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. 25, Tanner Gordon (-0.1 rWAR)
Back in January, when Tanner Gordon sat alongside starters like Germán Márquez, Austin Gomber and Ryan Feltner at Rockiesfest, he had the best way of explaining his rookie status after making eight starts in 2024.
“I’ve only had a cup of coffee in the big leagues,” Gordon said.
He had another cup and at least a breakfast sandwich in 2025 as he made 15 starts in his second season. Despite a high 6.33 ERA, Gordon led the Rockies in an area where the rotation has struggled mightily: wins. Gordon recorded a team-best six wins, despite being fifth on the team with 15 starts. There were a few starts where Gordon pitched so well, he seemed like the best arm in the rotation.
When Purple Row’s Samantha Bradfield caught up with Gordon after the season, it was clear everything had changed.
“I think mentally I’ve grown, in a sense,” Gordon said. “Being up here a little bit last year helped me get my feet wet and comfortable in the environment, but I think mentally I’ve grown and that’s the biggest thing that I’ve changed this year from last year.”
It was quite an improvement from 2024 when Gordon went 0-6 in eight starts with an 8.65 ERA in 34 1/3 innings. Gordon, a 28-year-old RHP who came to Colorado in 2023 with Victor Vodnik from Atlanta in a trade for Pierce Johnson, was called up from Triple-A Albuquerque on July 7. He made his MLB debut that day, giving up five runs (two homers) in 6 1/3 innings in a 10-1 loss to the Royals. He was sent back to the Istopes six days later, only to be called back up and recalled to Albuquerque three more times.
It was a different story in 2025, but it started out similar to the year before. Gordon again started the season in Triple-A before being called up on May 8. He was hit hard once again, giving up seven runs, only four of which were earned, on nine hits in 6 1/3 innings in an 11-1 loss at the hands of the Tigers. Gordon was sent back down to the Isotopes the next day.
Gordon rejoined the Rockies on May 23 and delivered one of the best highlights of the year — striking out five Yankees and holding New York to two runs on five hits in six innings in a 3-2 Colorado victory.
After three starts, Gordon was 1-2 with a 4.24 ERA in 17 innings, and it looked like Gordon was possibly earning a spot in the rotation. Then came a left oblique strain that landed the former Indiana Hoosier on the IL until early July. After a few Triple-A rehab starts, Gordon returned to Colorado on July 23rd and stayed there for the rest of the season.
He posted a quality start, one of his six in 2025, in his first game back against St. Louis. He threw six scoreless innings with three strikeouts, despite giving up three walks and four hits in a 6-0 win — one of three shutouts the Rockies had last season.
One of those quality start wins came against the World Series champion Dodgers on Aug. 20 when he only gave up a solo home run (a total of four hits) with three strikeouts in six innings in an 8-3 win at Coors Field.
With wins already against the playoff-bound Yankees and Dodgers, Gordon shut down another postseason team in the Chicago Cubs on Aug. 31 at Coors Field in front of 40,264 fans, many of whom were wearing blue. Gordon gave up two runs and struck out a career-high nine batters in six innings in a 6-5 Rockies victory.
As great as his gems were, Gordon had equally bad flops. On Aug. 4, he surrendered seven runs on 11 hits, making it only 2 2/3 innings in a 15-1 loss. In his next start, he was hammered for 10 runs on 12 hits in 4 2/3 innings against the Diamondbacks.
Gordon did bounce back pretty strongly from those blowouts. He went 4-3 (and the Rockies went 5-3) in his final eight starts with a 4.71 ERA in 42 innings with 40 strikeouts and only nine walks.
In a 119-loss season where pitching was a challenge to say the least, Gordon provided some of the best highlights of the season and showed a lot of upside for the future.
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