This past spring, the Colorado Rockies new front office made it a priority to acquire short-term stopgaps for the starting rotation. They did this by bringing in three capable veteran arms — Michael Lorenzen, José Quintana, and Tomoyuki Sugano — on one-year deals that would provide depth and baseline competency. This was done, in part, to give themselves time to assess the state of the franchise without needing to either cycle prospects up to the majors before they were ready or to press injured
players back into service too quickly.
Essentially, they employed a stalling tactic so that they would have time to develop a long-term vision for Rockies pitching.
Fast forward to today, and the writing is on the wall: The future Rockies rotation will not feature many of the faces it has in the past, including those currently on the roster.
Unless Lorenzen’s $9 million club option for 2027 is exercised (which seems unlikely), all three of the veteran starters brought in are set to be free agents come November. Kyle Freeland just set the franchise record in innings pitched but is unlikely to see his option for next year vest given its high bar of 170 innings. In addition, Chase Dollander appears to be on the verge of undergoing surgery to repair a damaged UCL.
Given that extreme turnover, let’s take a look at the existing foundation Paul DePodesta, Josh Byrnes, and company will need to be building upon as they try to execute their vision of the next good Rockies rotation.
The 2027 rotation
If no additions were made before opening day, the starting depth chart for the 2027 Rockies would look something like this:
- Ryan Feltner: 2024 was a genuinely good season for a starter that calls Coors Field home. Every other season of his career has been marred by both injury and uneven performance.
- Tanner Gordon: This would be Gordon’s fourth big league season with the Rockies. He’s proven to be a useful contributor in terms of filling out innings but rarely shown promise of more impact than that.
- Sean Sullivan (No. 8 PuRP): At the time that this publishes Sullivan will have pitched in a total of two major league games, one of which was cut short due to illness. His command and deception could make for a unique mid-rotation starter if everything breaks right, but just as likely his extreme lack of stuff could relegate him to a backend/spot-starter type.
- McCade Brown (No. 18 PuRP): He rocketed through the minors in 2025 before being pressed into service at the major league level. He has shown promise but has spent all of the 2026 season on the IL working back from a shoulder injury.
- Gabriel Hughes (No. 12 PuRP): Hughes has yet to make his major-league debut but has performed well in the hitter-friendly PCL this year while dealing with injuries. He could eventually be a number three or four in a big league rotation. His first round draft selection was viewed, even at the time, as predicated on a high floor as opposed to a tantalizing ceiling.
- Eiberson Castellano: The 25 year old has made it to the majors this season thanks to good performances in Hartford and Albuquerque but does not come with notable prospect buzz. His is another arm that could potentially be a backend innings eater.
- Konnor Eaton (No. 28 PuRP): The Rockies sixth-round pick in the 2024 draft has quietly but steadily moved through their minor league system. His surface level production numbers have been solid in 63 innings at Double-A, but he’s generally thought to be another low ceiling option.
- Jack Mahoney: A very similar story to Eaton except with an injury to start this year that will have reduced the total innings load he is able to build up to this season.
Overall, while there are some names that Rockies fans should be excited about seeing, make no mistake that this is extremely limited starting depth for a major league team.
Even in essentially the best-case scenario — one where everyone stays healthy, Feltner winds the clock back to 2024, and all three of Sullivan, Brown, and Hughes hit the higher end of their evaluations — there would still be a few hundred innings to fill just get through the season due to the lack of previously established 150+ inning workloads for these arms.
A more modestly likely scenario is that one or two of those players become legitimate mid-rotation pieces, and the others are beset by a mixture or injuries or having their flaws exposed by major league hitters in a way they cannot address.
That’s the rotation of another 100-loss season.
Beyond next season
Since 2027 should be looked at as another rebuilding year, the focus should be on what sort of potential can be found for the rotations of 2028 and beyond.
Given the timeline and track record of other pitchers that have undergone UCL surgeries the recent past, Chase Dollander should be expected to return to game action by the start of the 2028 season. Dollander’s arm still provides the most real possibility of an impact starting pitcher in the organization despite the injury. However, it cannot be taken for granted that he will simply regain the form he was showing to start this year. It’s possible he will look great when he gets back but not certain.
Going lower in the farm system, the Rockies minor-league affiliates host a decent number of interesting arms. The problem is that injuries or underperformance have prevented almost all of them from rising through the system quickly or seeing their evaluations from scouts increase so far this season.
This includes some of the system’s most highly touted pitching prospects, such as Brody Brecht (No. 3 PuRP), JB Middleton (No. 7 PuRP), and Griffin Herring (No. 10 PuRP) none of whom have pitched more than 20 innings in 2026. Of those three, only Herring has even reached Double-A, where he has allowed nine runs in 10.3 innings pitched. None of these players came into the year without question marks, and all have not yet had a chance to try to answer them.
The two most positive developments in Rockies pitching prospects this year have been:
- Jackson Cox (No. 16 PuRP) who just reached Double-A this past week after having flashed encouraging strikeout numbers in 55.1 innings for the High-A Spokane to start the season. Cox will need at least another season’s worth of time before he could be built up to a major-league starters innings workload as 2025 was his first partial season back from UCL surgery.
- Angel Jimenez who got some buzz with a strong 45 grade report from Brendan Gawlowski of Fangraphs this spring. The 22 year old has lived up to that evaluation in his second stint with Low-A Fresno to begin the year. He has pitched to a 3.40 ERA with 11.62 K/9 in his first 50 innings pitched. His is a name to watch.
That, however, is pretty much the full list of positive developments for Rockies pitching prospects with a realistic chance of eventually starting a major league playoff game. Others in this farm system could turn things around and outperform their current trajectories but banking on that happening can not be the plan. Looking at the organization honestly, the long-term pitching depth and ceiling are dire.
What now?
Outside of putting together an expansion team, the Rockies pitching is as close to a blank-slate as a front office can have.
That is daunting but also an opportunity. The front office has had time to assemble the coaching personnel they want, assess the talent already in the organization, and experiment with what works at elevation. DePodesta, Byrnes, and company have the chance to build a pitching staff, essentially from scratch, in the exact shape that they want.
Perhaps they try to convert some of their current relief arms to supplement the rotation moving forward. Maybe they get creative and continue to blur the line between starters and relievers. The only thing without question is that they will need to bring in some new faces to supplement those that they have in house. The upcoming draft, the trade deadline, the free agent class this winter, and the next international prospect signing deadline are the obvious avenues they have to address this issue at their disposal.
Whatever direction they take, the next nine months will drastically reshape the future of pitching in Denver.
On the Farm
Triple-A: Sugar Land Space Cowboys 21, Albuquerque Isotopes 8
As can clearly be presumed from the final scores, the Isotopes pitchers did not have a great night. The tone was set when Cavan Biggio took a Sammy Peralta sinker deep in the first at-bat of the game and it never really let up from there. Only five pitchers took the mound for Albuquerque but none of them allowed fewer than three runs. Let’s all just move past it and look at the hitters.
In the bottom of the first the Isotopes would tie the game with three runs of their own on a Drew Avans bunt, Ryan Ritter RBI double, Zac Veen (No. 9 PuRP) single, followed by some failures on the part of the Space Cowboy’s infield to convert outs that would have ended the inning and instead allowed both Ritter and Veen to come around and score. This is the final time in the game in which the Isotopes would not be trailing.
Albuquerque would go on to score five more times, with Ritter (three hits including a double), Nic Kent (who was on base three times), and Charlie Condon (No. 1 PuRP) (RBI triple) leading the way. In the end, there just wasn’t much hope of coming back when the opponent had already scored over twenty.
Double-A: Hartford Yard Goats 10, Reading Fightin’ Phils 2
There were many solid performances in Hartford on Wednesday but make no mistake, this was the Connor Capel’s game. The 29 year-old outfielder provided enough offense to win the game by himself with three home runs.
Despite not needing to, due to Capel’s heroics, elsewhere in the Yard Goats lineup Bryant Betancourt had a couple hits including a homer of his own, and Cole Messina (No. 26 PuRP) had his own pair of hits one of which was his tenth double of the season.
On the mound was an effective but inefficient Jack Mahoney who allowed only two runs over four and a third innings. Mahoney was lifted in the fifth after Aroon Escobar drove in the Fightin’ Phil’s second run on a single that would leave runners at first and third. Fidel Ulloa would come in and shut the door before Reading could start contemplating a comeback. Austin Smith and Cade Denton would come in after Ulloa and, over the course of the final three innings, continue the trend of allowing some hits and then stranding the resulting baserunners.
High-A: Spokane Indians 5, Vancouver Canadians 4
This was very nearly a loss for Spokane if it had not been for late game heroics.
Heading into the bottom of the ninth the Canadians were ahead 4-3. Kevin Fitzer worked a walk and was replaced by pinch-runner Jacob Humphrey who scored the tying run a batter later when Jacob Hinderleider hit a single on a ground ball to left field.
Fast forward to the tenth inning and Spokane was able to prevent the Candians zombie runner from scoring thanks to a fielders choice to throw home by Ethan Hedges (No. 29 PuRP). Then came the bottom of the tenth where Max Belyeu (No. 15 PuRP) moved the runner from second to third on a sacrifice bunt. Roynier Hernandez walked (his fourth time on base), before Hedges struck out to bring the Canadians a single out away from continuing the game into the eleventh.
That was not to be, however, as Jack O’Dowd came to the plate and hit a single to right field that easily allowed the fifth and final run to score.
Low-A: Fresno Grizzlies 6, Inland Empire 66ers 5
A back and forth affair throughout. Brady Parker and Easton Marks would combine for eight innings in which they kept the Grizzlies in the game by allowing five runs on eight hits and seven walks. No single player in the lineup carried the offensive load, and instead their eleven hits were scattered throughout the order.
The Grizzlies were able to sneak a win past the 66ers thanks to back-to-back doubles from Kyle Fossm and Carlos Renzullo in the bottom of the eighth to score the go winning run. Seth Clausen would come in to pitch a perfect ninth inning to record his sixth save of the season.
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Jeff Passan highlights the hottest commodities in baseball ahead of this seasons trade deadline. The only Rockie to make it into the top thirty is Antonio Senzatela at number 29 but there are ten total Rockies players listed in the full list. If the Rockies don’t decide to alter the franchise by moving Hunter Goodman, this deadline could still be very busy for them with a lot of small moves.
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