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. 19, Scott Alexander (0.0 rWAR)
You could be forgiven if you forgot that Scott Alexander spent time on the Colorado Rockies’ 2025 roster.
After all, his tenure at 20th and Blake was short lived and fairly unremarkable.
As a refresher, back in February, the Rockies announced they had signed the veteran lefty to a one-year deal with a $2 million salary. Drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the sixth round of the 2010 draft, the 37 year old arrived at Salt River Fields as a 10-year veteran. During that time, he pitches for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants as well as the Oakland Athletics, his most recent team before dawning purple pinstripes.
The Rockies were in desperate need of left-handed relievers, and Alexander fit the bill.
While with the Athletics in 2024, he made 45 appearances out of the bullpen and pitched 38 2⁄3 total innings. He finished the season with 31 Ks and a 2.56 ERA. Moreover, he appeared to be having a bit of a renaissance given that his 7.2 SO/9 was his highest since 2018, though his 3.5 BB/9 was also alarming.
As Evan Lang wrote of the signing,
Alexander’s strength is utilizing a combination of a low-velocity sinker, a changeup, and a slider on the mound to induce ground balls with a 66.8% career ground ball rate and a ground ball rate of 60% or higher in each of his ten big league seasons. Over his ten-year career he holds an HR/9 of just 0.6 with only 20 total home runs allowed and a 3.20 ERA across 309 1⁄3 innings of work—almost exclusively in relief.
His showing with the Rockies did not go well.
Alexander appeared in 19 games for the Rockies, tossing 16.1 innings. During that time, he earned a 6.06 ERA, easily the highest of his career. He also allowed four home runs, tying his previous record with the Dodgers in 2018 when he provided relief in 66.0 innings. His time with the Rockies concluded with Alexander earning a 2.2 HR/9 and a 4.6 BB/9.
Coors Field also proved a poor fit. When at home, Alexander had a 7.20 ERA as compared to a 4.26 road ERA. However, his calling-card ground ball rate also collapsed in Denver (48.7%).
On May 27, Alexander was released by the Rockies after being DFA’d the previous week.
After that, he returned to the Giants and appeared in two games and earned a 6.75 ERA.
On February 20, Mac Wilcox argued that fans should be excited about the Rockies’ signing Scott Alexander. In the end, however, the results were not what either party had hoped for.
That is, as they say, baseball.
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