The 2026 Colorado Rockies have had a better year than the 2025 Colorado Rockies.
That is not exactly a difficult bar to clear after 43-119, but the improvement has been real and the floor of the roster is considerably higher.
There are still bad performances, of course, but Colorado simply does not have as many roster spots producing the kind of extreme negative value that overwhelmed the 2025 team. Some of that has come from young players developing and holdovers taking steps forward, but a large
part of the improvement has also come from subtraction.
The Rockies changed a significant portion of the roster over the course of 2025 and into 2026.
Twenty-five players who received meaningful playing time in 2025 — at least 50 plate appearances for a position player or 10 innings for a pitcher — are no longer part of the Rockies’ major-league picture in 2026.
So what has happened to them?
For the most part, 2026 has not gone nearly as well for those players as it has for the Rockies.
Who left the 2025 roster
Even that total is softened by two useful players the Rockies traded away.
Ryan McMahon produced 1.2 rWAR before being traded to the Yankees, while Jake Bird contributed another 0.5 rWAR before he was also dealt to New York.
Remove those two useful major leaguers and the other 23 departing players combined for -12.5 rWAR.
So where are those players a year later?
Where are they now?
That is a pretty revealing snapshot of the 2025 roster one year later.
A few have found better results
Ryan Rolison is the clearest success story.
Rolison posted a 7.02 ERA over 42.1 innings for Colorado in 2025. One year later, he has become a very good reliever for the Cubs, carrying a 3.02 ERA and 1.26 WHIP across 62.2 innings, with 54 strikeouts, nine wins and three saves.
Tyler Kinley has also found more success after leaving. His Rockies portion of 2025 ended with a 5.66 ERA, but he immediately went on a strong run with Atlanta and has remained a useful major-league reliever in 2026. Between Atlanta and Detroit, Kinley has worked 56.2 innings over 63 appearances with a 3.49 ERA, 1.15 WHIP and 48 strikeouts.
Germán Márquez has improved somewhat from his final season in Colorado, although his 2026 has not gone entirely smoothly. After posting a 6.70 ERA over 126.1 innings for the Rockies in 2025, he recorded a 5.26 ERA in 53 innings with San Diego. The Padres designated him for assignment in August and released him three days later, after which Márquez signed a minor-league deal with Minnesota and is finishing the year with Triple-A St. Paul.
Ryan McMahon remains an everyday player with the Yankees, although his offensive production has slipped. Through 122 games, McMahon is hitting .210/.276/.352 with 11 home runs and 40 RBI, good for a .628 OPS and 75 OPS+. He is still a major-league regular, just not a particularly productive one offensively.
Jake Bird has also remained in the majors, though his results have been uneven. He posted a 5.93 ERA over 30.1 innings with the Yankees before joining Washington, where he has allowed three earned runs over 8.1 innings for a 3.24 ERA. Overall, Bird has a 5.35 ERA with 41 strikeouts in 38.2 innings between the two clubs.
Anthony Molina has also found another major-league opportunity with San Francisco. He has worked 34 innings across nine appearances and five starts, going 3-2 with a 3.97 ERA, 1.06 WHIP and 31 strikeouts.
Still, this is the exception rather than the rule. Only six of the 25 have spent most of 2026 in the majors.
MLB jobs have become Triple-A jobs
The players in the largest group still have plenty of professional baseball left in them. What has changed is their role.
Michael Toglia has again shown that Triple-A pitching is not much of a problem. After signing a minor-league deal with Cincinnati, he hit .273/.373/.547 with 22 home runs for Louisville and earned a return to the majors in August. His opportunity was cut short less than two weeks later when he dislocated his right shoulder on a diving catch against Arizona on August 21. He was placed on the injured list two days later, underwent season-ending surgery to repair a torn labrum, and was transferred to the 60-day injured list in September.
Yanquiel Fernández also remains interesting, especially considering his age. He has hit 27 home runs in Triple-A for the Yankees organization. That is a productive developmental season, but it comes after Fernández appeared in 52 games for the Rockies in 2025 and has not returned to the majors in 2026.
Austin Gomber’s 2025 season was shortened by a shoulder injury, but after returning in June he still made 12 starts for Colorado before being released in August. In 2026, he has bounced through the Triple-A rotations of Texas, Atlanta and Detroit and has not made it back to the majors.
Kyle Farmer has gone from 300 plate appearances with Colorado to a much more marginal role with Atlanta. His season has included a forearm injury, a July release and re-signing on a minor-league deal, and a September return to the majors after spending time with Triple-A Gwinnett.
Orlando Arcia has hit well in Triple-A but has received only a brief look with Minnesota.
Bradley Blalock was designated for assignment by Colorado in January and then traded to Miami for right-hander Jake Brooks. He has spent most of 2026 at Triple-A Jacksonville while earning a pair of September recalls with the Marlins.
Carson Palmquist opened 2026 in the Rockies organization but did not return to the majors with Colorado. He was designated for assignment in May and traded to Washington for cash, where he has received two major-league looks and is finishing the season with Triple-A Rochester.
Ángel Chivilli has made a stronger case with the Yankees. Acquired from Colorado in the January trade that sent TJ Rumfield to the Rockies, Chivilli has posted a 3.78 ERA over 16.2 major-league innings. That number was inflated by one six-run outing just before he was optioned in August; before that appearance, he had allowed only two earned runs in 15.2 innings. Still, he has spent most of the season with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Luis Peralta and Scott Alexander have also spent 2026 as upper-level organizational depth.
There is still talent in this group.
What has disappeared is the regular major-league playing time.
Others are playing elsewhere
Several former Rockies are continuing their careers outside affiliated baseball.
Thairo Estrada has gone to the Mexican League and has hit well there, while Nick Martini has split his season between independent ball and Mexico. Warming Bernabel, who received 146 plate appearances for Colorado at age 23 in 2025, has appeared only briefly outside affiliated baseball this season.
Blaine Crim has taken a more circuitous route. He opened 2026 in the Rockies’ minor-league system, was designated for assignment in May and claimed off waivers by Texas. The Rangers released him about a month later, and Crim is now continuing his season in Korea with the NC Dinos, where he is hitting .255 with 10 home runs and 43 RBI.
He is not the only former Rockie to end up in the KBO.
Sam Hilliard has easily had the biggest year of anyone in this group. Playing for the KT Wiz, Hilliard is hitting .305/.374/.586 with 39 home runs, 122 RBI and a .960 OPS through 130 games.
Hilliard is having an excellent year, and Estrada has been productive in Mexico, too. But none of the five has occupied an MLB roster spot after receiving meaningful playing time for Colorado a year earlier.
And for a few, there has been no 2026 season
Jacob Stallings and Sean Bouchard have not played in 2026.
Nick Anderson went to spring training with Oakland before retiring in May.
Dugan Darnell signed with Detroit but spent the spring injured and was released without appearing in a regular-season game.
The overall picture is pretty simple.
Of the 25 players who received meaningful time for the 2025 Rockies and are out of Colorado’s major-league picture this year, only six are spending 2026 primarily in the majors. Ten are mostly in the high minors or have received only brief MLB opportunities, five are continuing their careers elsewhere and four have not recorded regular-season game action.
But most have not left Colorado and become more established major-league players.
Raising the floor
That helps explain one of the biggest differences between the 2025 and 2026 Rockies.
The floor is much higher.
Not every holdover has improved, and not every replacement has worked. But there simply is not another collection of players producing anything close to the -12.5 rWAR left behind by those 23 departures.
There is less extreme negative value on the roster, and that is a big part of why the 2026 Rockies are substantially better than the team that came before them.
It also means the next step gets harder.
There are still roster spots that could change this winter, and there should be plenty more movement. But this time the decisions will be more targeted. There is not another giant pile of obvious negative value waiting to be cut away.
The Rockies have benefited from aggressive turnover once.
There is no reason to stop now.
So, who stays? Who goes? And which current Rockies deserve another year before Colorado starts looking for an upgrade?
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