The Rockies’ forgettable, often tedious 2022 season will end, mercifully, on Wednesday in Los Angeles against the rich and powerful Dodgers.
The Rockies entered the weekend on pace to finish 68-94, but considering that they will play their final six games against the Dodgers, it’s likely that the Rockies will lose 95 games for the fifth time in their 30-year history.
As a beat writer, I’ve become a bit numb, and more than a little jaded, by Colorado’s poor play. But as a beat writer, I also must pull my public punches as I attempt to bring some measure of objectivity to my coverage.
Not so for my three colleagues, columnists Mark Kiszla and Sean Keeler and deputy sports editor Matt Schubert. I selected five major Rockies issues for them to riff on, and as you’ll see, they threw some haymakers.
General manager Bill Schmidt said recently that the Rockies expected left fielder Kris Bryant to be the team’s “aircraft carrier” after they signed him to a huge contract. After a season lost because of injuries, can Bryant still be the Rockies’ main man and a team leader?
Kiszla: Sending third baseman Nolan Arenado and $51 million to St. Louis was the worst trade in Denver sports history. But why couldn’t the Rockies give us a break and stop the madness there? They had to throw good money after bad, giving Bryant a seven-year deal worth $182 million.
As it stands now, this move is a real contender to become the worst free-agent signing in Denver sports history. The lack of talent on the roster is surpassed only by the lack of accountability in the Rockies’ clubhouse after a loss. Bryant isn’t the answer. Aircraft carrier? He’s an albatross.
Keeler: If Bryant is this team’s “aircraft carrier,” then Schmidt is this franchise’s Zinovy Rozhestvensky, the Russian admiral who got his tail kicked by the Japanese Navy in the Battle of Tsushima.
Next time agent Scott Boras sells you a lemon, Bill, make sure to hang on to the receipt. Bryant is a likable, stand-up guy and a professional power bat. He’s also a clubhouse beta dog, not an alpha, who’ll turn 31 in January with a so-so glove and a body that’s falling apart.
The Rockies paid All-Star dollars for his best years when those have likely already come and gone. According to FanGraphs, Bryant doesn’t project as a 3.0-Wins-Above-Replacement-level player in either 2023 (2.9 WAR) or ’24 (2.3). Arenado, meanwhile, projects as a 3.3 WAR player next season and a 2.7 WAR player the summer after that. Not that anybody’s counting.
Schubert: After one season in which he was largely invisible, I can’t help but wonder: Is Bryant interested in being the Rockies’ main man? While he might be getting paid like an “aircraft carrier” and team leader, he certainly hasn’t carried himself like one. Part of being the face of a franchise is being present — consistently. With a great paycheck comes great responsibility. And it’s impossible to argue Bryant has come anywhere close to meeting that burden.
Right-hander German Marquez was an all-star in 2021 and he’s still got great stuff, but he’s been one of the Rockies’ biggest disappointments, posting an 8-13 record and a 5.12 ERA. What’s gone wrong? Is he fixable?
Schubert: One glance at the home/road splits raises alarm bells. More often than not this season, Good German emerged on the road (3.57 ERA, 1.177 WHIP), while Bad German came out at Coors Field (6.70 ERA, 1.603 WHIP). While it’s fair to expect some drop-off between home and road, given the altitude and spacious outfield at Coors, it still shouldn’t be the Mariana Trench.
What’s troubling is that 2022 follows up the lone full season in his career where he was more effective at home than on the road. If he’s not missing bats often enough, maybe he’s not a frontline guy at altitude.
Keeler: For one thing, a slider that used to bite like a tiger shark lost its teeth. Per BaseballSavant.com tracking data, the Rockies ace is on track to post a whiff rate of less than 37% on the slider for the first time since 2017 on what used to be a putaway weapon. For another, he threw more sinkers than ever this season, and metrics say it’s the fourth-best offering in his arsenal.
On the whole, Marquez’s Statcast profile is still solid enough to serve as a fixable base. The fastball’s got plenty of giddy-up. But if you’re committed to German as your franchise ace, the 27-year-old needs new voices in his ear. And a new approach in his head.
Kiszla: No pitcher gets out of Coors Field alive. Is that overdramatic? Yes. But it’s my long-held theory that pitching at altitude eventually messes with the psyche of even a strong-willed man. Aaron Cook and Jorge De La Rosa are the only two pitchers in franchise history to make 200 starts for the Rockies. After taking the mound 168 times for Colorado, German Marquez is reaching the point of no return, when the best thing for his emotional wellbeing, not to mention his ERA, would be to get out of Denver, baby.
Bud Black will be back in 2023 for his seventh season as the Rockies’ manager. Can he help lift this team out of the dumps or has his message gone stale?
Kiszla: Talking baseball with Black is among my favorite summertime traditions, ranking alongside listening to music at Red Rocks and grilling steaks in my backyard. So while I don’t ever want to tell Black it’s time to take his ball and go home, there’s also a sneaking suspicion franchise owner Dick Monfort pays Black to paint a smiley face on a no-win situation as a happy distraction to journalists who should be holding the manager’s feet to the fire. I need Black to push upper management harder to make smart decisions that improve the roster. Is that asking too much?
Schubert: The Rockies definitely need something new. I’m just not so sure it’s the voice in the dugout. From all accounts, Buddy hasn’t lost the team. He still has the energy. He still has the desire to win. He just doesn’t have the roster with which to do it. That said, Black definitely should wear the starting rotation’s struggles. For a group that was supposedly a team strength, Colorado’s starters have been disappointingly pedestrian. Black is supposed to be a pitcher whisperer, but the results have not matched his reputation.
Keeler: Dig the skipper. Hate the trend lines. Over the last 3 1/2 years, the Rockies traded Nolan Arenado and let D.J. LeMahieu and Trevor Story walk while doubling down on extensions for Marquez (through 2024), Kyle Freeland (2027) and Antonio Senzatela (2027). Yet all three core starters have either stagnated or regressed since their respective 2017-18 peaks. That pattern points all kinds of fingers back at ex-pitching coach Steve Foster, successor Darryl Scott and, ultimately, Black himself. Unless the arms or messages change on Blake Street, the mentors might have to.
If you could make one bold offseason move — at least by Rockies standards — what would you do to fix this team?
Schubert: Can “total rebuild” be my bold move? Oh, wait, you said, “by Rockies standards.” I suppose that rules out the dreaded “R” word. How about this: Trade C.J. Cron for some starting pitching — perhaps a No. 4 or No. 5 starter — so that Michael Toglia and Elehuris Montero can run a platoon at first base. Those players are your future, and Cron’s stock is seemingly as high as it can get. Here’s guessing you might be able to fetch a decent starter in return. The Rockies are going to need one, especially since I’m more than a little skeptical of the eight-month timeline being bandied about for Senzatela’s return from an ACL tear.
Keeler: Do I have the power to move them out of the National League West? No? Fine. In one bold off-season move, I purchase a magic lamp. Then I rub it three times and ask the genie to swap the Rockies’ entire front office with the entire front office in Tampa. There. Problem solved. No? OK, I pitch some combination of C.J. Cron, Brendan Rodgers and Ryan McMahon to Cleveland and offer to eat the costs, in exchange for right-handed pitching prospects Daniel Espino or Gavin Williams. The Rox farm system is bereft of high-level arms to push or replace a starting rotation that badly needs to be pushed or replaced.
Kiszla: Lower the price of beer on the party deck? Add more fireworks dates to the home schedule? Oh, you’re looking for suggestions to actually improve the on-field product? You are a troublemaker, aren’t you?
Well, I’d love the Rockies to show us they mean business in the NL West by stealing infielder Trea Turner from the Dodgers. But I would settle for a fresh voice in the front office, with Monfort making the bold move to hire a bright baseball mind from the Tampa Bay or Cleveland organizations.
A lot of fans tell me they are fed up with owner Dick Monfort, but an average of 32,067 fans per game came through the turnstiles at Coors Field this season. Two big questions: Should Monfort sell the team? Would he ever sell the team?
Schubert: Let me answer your question with a question of my own: Can someone convince Monfort it’s time to bring an outside voice into the decision-making process? If the answer to that is no, then, yes, it would be best for all parties if he put the Rockies up for sale (to presumably be bought by a member of the Walton family). Not that it will ever happen.
Until the Rockies bring in a fresh perspective and empower that person to effect change, this franchise is doomed to long stretches of losing, punctuated by short periods of success. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Keeler: If it weren’t for Nathaniel Hackett and that 64-yard field goal attempt in Seattle, “Should Dick Monfort sell?” would be the most rhetorical question in Denver sports. (Yes. The answer is yes.)
But an asteroid is more likely to hit the Coors Field scoreboard in November than Monfort is to sell while he’s upright. According to Statista.com, the Rockies’ franchise value tripled from 2012 ($464 million) to 2022 ($1.385 billion), and MLB expansion, sports betting and new broadcast revenue streams are only going to accelerate the Rockies’ profitability. The Monfort family would be Looney Tunes to walk away.
Coors Field is Wrigley Field West, a bucket-list favorite that’ll forever draw busloads of patrons from neighboring states. Monfort doesn’t care that half of the folks on those buses are rooting for the other team, as long as they keep the cash registers ringing.
Kiszla: Let’s pool our resources, fellas. I figure among the four of us, we could scrape together $498. Would that be sufficient to persuade Monfort to sell us the franchise? If transplants to this dusty old cowtown from real baseball cities and families that enjoy eating Dippin’ Dots in the sunshine keep showing up by the millions to Coors Field, why would Monfort ever sell the franchise? He might not know a thing about baseball, but Monfort seems to have mastered the art of printing money.
