Heading into 2026, the Colorado Rockies are a completely new baseball team upstairs. And mostly the exact same one downstairs.
Apart from manager Warren Shaeffer (and owner Dick Monfort) all the key people who wear suits are new to tackling the conundrum at Coors Field. All the people who wear uniforms are not. They have freshest in their memory a 119-loss, disaster of a season. By far the worst in franchise history.
The decision makers are understandably still locating the office staplers and deciding which Denver breweries will be their new favorite. They’ve got a bit of time to settle in. Most logical reads of the situation will tell you there is no immediate turnaround for the shape of the team. So it doesn’t make a ton of sense to seek out immediate solutions. Especially in the way of big name, offseason free agents. Or even arguably trades.
But fans are also hungry for something, anything, resembling a competitive baseball team. They’ve been wandering through the desert since 2018 and a drink of water would be nice. So, the question arises, how soon can they expect to get one?
Worst Case Scenario
Make no mistake, this can all blow up in everyone’s faces. Not to rain on the rarest of hope parades for baseball fans in the Mile High City, but there are quite a few ways this can all go south.
A President of Baseball Operations who spent the last 10 years in the NFL, overseeing the awful Cleveland Browns. A GM who has only had success in MLB working for top teams, with top payrolls. A pitching coach in his mid-30s who has never faced the beast of Coors. A first-time manager with a record 50 games under .500. And a roster that is largely the same one that just lost all those games.
While patience might make sense in the grand scheme, a failure to upgrade soon could send fans right back into feeling like nothing has changed. Because no one cares what happens behind the scenes if the baseball is still bad.
The first handful of transactions will weigh extra heavy on this new regime because any missteps will only prolong the misery. If they do decide to take a big swing, and miss, much of that hope will evaporate into the high mountain air.
Compound a few mistakes on top of each other and despite all the new names, this team will end up right back where they’ve always been.
In this scenario, not only does the turnaround not come quickly. It never comes.
Most Likely Scenario
More likely, though, is that this braintrust moves methodically yet deliberately toward a better future. They make small-to-medium level acquisitions to shore up some immediate weaknesses while taking a longer term approach to the more foundational problems. Most of them pitching related.
This might mean signing a few veterans, a tactic that has been unpopular around these parts when it ends up blocking a younger prospect. But it can easily be done in several spots right now including backup catcher, first, or second base.
What might hurt more than potentially blocking exciting youngsters is the possibility of a trade of one of the big three. The only three.
The Rockies have precisely three players on the MLB roster who you could reasonably expect to get a high-end return for in a trade. There are good reasons to consider such trades and good reasons not to.
Ezequiel Tovar has the highest value and longest, most consistent track record among them. He likely gets you the best return. But his contract is also extremely team friendly and you are unlikely to find a better $/WAR output anywhere else.
Brenton Doyle has a ton of value on defense but there are so many questions about his bat that the Rockies might have to end up settling for less.
Hunter Goodman could net quite a haul but catchers who rake are unicorns. And plenty of teams could balk at a resume with only one year of star-level production.
If they don’t take any “big swings” but do manage to steadily improve the roster, they are also set to get an injection of young talent soon, headlined by Golden Spikes winner Charlie Condon. The team could improve by 15-20 games but still be a 100-loss club. Still, they’d be taking steps in the right direction. Something to build on.
In this scenario, it will be a long wait for relevance. Perhaps still four to five years. But expect to see steady improvement. And eventually, on the other side of it all, could emerge a far more sustainably decent ballclub.
Best Case Scenario
Let’s have a little fun. Let’s hope aboard the hope train to dream town.
Since we just brought it up, it’s worth considering what a boost the Rockies could be in for if some top prospects take big steps forward.
The aforementioned Condon is unlikely to make the team out of Spring Training. But he is a strong candidate to take the league by storm once he is ready not too long thereafter.
Any incredibly quick turnaround will almost certainly require a breakout year from pitcher Chase Dollander. The fireballer was arguably rushed to the Bigs in 2025, pitching what should have been his Triple-A season in MLB instead. He held his own but only showed glimpses of excellence.
If those glimpses become the norm, the rebuild will start to kick into overdrive.
A similar evolution from Zac Veen would accelerate things as well. Also, be on the lookout for wildcard rookie-to-be Cole Carrigg who brings an exhilarating speed and defense combo to every position on the diamond.
If the Rox elect not to add a veteran at 2B, as they did ineffectively a year a ago with the oft-injured Thairo Estrada, there’s an intriguing four-prospect battle to be had there as well.
Adael Amador is in the Veen/Dollander camp. Once considered a Top 100 guy and still young, some of the shine has come off as his skills have yet to translate to the bigs. Ryan Ritter, meanwhile, has shown a steady hand in The Show. His ceiling, however, is more limited than his competition.
Roc Riggio, acquired from the Yankees in the Ryan McMahon trade, could steal the spot as an encore to his 20 homers in 88 games from a year ago.
Then there’s Tyler Freeman who emerged as easily the team’s most consistent hitter a year ago. But he’s also been a bit lost on defense and will need to improve in that regard to earn playing time in 2026.
Should some (or obviously all) of these players emerge alongside Doyle, Goodman, and Tovar, a promising core will quickly assemble. Of course, that will only matter if the same thing can be done on the mound.
It’s a longer shot with less room for error, but it’s not impossible.
Once again, it seems both unlikely and unwise for the Rockies to spend big money on free agent pitching. So even if they do grab a vet, rapid improvement will need to come from within.
Your candidates here are former first rounder Gabriel Hughes, electric second-rounder Brody Brecht, and the lefty with pinpoint control Sean Sullivan.
Hughes is likely to get the first crack at it, having already reached Albuquerque and having even begun to settle there near the end of last season.
Not too far behind him will be Sullivan and his command to dream on. It’s hard to recall seeing a 229-40 strikeout-to-walk ratio at any level of baseball, let alone professional. Will it work at Coors? Or even in the PCL? We will find out in 2026.
It’s hard to figure a timeline on Brecht. The former wide receiver at (IOWA) was getting the slow treatment and missed some time to injury anyway in 2025. Then there’s the caveat of his far-too-high walk rate of 5.16 per 9 innings.
But the young man easily has the best stuff of anyone outside of (and maybe including) Dollander in the organization. He showed off that stuff to the tune of 14.01 K/9 last year. He has yet to pitch above A-ball but health and performance permitting he could arrive sooner than you think.
There are more young players who can, and likely will figure into all of this. The point in highlighting some of these key players is to note that with a few additional – and smart – moves, this team might start playing a much better brand of baseball almost immediately.
It’s fun to dream.