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. 50, Jacob Stallings (-0.9 rWAR)
One of the highlights of the 2024 campaign was the career year
veteran backstop Jacob Stallings had with the Rockies. Playing himself into a regular role, Stallings slashed .263/.357/.453 with nine home runs in 82 games. Thanks to some drills to improve his vision, Stallings improved in all aspects of his game offensively while being reliable enough behind the plate. He was applauded for his work with the young staff, particularly Ryan Feltner. After a short stint in free agency, the Rockies reunited with Stallings for the 2025 season in the form of a $2 million contract with a $500,000 buyout on a $2 million mutual option for 2026.
The expectation entering the season was that Stallings would serve as the Rockies’ primary catcher, mentoring Hunter Goodman as he adapted to catching full-time and/or Drew Romo. However, that plan was quickly turned on its head on Opening Day.
A strong spring training by Goodman at the plate and quick growth behind the dish impressed then-manager Bud Black enough to give the young catcher the starting position. The desire to get Goodman’s bat in the lineup and allow him a chance to learn on the job relegated Stallings to the backup position once again.
Goodman’s electric play didn’t leave much room for Stallings to get into the Rockies’ lineup in 2025. He appeared in just 29 games with the Rockies, starting 27 of them behind the plate. His offensive production was nowhere close to his 2024 performance, as he slashed .143/.217/.179 in just 93 plate appearances, going 12-for-84 with three doubles.
The most glaring change was his plate discipline. After posting a 23.1% strikeout rate last season, Stallings struck out a whopping 33.3% of the time, punching out 40 times. He also walked just four times for a 5.4% walk rate, a stark contrast to the 9.6% clip last season.
When he was making contact, it just wasn’t with as much authority as he had last season, and he saw his fortune on balls in play drop from a .324 BABIP to a .223 clip.
Stallings ended up being more valuable as a pitcher, posting 0.0 rWAR, when he allowed just one run on two hits over two innings of relief in the 21-0 loss to the San Diego Padres. In fact, he even managed a strikeout.
While there wasn’t much of a change behind the plate, the Rockies continued to rely heavily on the offensive output of Goodman more than glovework, leaving Stallings as the odd man out when they began to give Braxton Fulford more of a look on the big league roster.
Stallings was released on June 6 and eventually landed with the Baltimore Orioles on a minor league deal. He didn’t last long with the Orioles, appearing in just 14 games in July, where he slashed .114/.139/.143 in 36 plate appearances. He was outrighted by the Orioles on July 31 and elected free agency, where he remained for the rest of the season.
Electing to bring Stallings back wasn’t an awful move for the Rockies, as they truly did value what he brought to the team last season. While it stood to reason that he wouldn’t fully be able to replicate his 2024 success, the struggles at the plate and the dire need for change, as well as the breakout performance of Goodman, left the Rockies with no choice but to cut Stallings loose.
Whatever the future holds for Stallings’s career is unclear, but as for the Rockies, his struggles opened the door for the club to come closer to solving the mystery of the catching position with a homegrown player.
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