The Rockies pitching staff as a whole has been under heavy scrutiny to start 2026 as fans look for any signs that the new pitching regime is actually finding ways for this franchise to succeed on the mound.
Coming into the season, the expectation was that the bullpen would be anchored by some combination of flamethrowers like Victor Vodnik, Seth Halvorsen, Juan Mejia, and RJ Petit. That hasn’t quite worked out, however, and the biggest story for bullpen to start the year has been the rise in long
relief usage by players like Antonio Senzatela, Zach Agnos, and Tanner Gordon.
While he’s not quite a flamethrower (his fastball doesn’t ever hit 100 MPH) and he’s not really a long reliever (he’s never gone more than two innings in a big league appearance), Jaden Hill has started to look like the most stable pillar of the Rockies bullpen.
Entering Thursday, May 28th, Hill has thrown 19.1 innings over 22 games. Through that, he has an ERA under three, a FIP to match, and is striking out almost ten per nine innings. His expected stats (xERA and xFIP) are slightly worse (in the low threes), but nothing else in his line currently indicates a hard regression is incoming.
Drafted as a starter in the second round of the 2021 draft, injuries eventually pushed Hill into a full-time relief role. Hill reflected on his conversion to the bullpen in a fantastic recent interview with Blake Street Banter:
Mentally it was tougher, physically, it was perfect. I felt better, my arm felt great, and I recovered better than I ever did as a starter. And I actually really loved it. I was a big routine-oriented guy – a lot of workouts, a lot of game planning, a lot of stuff that I didn’t realize was honestly weighing me down. Being able to take that stress off me mentally and just go in there and pitch – it took a load off me that lets me enjoy the game a little more.
Even as a pure reliever, Hill still generated some evaluations as a potentially useful big-league piece. Coming into 2025, Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen ranked Hill as the Rockies 21st best prospect with 60 grades on each of his fastball, changeup, and slider to go along with a 30-command grade. His report is best summed up with the line: “Though Hill has three plus pitches, he’s a little too wild to trust in high-leverage spots.”
That wildness has remained part of Hill’s game even as he’s established himself in the big leagues. This year, his 10.5% walk rate is only in the 29th percentile of major league pitchers and is the primary red flag in his otherwise stellar start to the season.
In his last eight appearances extending back to May 4th, however, Hill has not allowed a single walk. This is a tiny sample but is something to watch moving forward.
In spring training, Michael Rosen of Fangraphs noted that Hill’s velocity seemed to have increased from last year. While at the time of Rosen’s article Hill was occasionally touching 99, that has come down to 97.6 to start the regular season… which is still a tick above what he had thrown in either of the past two years.
Hill’s pitch mix has not changed drastically year to year. However, he has started emphasizing both his slider and his four-seam fastball more than previously. His slider in particular has become the weapon Hill relies on to put batters away and roughly half of all his strikeouts have come on it.
This is likely a response to the 45.1% whiff rate the pitch had last season, though that number has come down so far in 2026 to a more modest 38.5%.
Beyond just the net run prevention, the most telling sign for Hill’s emergence as a steady hand in this Rockies bullpen is his increase in stranding runners. In 2024 Hill had a 62.5% Left on Base Percentage, in 2025 that was up to 71.4%, and so far in 2026, it’s all the way up to 82.0%. Stranding runners is important for any pitcher, but is a core requirement for a high-leverage reliever. For Hill, who has only been working out of the bullpen for a couple years, it seems like he’s fully settling into his role.
For further proof of Hill’s embrace of being a big league reliever, take a moment to watch him guide Kelsey Wingert through the inner workings of the Rockies bullpen.
Overall, Hill blossoming into a fixture in the Rockies bullpen could not have come at a better time. For a unit that has been beset by injuries and is likely to lose multiple key contributors before the trade deadline, the emergence of Hill (who isn’t arbitration eligible until 2029) brings hope for a stable back-end presence for multiple years into the future.
On the Farm
Triple-A: Albuquerque Isotopes 5, El Paso Chihuahuas 8
Valente Bellozo was not able to hold off the Chihuahuas and ended up allowing six runs on eight hits in his five innings of work. That blemish aside, it was a pretty solid game across the board for the Isotopes. Jeff Criswell struck out four in two scoreless innings pitched, both Nic Kent and Kyle McCann had home runs, Zac Veen (No. 9 PuRP) had three hits, and Charlie Condon (No. 1 PuRP) hit a double.
In the end, that poor start could not be overcome and the Isotopes dropped to 29-24 on the season.
Double-A: Hartford Yard Goats 6, Altoona Curve 7
The Yard Goats were cruising through most of this game. The offense was positively rolling: Roc Riggio (No. 14 PuRP) continued his strong season with a pair of doubles, Dyan Jorge had a stolen base and a couple hits including a double, Benny Montgomery had a walk and a home run, and Jimmy Obertop had a double and a home run.
On the mound, Jake Brooks, Stu Flesland III, and Cade Denton combined for eight innings of four run ball. Then came the ninth where Austin Smith took the mound for Hartford and allowed a single followed by three walks before being replaced by Carlos Torres. Torres only allowed another walk and a double but that was enough to give Altoona the win.
High-A: Spokane Indians 7, Tri-City Dust Devils 3
For a game in which they scored seven runs, the Spokane lineup had little in the way of standout performances. No individual player scored more than one of those seven runs, none was on base more than twice, and none had more than a single extra-base hit. That being said, Kelvin Hidalgo did hit a home run, and Juan Castillo drove in three on a pair of singles.
On the mound it was a different story as Everett Catlett earned a quality start and the win by only allowing two runs over six innings pitched. Catlett was followed by three scoreless innings from Nathan Blaslick and Tyler Hampu sealing the Indians 20th win.
Low-A: Fresno Grizzlies 3, San Jose Giants 2
A pitching duel took place in Fresno on Wednesday as Angel Jimenez faced off against the Giants Jordan Gottesman. Where Gottesman was dominant (seven strikeouts on one hit through five), Jimenez kept the Grizzlies in it with six two-run innings before handing the ball over to the bullpen. Last night, the bullpen simply meant Seth Clausen who finished out the final three innings of the game without allowing any more baserunners. The Giants bullpen did not fare so well.
Having had only a single hit and a walk between them off of Gottesman, the Grizzlies lineup managed to draw three straight walks off of his replacement in the seventh. From there, a sacrifice fly from Carlos Renzullo followed by a single from Jeremy Ciriaco was enough to ensure Fresno’s league leading 27th win of the season.
Rockies finally get good pitching news | MLB.com
While the past couple of weeks have seemed to hit the Rockies pitching staff with more and more bad news, Thomas Harding highlights a couple of genuinely good recent developments. First is Tanner Gordon’s renewed pitch mix that has allowed him to see success since rejoining the major-league staff. Not to be forgotten, however, is a check in with Ryan Feltner who appears to be nearing a return from the injury he sustained at the start of the season.
Rox catcher Sullivan joins Ohtani as only pitchers(!) to homer in 2026 | MLB.com
For everyone who, understandably, did not stay up to watch the end of Tuesday’s blowout, Courtney Hollmon details what was an eventful final inning. What had been one of the lowest moments for the team so far this year turned into an absurdly amusing battle between position players pitching nearly culminating in a grand slam. The game as a whole may have been depressing but at least we had that one moment of fun.
The 4 best pitches in Colorado Rockies and Coors Field history | Mile High Sports
Drew Creasman takes a novel approach to the ageless question of how to tackle pitching so far above sea level. Instead of focusing so much on process changes, new training regimes, different sequencing, or any other mundane solutions, Creasman attempts to play the role of Dr. Frankenstein by combining the best pitches thrown by Rockies pitchers together to create one ace of aces.
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