{"id":391979,"date":"2026-01-06T23:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T23:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/391979\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T23:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T23:09:08","slug":"rockies-interested-in-veteran-rotation-additions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/391979\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockies Interested In Veteran Rotation Additions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Rockies are looking for a few veterans to eat innings in their rotation, general manager Josh Byrnes tells Thomas Harding of MLB.com<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019ve played out scenarios where we would attempt to bring in two guys who can stabilize that area \u2014 who can not only pitch well but know how to give us some bulk innings, which any team needs,\u201d Byrnes said. \u201cThat\u2019s probably how we\u2019re trying to map it out. There is a lot of unknown with what pops up in trades or free agency, but we need to add in that area.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a sensible target for the club. The Colorado rotation was historically bad in 2025. The club\u2019s starters had a combined earned run average of 6.65. According to a post from Harding<\/a> back in October, that was the highest rotation ERA of any club since the stat became official in 1913. Coors Field obviously plays a role in the struggles but the numbers were bad even compared to previous Colorado clubs. The group was further thinned out at season\u2019s end when Germ\u00e1n M\u00e1rquez<\/a> became a free agent. In short, there\u2019s nowhere to go but up.<\/p>\n

Right now, the club projects to have a couple of experienced arms in the mix. Kyle Freeland<\/a> is going into his tenth big league season and is still under contract through 2026, with a conditional player option for 2027. Ryan Feltner<\/a> has 339 2\/3 innings under his belt. Those two have experience but don\u2019t provide much in terms of optimism. Feltner has a career 5.19 ERA with average ground ball and walk rates but subpar strikeout numbers. Freeland\u2019s ERA has been around 5.00 for three straight years now.<\/p>\n

Antonio Senzatela<\/a> was moved to the bullpen in August. Manager Warren Schaeffer said in September that the club planned to keep him there going forward, per Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post<\/a>. Senzatela is signed through 2026 with a $14MM club option for 2027. Given his 6.65 ERA last year and the fact that there\u2019s no buyout on that option, it will surely be declined.<\/p>\n

Beyond Freeland and Feltner, the other rotation options are lacking in experience. Chase Dollander<\/a> came into 2025 as one of the top pitching prospects in the league but he posted a 6.52 ERA in 98 innings in his rookie season. The 40-man roster also features Tanner Gordon<\/a>, McCade Brown<\/a>, Carson Palmquist<\/a>, Gabriel Hughes<\/a> and Bradley Blalock<\/a> but everyone in that group has fewer than 110 big league innings pitched. Hughes hasn\u2019t yet pitched in the big leagues. The other four names in that cluster have ERAs north of 7.00.<\/p>\n

Given that context, adding a few veterans would make plenty of sense. They could stabilize the group and give the decision-makers some freedom in keeping the younger guys in the minors until they\u2019re ready.<\/p>\n

Getting those veterans to Colorado has usually been a challenge. Given the hitter-friendly environment up at altitude, free agent pitchers generally don\u2019t want to sign with the Rockies. Looking at MLBTR\u2019s Contract Tracker<\/a>, which has data going back to 2006, the club has only thrice signed a free agent pitcher to a deal with an eight-figure average annual value in that span. They signed Jorge De La Rosa<\/a> to a three-year, $32MM deal back in 2010, then a one-year, $15MM deal with Jeff Francis<\/a> in 2012, followed by a three-year, $52MM deal for Wade Davis<\/a> in 2017.<\/p>\n

Byrnes provided a hint of optimism, for what it\u2019s worth. \u201cThere are different tiers of free agency,\u201d the GM said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of interesting, without naming names. But with guys on shorter deals, I think there\u2019s some intrigue. Everyone around the game knows it\u2019s harder to pitch in Colorado, but I think a couple of guys want to take on that challenge, and we\u2019ve brought in a pitching group that will turn over every rock to get at it and solve this thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without Byrnes providing any details, it can only be guessed what kind of free agents he\u2019s talking about. It would make some sense for a pitcher towards the end of his career to be more game for the experiment, since he wouldn\u2019t have to worry so much about a poor performance tanking his future earning power. That could align with the kind of short-term deal Byrnes alluded to.<\/p>\n

Given the state of the club, the Rockies aren\u2019t going to target the top available free agents like Framber Valdez<\/a>, Ranger Su\u00e1rez<\/a> or Zac Gallen<\/a>. But veterans like Wade Miley<\/a>, Miles Mikolas<\/a>, Alex Cobb<\/a>, Jose Quintana<\/a>, Patrick Corbin<\/a> or Mart\u00edn P\u00e9rez<\/a> make speculative sense. They\u2019re all 35 or older and will be looking at one-year offers in free agency.<\/p>\n

The Rockies could also try to bring in starters via trade, though they don\u2019t have a ton to offer other clubs. Any guys on their roster with trade value would ideally be flipped for prospects or controllable players. Perhaps they could take on an undesirable contract from another club, though that path also comes with challenges. The Blue Jays and Mets may be looking to move on from Jos\u00e9 Berr\u00edos<\/a> and Kodai Senga<\/a>, respectively, but grabbing someone like that would require the Rockies to take on a notable salary during rebuilding years. Berr\u00edos is slated to make $66MM over the next three years and Senga $28MM over the next two. Perhaps those clubs would be willing to eat some money to facilitate a deal but Berr\u00edos has an eight-team no-trade clause and Senga can block trades to ten teams. Given the state of the Rockies and the challenges of pitching there, it seems fair to assume that the Rockies would be blocked by both guys.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Ron Chenoy, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rockies are looking for a few veterans to eat innings in their rotation, general manager Josh Byrnes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[24266,363,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-391979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-antonio-senzatela","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}