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. 15, Seth Halvorsen (0.2 rWAR)
Right-handed reliever Seth Halvorsen dazzled Rockies fans last year with effortless high heat in his first major league innings. The seventh-round pick from the University of Tennessee’s meteoric rise through the Rockies’ farm system culminated in a stellar debut.
In 12 appearances he posted a 1.46 ERA over 12 1/3 innings with 13 strikeouts and just two walks. He became a go-to option for late innings work and earned his first two career saves. His four-seam fastball had an average velocity of 100 MPH—in the top percentile of all MLB pitchers—and he utilized his above-average extension and secondary pitches to great effect.
Despite a difficult spring training—where he gave up seven earned runs on nine hits and five walks over 9 1/3 innings—Halvorsen had no doubt earned a spot in the Rockies’ bullpen for 2025.
Halvorsen continued to throw heat with ease, earning the nickname “Gas” from the Rockies’ broadcast crew. His four-seam fastball averaged 100 MPH—once again in the top percentile of all big league pitchers.
Where Halvorsen struggled was with his complementary pitches and command. He allowed 21 walks to 36 strikeouts in 42 appearances and 39.2 innings of work. His BB/9 jumped from 1.5 last season all the way to 4.8 while his SO/9 decreased from 9.5 to 8.2 compared to his rookie campaign.
He also sometimes struggled to locate his split finger and his slider, leading to punishment when left hanging in the strike zone. Opposing batters hit three home runs off his slider and held a .290 batting average, and hit four home runs against the split finger. However, opposing batters got to the split finger slightly less often with a .232 batting average.
Coming out of the Rockies bullpen, Halvorsen worked exclusively in the last three innings.
Halvorsen finished the season with a 4.99 ERA across 42 appearances. However, his ERA was bloated by just four appearances in which he yielded multiple runs. The worst of those outings came on July 9th against the Boston Red Sox as the Rockies were limping towards the All-Star break. In the eighth inning Halvorsen failed to record an out against five batters, giving up five earned runs on four hits—two of which were home runs—and giving up a walk.
However, the majority of his appearances came in the ninth inning, which is also where he did his best work.
In 24 appearances and 22 1/3 innings of ninth inning work, Halvorsen posted a 2.42 ERA and gave up just five extra-base hits whole holding opposing hitters to a .192 batting average and a .607 OPS. He tallied a team-leading 11 saves in 14 opportunities.
Seth Halvorsen’s season was unfortunately cut short due to injury. Facing his first batter in a save situation against the Pittsburgh pirates on August 2, Halvorsen hung his right arm in immediate discomfort after his fifth pitch—a 99 MPH fastball high above the strike zone. Thankfully his UCL—which had previously been surgically repaired in college—was intact, but he was diagnosed with a right flexor strain and missed the rest of the season.
The 26-year-old Halvorsen hopes to be ready for spring training in 2026, where he will compete for the closing role in manager Warren Schaeffer’s bullpen.
“His demeanor is exceptional for that role in my ‘pen,” Schaeffer said. “He’s the same guy every day, wants the ball, throws 103, the physical aspect with a nasty split and a good slider. He’s got big league closer stuff, he’s got big league closer demeanor. He doesn’t get shaken, he has a slow heartbeat. He learns from his mistakes. I can go on and on about Seth.”
Halvorsen has shown his closer potential in both of his big league seasons so far. Hopefully a healthy Halvorsen in 2026 will be able to fully seize the role and never look back.
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