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. 33, Anthony Molina (-0.3 rWAR)
Tell me if you’ve heard this before: A Rockies second-year reliever fell back to earth in 2025.
It’s a story we’ve already written about numerous times in this year’s iteration of Ranking the Rockies.
Anthony Molina was no different.
Molina was a Rule 5 pick in 2023, and therefore had to spend the entire 2024 season on the MLB roster. The Venezuelan right-hander made his debut last March – after just turning 22 – against the Arizona Diamondbacks, and it did not go well. He pitched just ⅓ of an inning and allowed six runs on six hits with one walk on 31 pitches. In his second outing against the Chicago Cubs, Molina allowed five runs on four hits with two homers, three walks and a strikeout over three innings. That said, he did settle down for the next month after that, but overall had a tough rookie season.
Fast forward to 2025, and things didn’t go much better. Just like the Katy Perry song, you never quite knew which version of Anthony Molina you were going to get on any given night.
Molina started his season in Albuquerque, but was recalled on May 11. He made one appearance – a scoreless inning with a strikeout – against the Texas Rangers before being sent back to Albuquerque for a month.
Upon his return in June, Molina pitched two scoreless innings against the Atlanta Braves. He was roughed up against the Washington Nationals, but performed well upon his return to Coors Field for two games at the end of the month. Molina was then optioned again until August.
Unfortunately, his return to MLB was a rough one. He was tagged for seven runs on nine hits with five home runs, one walk and two strikeouts against the Toronto Blue Jays on August 5 in a 10-4 loss. But after that one, he didn’t allow more than three earned runs in a start to finish out the 2025 season.
In an offseason that will likely see a lot of changes, Molina will likely be on a long list of players who need serious evaluation and may not be on the 2026 roster.
