Welcome to the 2025 edition of Ranking the Rockies, where we take a look back at every player to log playing time for the Rockies in 2025. The purpose of this list is to provide a snapshot of the player in context.
The “Ranking” is an organizing principle that’s drawn from Baseball Reference’s WAR (rWAR). It’s not something the staff debated. We’ll begin with the player with the lowest rWAR and end up with the player with the highest.
No. 38, Thairo Estrada (-0.4)
When the Colorado Rockies decided to non-tender Brendan Rodgers following the 2024 season, attention turned to finding a replacement. The team signed Kyle Farmer, but it was quickly decided that his role would be to serve as a utility bench player. In-house options like Adael Amador and Ryan Ritter weren’t quite ready to take the next step, leaving the Rockies to look at the free agent market for a temporary solution.
It was reported early during the Winter Meetings that the Rockies had agreed to a contract with infielder Thairo Estrada. The deal, not official until January, was for one year and $3.25 million with a $750,000 buyout of a $7 million mutual option.
The Rockies hoped that Estrada, despite a rough year with the San Francisco Giants due to injuries, could be a linchpin for the lineup and bring some new tools. First and foremost, his contact-heavy approach had led to some decent results with the Giants, and he had displayed some power in the past. Additionally, the hope was that Estrada could add another speed threat on the bases and increase an already dire stolen base situation for the Rockies.
Most enticing, perhaps, was the prospect of him being able to use his success at Coors Field as a tool to help the Rockies instead of hurting them. In 24 career games at Coors, Estrada had a .348 batting average with four home runs and 18 RBI.
On paper, it looked to be a good signing by the Rockies’ standards. A career .251 hitter at the time, Estrada has always had a knack for contact, and his career 20.1% strikeout rate was below league average. Two things the lineup had struggled with immensely. In general, the Rockies hoped to replicate the overall success of the 2022 signing of Jose Iglesias, who slashed .292/.328/.380 that season.
The signing looked good once games started in spring training. In 14 games of Cactus League play, Estrada slashed .400/.421/.457 with seven RBI and three stolen bases, along with five strikeouts in 35 at-bats. Defensively, he was also looking slick and living up to his reputation as a quality defender. However, the first omen of what could become a rough year for Estrada and the Rockies came to pass, as he was hit by a pitch from Kumar Rocker that resulted in a right wrist fracture.
Starting the year on the injured list, Estrada didn’t make his season debut with the Rockies until the end of May. By then, the team was already deep in the basement and struggling with dubious records of futility. Bud Black had been fired as manager and the rest of the coaching staff, as well as much of the roster, had been turned over.
Former general manager Bill Schmidt pointed to the absence of Estrada as a major reason why the Rockies were in the gutter with just seven wins. He noted that the spring training injury to second baseman Thairo Estrada has done more damage to the Rockies’ record than “folks want to acknowledge.”
He also told Thomas Harding, “I’d like to think if [Ezequiel] Tovar was healthy, and [Thairo]Estrada, we’d be a different ballclub — you watched Spring Training, I didn’t think we’d be 7-and-whatever it is. I kept talking about growth.”
It’s understandable to think that losing Estrada was a major hit. However, one player doesn’t make all the difference, as the entire Rockies lineup was struggling even without the middling performances from whoever was playing at second base.
When Estrada was able to finally join the team, he did provide a bit of a boost to the batting order. In his first 29 games, he slashed .284/.312/.397 with two home runs, seven doubles, and 18 RBI. During that span, he also struck out 16 times while drawing just four walks and had just one stolen base in four attempts. The Rockies went 10-19 in that stretch, which was much better than the previous two months, but Estrada was a welcome piece on the roster.
Unfortunately, while sliding into third base against the Boston Red Sox on July 7, Estrada suffered another injury. He missed the next couple of weeks with a sprained left thumb and returned to the lineup on July 25. The Rockies didn’t end up trading Estrada, if they even had the opportunity to do so, and he remained the presumed staple at second base for the rest of the season.
He ended up playing just 10 more games before suffering a hamstring strain that knocked him out for the rest of the season. His production was not pretty in those 10 games as he hit just .158/.200/.289 with a home run and 10 strikeouts.
In all, Estrada played just 39 games and batted .253/.285/.370 with three home runs and 21 RBI with 26 strikeouts against six walks. Oddly enough, the highly anticipated Coors Field offense petered out to a .225/.264/.325 line compared to the .284/.308/.419 slash on the road. He also struggled greatly against lefties during his playing time with a .194 AVG.
Defensively, Estrada was fine but not spectacular. He logged the most innings at second base of any Rockie this season (336) while recording -2 Defensive Runs Saved and being valued at -1 Outs Above Average. The middle infield was so in flux because of injuries to Ezequiel Tovar and Estrada that they barely played together.
If Estrada had been healthy all season, the Rockies would have likely still suffered the season they did. Sure, it hurt to lose him, but this team was doomed with or without him. He showed hints of what he could do as a table setter, but it didn’t matter when there was no one there to consistently drive him in. Wrist and thumb injuries had an impact on his power ability, and he just didn’t have the opportunities to use his speed.
The Rockies aren’t likely to exercise his option for next season. However, he would still be arbitration eligible, meaning that the Rockies could try to negotiate a new contract, but it seems more likely he will then be non-tendered.
Harding has mentioned the Rockies could look for opportunities to add proven veteran experience at second base this offseason, and while Estrada could somehow find his way back to the Rockies next spring, the 2025 injuries make it a little difficult to assess just how much of a positive influence he could have.
The main issue that surfaced from the Estrada signing wasn’t so much from him, but the notion that Schmidt and the front office had that he was the highlight signing of the offseason. They seemed to view him as the marquee player who was crucial to being competitive in 2025, and that was never the case. He was a bandage to try an cover a gaping wound. He did his job as best he could, but injuries made him a non-factor this season.
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