one of the biggest surprises.'
The Rockies are considered more insular than other clubs, according to rival executives. For years, the team has avoided the lure of stripping down its roster. The team did not trade Story at the deadline in 2021, opting to receive a compensatory draft pick after he signed elsewhere. A year later, rather than move 37-year-old reliever Daniel Bard, the team inked him to a two-year, $19 million extension. The front office failed to sell high on former Gold Glove second baseman Brendan Rogers and parried away overtures for All-Star third baseman Ryan McMahon.
Colorado is expected to be more active this July at the deadline. But the lack of transactions has left the club without a wave of fresh talent surging through the minors. Even when the organization has made deals, as it did by moving Arenado in 2021, there hasn't been much success. Colorado traded Arenado to St. Louis for a five-player package. None of the acquired players are currently on the active roster.
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Anderson, a 2011 first-round pick who played with the Rockies from 2016 to 2019, recalled being surrounded by homegrown stars at Coors Field. Outside of LeMahieu, who was acquired in a 2011 trade, most of the best Rockies arrived in the draft. Tulowitzki was a first-round pick in 2005. The team snagged outfielder Charlie Blackmon in the second round in 2008 and Arenado in the same round a year later. Story was selected at No. 45 in 2011.
The draft has been far less fruitful in recent years. Since 2016, the club has made 12 first-round selections. The collective worth of the group has been minus-0.8 wins above replacement, according to Baseball-Reference.
'They didn't get superstars like they got with Trevor or Tulo or Arenado or Blackmon,' Anderson said.
After fourth-place finishes in 2019, 2020 and 2021, the Rockies looked outside the organization for a player to build around. The team inked four-time All-Star Kris Bryant to a seven-year, $182 million contract. The deal proved disastrous. Beset by injuries, mostly involving his back, Bryant averaged 53 games per season in his first three years in Colorado. He is currently on the 60-day injured list as he recovers from a surgery related to degenerative disc disease.
'Bryant's been out a lot,' LeMahieu said. 'He's one of their best players.'
As a member of the Los Angeles Angels, the employers of perpetually injured Anthony Rendon, Anderson is familiar with how a massive contract can prevent a club from improving its roster. 'You spend a lot of money on a player, and guys get hurt and it happens and it sucks,' Anderson said. 'But it kind of handcuffs you. You hate to see that, for any player to have that. And for an organization, that's tough too.'
All of these factors have led the Rockies to the precipice of historic embarrassment. As Arenado noted, the fierce competition in the National League West will not make the going much easier. Which is why the status quo, refusing to rebuild despite all of the losing, cannot hold.
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'They have a lot of good teams over there, a lot of good teams that spend,' Arenado said. 'I know this is Major League Baseball and nobody really feels bad, but I do have a soft spot for people there because I know them.
'But at the end of the day, if you're not adapting, you get left behind.'
— The Athletic's Sam Blum, Brendan Kuty, Jen McCaffery and Katie Woo contributed to this story.
(Top photo of Arenado, LeMahieu and Story in happier times: Ron Chenoy / USA Tpdau)