Offseason Option: To The Studs

Rip out the copper wiring

Over the course of the fall before things get moving in the MLB offseason, I want to talk about a few directions the Rockies could or should go with their 2026 plans. I think, all told, there are three paths for the Rockies to go. You rip out the drywall and go down to the studs, you make margin moves and hope your current prospect class improves the ceiling, or you do nothing and hope the 2026 CBA negotiations go in the favor Dick Monfort is hoping to push them. That is, in the direction of a salary cap/floor and a new set of rules and restrictions on how the game operates.

The last one is the most likely but let’s start with the one that is maybe the most fun. The argument for rebuilding down to the bare bones is that you don’t lose around 110+ games on accident and you don’t set the Modern Era record for negative run differential with just bad luck. The Rockies, as I’ve written, saw the bottom fall out this year. They now have over 300 losses since 2022 and it isn’t as though things are looking up anyway. 2026 is setting up to be another dismal year whether the Rockies rip it all up or not. My ethical disagreement with the idea of rebuilding is usually founded in the thought that the team is winning before the rebuild starts and is a salary cushion for greedy owners. Not so here, however. The Rockies need a rebuild of ideas and process as well as of nearly every player on the roster. With the likely departure of Bill Schmidt looming, it would make the most sense to allow a new GM to begin by tearing apart everything that contributed to one of the worst team’s of all time.

As I’ve written about before, the Rockies are fundamentally misaligned to the process of winning. This isn’t just a bad scouting job here or there, it is a foundational issue that they need to change from the top down in order to succeed. But, that starts by ripping out the foundation that currently stands doesn’t it? Further, there’s a pretty solid argument here that you couldn’t possibly make things work by rebuilding this way. How many more losses could you get?

So, what does that mean? Well, I think it starts by looking at anyone over a certain age or service time and asking, “is it smarter to let them go?” For some, like Antonio Senzatela or Kyle Farmer I think the answer is yes. Both from a production standpoint and from the idea that it’s smarter to run through as much high minors talent as you can to see who sticks and where. For others, like Kyle Freeland or Brenton Doyle. The question is a little more difficult. Neither is anyone I’d hold onto if their names came up in trade talks, but you could see an argument that someone has to play.

In any case, I think the Rockies need to convince themselves that the overwhelming lion’s share of plate appearances and innings in 2026 should be taken by players younger than 28 and/or rookies. Not because it’s “cheaper” but because you have to clear the pipes and see what you have. Right now, the club is handling prospects like they’re costing them wins. But it’s time to stop fully worrying about wins at all in the short term. Wins are altogether worthless if you can’t earn 50 of them whether you try to or not. But you could find the players that will make wins worth something again soon, if you give them the rope to show it.

Above and beyond the obvious cuts or even the difficult calls, you have players like Hunter Goodman or Jordan Beck that are good, solid lineup players. They could be good, solid lineup players even when you are maybe worried about winning games. But are they good enough that it’s worth it to keep them? That would be the debate for this line of thinking more than anything else. The Rockies currently are one level down, debating on the Moniak’s and Doyle’s. But if you’re tearing it up to the studs, are Goodman and Beck there?

Here are a complete list of guys that the “to the studs” argument would leave in the org, currently on the 40 man:

Ok, so that leaves you with a lineup basically consisting of rookies, Zeke Tovar, and whatever you need to bring in for tryouts from veterans looking for work to fill in the rest. I’m not sure if that’s better or worse than hanging on to Brenton Doyle and Jordan Beck, but it would represent an announcement that the Rockies understand a timeline and have the concepts of a plan in place to build a winning organization. It also, by freeing up positions, gives players in the minors a valuable opportunity to earn more playing time by playing well. Right now, the Rockies are jerking Amador and Zac Veen around trying to make sure they have ABs while filling the MLB ABs with Tyler Freeman, Kyle Farmer, and Mickey Moniak. With this, you have put these prospects into a position where they alone control their destiny. You can’t keep giving guys like Adael Amador 41 staggered games across an entire season and expect good things to happen. It’s time to see what you have, for better or worse.

Without getting into the nitty gritty of team building, the argument now is simply this: do you believe the Rockies are that much worse if they went this route vs. employing veterans like Farmer, Moniak, Beck, Freeland, and Doyle? And if so, is it better enough to matter? This isn’t choosing to blow up a team that can win 80 games, it is removing players from a team that lost more than 110. So why should any of them stay?

Throughout the next month or so, we can explore a couple of other options. Both of those are probably more likely, this is the Rockies we are talking about, but both of these offer their own path of build. Do we just fix the margins? Or do we hold serve and wait to see what the CBA does?

With the conclusion of the season upon us, the newsletter format now shifts a little to no longer track Connor’s Guys and instead just share my dumb thoughts in a block. Every Wednesday timeline might get a bit iffy as well. But we roll on.

5 to go…