No, the Colorado Rockies Did Not “Fail” the Offseason

Renee Dechert

Renee Dechert

— 5 min read
No, the Colorado Rockies Did Not “Fail” the Offseason
Bill Schmidt and Bud Black address the media at RockiesFest.

Perhaps you remember The Athletic, a website that covers sports — but not any Denver teams, despite the fact that the Mile High City is home to the NBA champion Denver Nuggets and one of the greatest players the game has ever seen in addition to a recent Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche.

But I digress.

Last week, The Athletic graded each MLB team based on its offseason performance. (Tim Britton, Grant Brisbee, and Aaron Gleeman did the evaluating.)

I glanced at the list — the Colorado Rockies received an “F” — and went about my day because lists like this are, generally, an exercise designed to generate clicks. And since The Athletic doesn’t actually cover the Rockies, why bother?

Later in the day, I was listening to Loud Outs with Ryan Spilborghs and CJ Nitkowski, who were discussing this list. They were surprised that the Baltimore Orioles had received an “A” while the Atlanta Braves earned a “C.” After all, the Orioles have been pretty quiet while Atlanta made some moves. Frankly, their reasoning made sense.

You know how I feel about “just vibes” evaluation, and this piece exudes that approach. So with this in mind, I returned to the article with a more critical eye. (Clickbait, you win!)

Some of grades are, frankly, baffling. In addition to the Braves’ ranking, for example, the Arizona Diamondbacks earned a “B” because they failed to add a corner outfielder. Wait. The Snakes went to the World Series, have one of the best farm systems in baseball, added a Eugenio Suárez, Eduardo Rodriguez, and Joc Pederson and some other MiLB signings, but it’s not enough?

So, about that “F” awarded to the Rockies.

According to The Atheltic, the team failed to acquire a front-end starter though they were successful in adding an arm to the backend of the rotation. Actually, here’s the entirety of the evaluation:

The Rockies lost 103 games last season, but their Pythagorean Record was 60-102, so, uh, keep in mind that they were a little unlucky. But it doesn’t help that they slept through the offseason, adding a backup catcher and two starting pitchers who strike out fewer batters than almost anyone else in baseball. 
It would appear that the plan is to get hitters to put the ball in play. While they have two of the best defenders in baseball with Ezequiel Tovar and Brenton Doyle, more balls in play at Coors Field is a very, very bad idea. Even with those two, the Rockies’ .321 batting average on balls in play was the 25th-worst in baseball history … but just the sixth-worst in franchise history. That’s because Coors Field is great at turning batted balls into hits. So maybe don’t get pitchers who already allow too many hits. Please hire me as a special consultant, Rockies. I will take my salary in Art Blakey records.
It’s not like you could have expected the Rockies to trade for Corbin Burnes or sign a free-agent starter, but even if you set the bar extremely low, they somehow limboed under it.

Okay, I’m not here to make a case for the Rockies being contenders in 2024 because that is highly unlikely. I’m also not here to defend the front office because those problems are deep and documented — and the pitching philosophy [gestures wildly]. Moreover, I’m certainly not going to justify the Kris Bryant and Charlie Blackmon contracts.

However, the problem with this evaluation is that ignores where the Rockies are in 2024 (finally rebuilding after an epic pitching implosion) and what they did well in 2023.

To The Athletic evaluator, here’s what you’ve missed.

  • The last thing they should do (this season) is add a starting pitcher — The Rockies are rebuilding even though no one actually says the “r-word.” As Joelle Milholm wrote on Friday, during the offseason, the team has put together a serviceable rotation. They have enough arms to get the season started as well as other young players on the farm who need to gain experience. Will they eventually need to get serious about adding that pitcher? Yes, absolutely. But not this season. This is another “let the kids play” year. Adding an expensive front-of-the-rotation arm — whether the cost is money or prospects — would be an untimely move.
  • The real problem is the offense — This gets overlooked too often in critiques of the Rockies because of #Coors and pitching, but the Rockies’ biggest problem right now is their moribund offense. wRC+? A league-worst 78. Home runs? The Rockies tied for 26th with 163. (Atlanta led the league with 307.) Stolen bases? They had 76, which is 28th in MLB — and 42 of those were the work of Brenton Doyle and Nolan Jones. The team with the most offense-friendly home baseball park cannot weaponize Coors Field to their advantage. Is the pitching a problem? Yes. But the lack of consistent offense has been deadly. If they were going to make significant offseason additions, a power hitter would have been a better move — and, again, since the Rockies need to let the kids play, would be ill timed.
  • Their television contract remains uncertain — We learned this week that the Rockies will turn their broadcast rights over to MLB. This comes as no surprise, but the financial details remain unknown. What seems fairly certain, however, is that the Rockies will have less money from television revenues this year than they have in the past. That the Rockies made small, inexpensive moves, while not sexy, is exactly what the team needs to be doing. Why mortgage the farm this season? That money needs to be spent down the road when the financial picture has stabilized a bit.
  • So far, Bill Schmidt has been an effective general manager — Remember the 2023 trade deadline when the Rockies actually traded players? Mike Moustakas, CJ Cron, and Randal Grichuk? Off to Los Angeles. Brad Hand and Pierce Johnson? Hello, Atlanta! And we know from RockiesFest that Schmidt asked Charlie Blackmon if he would like to be traded as well. What Schmidt acquired last season through trades and drafts were 37 arms. It is (perhaps) a new day in Colorado. Let the system play out.

Don’t confuse boring with the right strategy.

Down on the Farm

On Purple Row

We had another big week on the site. On Monday, Kenneth Weber wrote about the overwhelmingly gloomy projections for the 2024 Rockies. I had some Spring Training suggestions. Skyler Timmins posed three questions as pitchers and catchers report while Evan Lang detailed four storylines to watch. And we now know more about the Rockies TV deal than we did a week ago. So long, MLB Blackouts! Finally, Joelle Milholm finished the week by showing that a sophomore slump is not a given for three Rockies rising stars.

Closing Thoughts

I’ve got a piece coming on soon on MLB’s new uniforms. (Spoiler: There are, uh, problems.) But here’s a look at the Rockies’ Spring Training threads.

This shows the back of several Rockies players — Senzatela, Adams, Mejia. The players’ names are smaller, and not everything appears centered.
The Rockies’ Spring Training Uniforms

The color? A. The purple hats? A+. The letters and numbers? Uh, not so much.

Now that we’re getting closer to actual baseball, there will be more to write about — and despite the projections, this is going to be a fun team to watch.

Thanks for reading!

Renee

Read more