A lot can change in a few days.
At the start of the week, the Colorado Rockies rotation featured stalwart Kyle Freeland, free-agent acquisition Michael Lorenzen, and a bunch of young guys battling to prove themselves. Things have changed. With the signing of two free agents, the puzzle shifts on the eve of Spring Training.
It began with the signing of…
Tomoyuki Sugano
An eight-time All-Star in Japan, the 35-year-old right hander brings two key attributes. The first is a propensity to avoid giving away free bases via the walk. The second in his extraordinary experience.
While he only has a year under his belt in MLB, he is a true icon in Japan. He twice won their version of the Cy Young award, led the league in wins three times, had the best ERA four times, and was the strikeout king on three occasions.
Almost certainly past his physical prime, Sugano came stateside and wasn’t nearly as dominant for the Baltimore Orioles. His biggest challenge came in the form of the long ball. In 2025, he gave up the most dingers in the AL. An eye-popping 33 of them.
Coors Field won’t help him much in that regard but his refusal to issue the free pass could. Clearly, the Rockies are hoping he responds to that drubbing and can build on the fact that he still kept his ERA at a relatively decent 4.64. His season was a personification of the concept that solo homers don’t kill ya.
Despite the blemishes on that resume, he was still comfortably better than what the Rockies got from the bottom of the rotation a year ago. As such, he should provide some much-needed stability.
Then, just a few hours later, news broke that the Rox acquired veteran lefty…
Jose Quintana
Quintana has not only produced more bWAR than anyone on the roster, he has produced more bWAR than anyone in franchise history. Kyle Freeland took over the top spot a year ago with 19.2 over his nine years. The Columbian southpaw has amassed 32.9 bWAR in his 14-year career.
Of course, he isn’t exactly in the middle of his prime at 37 years old, but he is still coming off a decent season (3.96 ERA) for the NL Central winning Milwaukee Brewers. In fact, Quintana has never posted a negative WAR in his career.
Once again, he provides a monster boost to the Rockies rotation in the “experience” category. He has appeared in the postseason four times. With four different teams. He has pitched 2,101.1 innings in his career. After Freeland and Michael Lorenzen, that’s more than the rest of the pitching staff combined. And then doubled.
He’s even older than the Rockies pitching coach.
Suffice it to say that Jose Quintana brings an element to the team that they did not have before. So even if his production is set to decline as he enters his twilight, he is likely to be invaluable to the next generation of Rockies pitchers.
While Quintana is a former All-Star and also finished 10th in Cy Young voting in 2016, neither he nor Sugano could reasonably be considered “ace” pitchers. On a team fighting for a playoff spot, none of the Rockies four veterans (that happened fast) would qualify as top-of-the-rotation guys.
Starting Rotation
Still, suddenly with Freeland, Lorenzen, Quintana, and Sugano, the Rockies have dramatically increased the amount of experience in, and raised the floor of, the rotation. And therefore, the team.
It also leaves open one spot, and one spot only, for an intriguing group of young pitchers including Chase Dollander and Ryan Feltner to go about earning a job this spring.
Whether all this can amount to avoiding 100 losses remains to be seen. That’s why they play the games. But it will almost certainly result in a considerable improvement.
Perhaps just as importantly, these veterans should cut down on all the blowouts. Far too often in 2025, the Rox didn’t just lose, they lost by the third inning. Giving young guys chances in MLB has limited positive impact under those circumstances.
Getting absolutely drubbed on the regular while trying to pave your way through the Bigs for the first time is a tough task. So while it may be the case that some younger players have their debuts or timelines delayed a bit thanks to these additions, they will be put in a better position to succeed because of them.
As all baseball fans know, this is the time of year for caveats. We must, of course, note that health is always a factor with any player, especially older players. If they aren’t on the field, none of their positive attributes beyond their coaching abilities matter. And they aren’t paid to coach, they’re paid to pitch. And pitch they shall, starting in just a few days.
Paul DePodesta and Josh Byrnes said almost immediately upon taking over that the first order of business is to raise the floor. These moves do that. They’ve done that. By how much, though?
Let’s play ball and find out.