Commentary: Why the Colorado Rockies are Historically Bad
The 2025 Colorado Rockies have struggled as a franchise throughout the 2020s. 2025 has become a culmination of every mistake from the past.
The 2025 Colorado Rockies are historically bad. Not only are they on pace to become the worst team of the 21st century, but the worst team since the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics. Their current winning percentage is 17.9%, putting them on pace to finish the season with a 29-133 record.
So, what went wrong with a once-very successful organization? The answer is a variety of things. After winning a wild-card playoff game in the 2018 postseason vs. the Chicago Cubs, everything went straight downhill. A lineup consisting of three all-stars and a handful of promising young prospects was destined for improvement in 2019.
Despite spending over $157 million in payroll ahead of the 2019 campaign, everything that was once built up came crashing down. Injuries, pitching struggles, inconsistent offense and disappointing offseason additions caused the 91-72 Rockies in 2018 to fall to 71-91 in 2019.
After the disaster of a season that 2019 was, team owner Richard L. Monfort became gun-shy. The goal of the Colorado Rockies seemed to shift away from being a contending team in 2020. This meant that Monfort’s focus went away from spending money on the team, out of fear that another disaster like 2019 would cost him millions of dollars.
Shortly after this realization set in, Monfort traded away the face of the franchise, Nolan Arenado. The trade with the St. Louis Cardinals was built on the idea of getting away from Arenado’s extreme contract. Monfort didn’t want to pay his star player the agreed-upon $260 million throughout eight seasons, so he shipped him to a team that would. This left Rockies fans furious.
Monfort knew that the Rockies would produce revenue through their state-of-the-art stadium and loyal fan base regardless of the team’s success. Since a shortened COVID-19 season in 2020, the Rockies have gotten worse and worse, year after year.
Most would think that it is some sort of anomaly for a team owner to cut costs so unexpectedly, but in baseball, it isn’t. While this was the first step of a tremendous downfall, there was still much more that had to go wrong for the Rockies to become as bad as they are now.
Team management is another area in which the Rockies have fallen apart. Trades, signings and draft picks are how organizations build their teams. General managers are typically in charge of the roster-building aspect of a baseball team. The Colorado Rockies have had four GMs since 2014. Lack of stability and time to let a game plan develop has proven harmful to the present Rockies team.
The disaster that the 2025 Rockies have become is a culmination of poor decisions that have transpired since 2018. Those decisions have built, or demolished, this year’s Rockies into one of baseball’s historically bad teams.
They currently rank towards the bottom of the MLB in hits, runs, pitcher ERA, stolen bases and nearly every statistical category imaginable. One bright spot for the team, however, is 25-year-old catcher Hunter Goodman. Goodman currently leads the team in batting average, home runs, hits and RBI.
The Rockies will have opportunities to rebuild into the competitors they once were, but for now, Colorado baseball fans will have to live with being on the wrong side of history.