What Are the Rockies Actually Trying to Build on the Mound?

The Colorado Rockies need pitching. That is obvious in 2026, and the picture does not get much clearer looking toward 2027.

Colorado’s lack of starting depth has already been exposed. Chase Dollander is recovering from elbow surgery. Tomoyuki Sugano and José Quintana are headed for free agency, while Kyle Freeland’s 2027 option is unlikely to vest. Michael Lorenzen has already been designated for assignment.

There is no wave of top pitching prospects waiting to fill the void, either. And the need goes

beyond the rotation.

The Rockies have already had 27 different players make at least one relief appearance this season. Colorado does not just need another starter or two. It needs more and better pitching almost everywhere.

How the Rockies fill those holes is almost impossible to predict. Some additions will come through free agency, others through trades, the draft or from within the organization.

But finding pitchers is only part of the problem.

The larger question is what the Rockies are actually trying to build once those pitchers get here.

Colorado has been fairly direct about that. After the trade deadline, Paul DePodesta said the organization was not necessarily looking for one “cookie cutter” pitcher, but instead for “different looks, different angles, different velocities, different pitch mixes.”

That echoed what Tanner Gordon described during spring training, when pitchers were experimenting with new pitches and shapes while pitching coach Alon Leichman emphasized filling up the strike zone and staying on the attack.

Five months later, the staff is beginning to resemble that description.

The staff is changing how it pitches

Across the staff as a whole, one of the clearest changes has been how much less dependent Colorado has become on the four-seam fastball.

Four-seamers accounted for 41.4% of all Rockies pitches in 2025. In 2026, that figure has fallen to 28.9%.

The four-seamer itself was not necessarily the problem.

The monopoly was.

Slider and changeup usage is almost unchanged from last season. Instead, cutter usage has climbed from 3.9% to 12.2%, sinkers have nearly doubled from 7.6% to 14.4% and splitters have also become a larger part of the mix.

The four-seamer has not disappeared. It simply accounts for far less of the staff’s overall pitch mix.

At the team level, that is what DePodesta’s “different looks” and “different pitch mixes” can look like in practice.

Look at the individual parts

Freeland offers a useful baseline. His results have often been uneven, but over more than 1,300 major-league innings, all with Colorado, he has generally remained on the positive side of the WAR ledger, averaging 2.5 bWAR per 162 games.

In 2026, he is throwing six pitches with no offering accounting for much more than a quarter of his usage:

Freeland is not an ideal to build around, but his longevity suggests strike throwing, sequencing and changing looks can make ordinary raw stuff viable in this environment.

The rest of the rotation shows how differently that idea can be applied.

Tomoyuki Sugano may be the clearest example of a true mix-and-match approach. He is using seven pitches in 2026, with his splitter, four-seamer and sinker each accounting for roughly 20% of his usage, while his arsenal stretches from a mid-90s fastball down to a curveball around 80 mph.

Ryan Feltner also works with six pitches, but with a more balanced hierarchy. His four-seamer and slider lead the mix, while his changeup has been his most effective pitch by run value. The fastball has not produced especially good results on its own, but the broader mix gives him multiple velocity bands to work through.

Gabriel Hughes takes a different route. He still throws his four-seamer more than half the time, but complements it with five secondary pitches and nearly seven feet of extension. His repertoire is deep even if the usage is not especially balanced.

Chase Dollander was another variation before undergoing elbow surgery. His nearly 99 mph four-seamer remained the centerpiece and produced strong results, while Colorado continued building around it, including a sweeper added to his arsenal this season.

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Quintana fit the experiment as well. His five-pitch mix did not feature one offering above 30% usage, relying more on changing speeds and shapes than overpowering hitters.

Lorenzen might be the clearest reminder that none of this guarantees success. He threw seven different pitches, but could never get enough of them working together consistently and Colorado eventually moved on.

The commonality is not that every Rockies starter pitches the same way. It is almost the opposite. Colorado has assembled a group with broad arsenals that can create different looks in very different ways.

Zach Agnos offers a developing version out of the bullpen.

Agnos has carried the largest relief workload on the staff at 63.2 innings while expanding from essentially four pitches in 2025 to six in 2026. His four-seamer has been hit hard, while the sweeper, slider and splitter have generated considerably more swing-and-miss.

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On May 21 at Arizona, Agnos threw five scoreless innings of one-hit baseball with the cutter, sweeper and splitter carrying much of the workload. Five days later, the Dodgers could focus more heavily on the hard stuff when his secondary pitches stopped consistently threatening the zone.

Throwing strikes is not the same as commanding pitches.

When enough of Agnos’ repertoire is competitive around the zone, hitters have to account for several different problems. When they can eliminate parts of it, six pitches become three very quickly.

Adding is only half the job

Having more options does not mean every option has to stay.

Tanner Gordon is a clean example because the experimentation was explicit from the beginning. In spring training, he talked about working on a new one-seam/two-seam fastball, refining his slider and cutter and experimenting with a second changeup shape.

The new fastball shape did not stick.

Gordon has not thrown a sinker since May 25. The curveball remained, the slider became a major piece and Gordon is currently back in the rotation.

A deeper arsenal only helps if the added pitches give hitters something different to account for.

Antonio Senzatela shows the upside of that process.

His four-seam usage fell substantially in 2026, while the cutter and sinker became much larger pieces and his velocity increased. Before being traded at the deadline, Senzatela had a 3.61 ERA in 52.1 innings after posting a 6.65 ERA over 130.0 innings in 2025.

That does not prove the arsenal changes caused the better results. But Senzatela returned looking like a substantially different pitcher, produced better results and ultimately brought back an arm and a flyer at the deadline.

A deeper arsenal is not the whole story

Nick Frasso makes that clear.

He has more than seven feet of extension, a fastball averaging better than 96 mph and a changeup nearly 13 mph slower. Hitters have to account for both the velocity and an unusually deep release point.

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The player Colorado traded to acquire Frasso makes the bet even more interesting.

Seth Halvorsen gave the Rockies elite velocity, averaging nearly 99 mph with his four-seamer, plus a swing-and-miss slider. Colorado sent him to Los Angeles for Frasso and outfielder Landyn Vidourek.

Frasso does not throw quite as hard, but he brings exceptional extension and a changeup that gives hitters a much different speed and shape to account for alongside the fastball.

Command remains a problem, but the acquisition is still revealing. The Rockies were not simply looking for the hardest fastball available.

Juan Mejía provides another version. In 2025, he was essentially a two-pitch reliever, throwing a premium-velocity four-seamer and sweeper almost exclusively. Those two pitches still dominate his arsenal in 2026, but Colorado has begun experimenting around them with a sinker, changeup and slider in smaller doses.

Mejía does not get much extension, which may make those additional shapes especially useful around a fastball that still averages about 97 mph. They remain occasional pitches, but the experimentation fits the larger pattern.

An exceptional trait can still be the foundation. The emerging question is what else can be built around it.

What are they actually building?

Colorado needs too many pitchers for every future addition to fit the same pattern.

But enough pitchers have arrived, changed or been moved on from for some common threads to become visible.

There does not appear to be one trait, pitch type or statistical profile Colorado is building toward. What keeps showing up instead is something worth building around, paired with enough credible options to keep hitters from simplifying the at-bat.

Sometimes that starts with velocity. Sometimes it is extension, command, pitch interaction or the shape of the arsenal itself.

So after all of that, has the pitching actually gotten better?

Yes.

Colorado’s staff ERA has fallen from 5.99 in 2025 to 5.51 this season, while its FIP has improved from 5.24 to 4.84. The Rockies are also allowing fewer home runs.

That is meaningful progress.

It is still a bad pitching staff.

There is a huge difference between improving a pitching staff and building a good one.

The question is no longer whether the Rockies have an idea of what they want to build on the mound.

It is whether they can find enough good pitchers to build it with.

On the farm

Triple-A: Las Vegas Aviators 6, Albuquerque Isotopes 4

The Isotopes had plenty of chances to put this one away before a four-run ninth inning sent them to a 6-4 loss against Las Vegas.

Albuquerque collected 12 hits and five walks but went just 3-for-18 with runners in scoring position, stranded 12 and struck out 14 times. Adael Amador went 2-for-5 with his 20th double, while Tyler Freeman, Chad Stevens, Nic Kent and Bryant Betancourt also had two hits. Charlie Condon reached three times with a single and two walks.

Jake Brooks gave Albuquerque six solid innings and left with a 3-2 lead, allowing two runs on eight hits while throwing 55 of 80 pitches for strikes. Patrick Weigel added 1.2 scoreless innings. TJ Shook recorded the final out of the eighth before Las Vegas opened the ninth with four straight singles. Joey Meneses put the Aviators ahead with a sacrifice fly, and a Shook throwing error helped two more runs score.

Albuquerque pushed across one run in the ninth before falling to 61-63. Shook took the loss.

Double-A: Doubleheader:

Game 1 – Hartford Yard Goats 8, Somerset Patriots 1, (7 innings)

Hartford opened the doubleheader with a convincing 8-1 win behind a big night from Cole Messina, who went 2-for-2 with a two-run homer, a two-run single and a sacrifice fly to drive in five. GJ Hill added his 16th homer, while Jared Thomas went 3-for-4 with a double and two runs scored.

Bryson Hammer earned the win with five innings of one-run ball before Davison Palermo closed it out with two scoreless frames.

Game 2 – Somerset Patriots 6, Hartford Yard Goats 0 (7 innings)

Hartford was held to just one hit in the second seven-inning game, with Jimmy Obertop’s fifth-inning double accounting for the Yard Goats’ only knock. Hartford went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position and struck out nine times.

Cade Denton allowed four runs over four innings, though he struck out five and surrendered just three hits. The loss dropped Hartford to 57-60.

High-A: Spokane Indians 6, Hillsboro Hops 1

Spokane got contributions throughout the lineup and another strong night from the pitching staff in a 6-1 win over Hillsboro.

Roldy Brito went 2-for-4, scored a run and stole two bases to reach 19 on the season, while Robert Calaz finished 2-for-4 with his 14th double. Lorenzo Carrier drove in three runs, including a two-run single during Spokane’s three-run eighth inning that put the game away.

Jordy Vargas worked 4.2 innings, allowing one run on five hits with four walks and seven strikeouts. Justin Loer followed with 2.2 scoreless innings and five strikeouts to earn the win, while Seth Clausen retired all five batters he faced and struck out two for the save.

Spokane improved to 54-63.

Single-A: Stockton Ports 9, Fresno Grizzlies 4

Fresno jumped ahead early, but Stockton kept applying pressure throughout the night and pulled away for a 9-4 win.

Daniel Jackson gave the Grizzlies a 1-0 lead with an RBI single in the first, but the Ports answered in the second and then built a 6-1 advantage behind home runs from Drew Burress and Gavin Turley. Fresno made its best push in the sixth when Jack Natili launched a three-run homer to cut the deficit to 6-4.

Stockton answered right back with a run in each of the final three innings to put the game away. Ronny Ugarte finished 2-for-4 with a double, while Landyn Vidourek walked three times.

The loss dropped Fresno to 63-55 and left the Grizzlies two games behind Stockton in the Cal League North second-half playoff race.

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