The Colorado Rockies have been the unquestioned laughingstock of baseball this season. However, ESPN’s Jeff Passan views the situation as a more poignant example of what happens when complacency originates from the top down within an organization.
Ahead of the Rockies’ game on Monday against the Miami Marlins, Passan joined A.J. Hawk on The Pat McAfee Show to discuss Colorado’s 9-50 start, the worst start to a season in modern MLB history.
Instead of laughing at the Rockies as many have done, Passan lamented the fact that the Rockies organization hasn’t been able to put together a roster to compete in the hitter’s paradise that is Coors Field, thanks to the thinner air due to the altitude in Denver.
“I just look at what’s going on in Colorado right now, and it makes me sad,” said Passan. “You talk with executives around baseball, guys, and they look at the Colorado Rockies job as something they would like to do in their frisky age of executivism. When they can go in there and try and run experiments. Because it’s like you are playing on the moon when you are in Colorado. We ran a story on ESPN.com; Coors Field turned 30 years old this year. We went and looked back at and talked with players who had been there and just got this collection of stories about how it’s not like real baseball there.
“The things that you might be able to do if you are a curious and interested and thoughtful executive are manifold. Yet the Rockies, what they have is the disease of complacency. They have done nothing different. They have not changed things. They’re right at the bottom in innovation. Dick Monfort, their owner, has talked about the idea… If there is not going to be a salary cap in baseball, of having a salary cap to spend on technology and other things of that ilk. It’s wild, and it speaks to how the Rockies have been run for all this time. They are just an organization that is a decade-plus behind right now.
“Some of that goes back to ownership. Some of that goes back to the front office. But there is a reason they are where they are right now. It is fascinating to see. We see records like this in the NBA every so often. Like, if a team is really, really bad, they will get to 50 losses before they get to double-digit wins. We have never seen this in baseball before. And considering this is happening the year after the Chicago White Sox set the new record for futility, that we could potentially see that again… It is just a shame what’s going on with the Rockies. And yet, they are drawing 30,000 people to that ballpark every day because it is a gorgeous park and people in Denver just like having a good time and watching a baseball game. And I love them for that.”
It would be one thing if the Rockies were losing, but at least they were providing some fun moments in their hitter-friendly home park. But that hasn’t been the case whatsoever, ranking dead last in runs scored despite getting to play half their games at Coors Field.
Whether you blame Rockies general manager Bill Schmidt, Dick Monfort, or Rockies players for the disaster that has transpired this season in Colorado, it unfortunately doesn’t seem like there is any quick fix on the way. Heading into the 2025 MLB season, the Rockies’ farm system was ranked 18th in the annual MLB.com farm system rankings.
On the bright side, the Rockies finally got to double-digit wins after coming away with a 6-4 win on Monday night over the Marlins.