November 3, 2026
November 3, 2026
Colorado Rockies 2026 Season: Fifteen Wins Better, Still Searching
The Rockies’ 2026 season was a test of whether a franchise could climb out of history’s basement without a ladder. One year after a 43-119 collapse, Colorado rebuilt its front office, brought back its manager and reached for veteran stability. The result was 58-104, a fifth-place finish in the National League West and a 15-win improvement. Progress was real. So was the pain.
The winter brought the most sweeping leadership change in franchise history. General manager Bill Schmidt resigned, and Colorado turned to outsiders for the first time in years. Paul DePodesta arrived as president of baseball operations, with Josh Byrnes installed as general manager. Brett Pill took over as hitting coach, and Alon Leichman inherited the pitching staff.
DePodesta attacked the rotation first. Colorado signed Tomoyuki Sugano, José Quintana and Michael Lorenzen, three veterans meant to soak up innings a battered staff could not handle in 2025. Willi Castro added versatility, while trades brought in outfielder Jake McCarthy and infielder Edouard Julien. The quietest move proved the best one. First baseman TJ Rumfield came over from the Yankees in a January deal for reliever Angel Chivilli.
Warren Schaeffer had earned his chance the hard way. He took over as interim manager in May 2025 and steadied a team in free fall. On November 24, 2025, the Rockies removed the interim tag. Ownership added fresh capital in April, when Penner Sports Group bought a 40 percent minority stake in the club. For the first time in years, the organization looked like it had a plan.
The opening weekend in Miami revealed exactly how thin the margins would be. Colorado lost its first three games by a single run each. On March 29, the Rockies carried a 3-2 lead into the ninth, only to watch Owen Caissie deliver a two-run homer for a 4-3 Marlins win.
Still, the club refused to fold. It clawed through March and April at 14-18, a pace that dwarfed the previous year’s misery. The highlight came on April 26, when Colorado swept a doubleheader at Citi Field against the Mets, 3-1 and 3-0. Pitching, of all things, carried the day in New York. Three days earlier, though, a warning had flashed. San Diego erased an 8-5 ninth-inning deficit at Coors Field, capped by a Gavin Sheets three-run homer.
May stripped away the optimism in four relentless weeks. The Rockies went 8-20, and the bullpen leaked late leads again and again. The rotation buckled as veteran starters battled injuries. Quintana went down with a left elbow sprain that cost him roughly four months.
The worst blow landed on the future. Chase Dollander, who had posted a 3.89 ERA with 47 strikeouts in 44 innings, needed internal brace surgery on his right elbow in June. Top prospect Ethan Holliday suffered a stress fracture in his left foot that required surgery and ended his season. Shortstop Ezequiel Tovar, meanwhile, unraveled at the plate, hitting .200 into the All-Star break.
Hunter Goodman turned a lost summer into a personal landmark. The catcher reached the All-Star break with 27 home runs and earned his second straight trip to the Midsummer Classic. He became the first Rockies player since 2019 to make consecutive All-Star teams.
His power came in bursts that bordered on absurd. On June 27, Goodman launched three home runs in an 8-5 win over Minnesota. On July 19 he did it again against Cincinnati, becoming the first player in franchise history with two three-homer games in one season. The Reds won that day, but Goodman’s place in club lore was secure.
Colorado reportedly turned away trade inquiries at the deadline, and the decision looked wise by September. On September 26 at Rate Field, Goodman hit his 40th and 41st home runs in a 9-6 win over the White Sox. His 25 road homers broke Johnny Bench’s record of 24 for a primary National League catcher. MLB.com noted that no NL catcher had hit more since Javy López’s 43 in 2003.
Goodman finished at .245 with 41 homers, 88 RBI and an .839 OPS. No Rockie had matched that home run total since Nolan Arenado in 2019.
Rumfield seized the first base job from opening day and never let go. He homered off Eury Pérez in his second career game, then caught fire in late spring. MLB named him the National League Rookie of the Month for May. He was hitting .294 with 12 homers by the end of June.
Sugano became the steadying presence the front office paid for. He took the ball 29 times and finished 12-12 with 154 1/3 innings. His 5.37 ERA reflected the Coors Field toll, but no one else gave the staff that kind of volume.
Antonio Senzatela authored the season’s best comeback story. After years of arm trouble, he reinvented himself as a multi-inning reliever. He reached the break at 9-2 with a 3.31 ERA. The offense delivered its own signature moment on June 14 in Las Vegas. Colorado hammered the Athletics 23-9, setting a franchise record for runs in a game.
The deadline made the front office’s priorities unmistakable. On July 20, Colorado sent reliever Seth Halvorsen to the Dodgers for pitcher Nick Frasso and outfielder Landyn Vidourek. On August 3, three more veterans departed. Center fielder Brenton Doyle went to the White Sox, Senzatela went to Milwaukee and Victor Vodnik went to Miami. The Marlins deal returned infielder Connor Norby and pitcher Aiden May.
Jordan Romano briefly gave the bullpen a backbone. Recalled on July 4, he converted all five save chances in July with a 1.17 ERA. Then came August 4 against Tampa Bay. Romano took a 7-5 lead into the ninth, and Jonathan Aranda lined a two-run single to tie it. The Rays won in extra innings and finished a sweep. That night captured the entire summer in miniature.
The finish line arrived in stages, each one heavier than the last. The Rockies clinched an eighth consecutive losing season on August 27. On September 6, they became the first team eliminated from postseason contention for a second straight year.
August 31 delivered the cruelest image of all. Down 2-1 to Baltimore in the ninth, McCarthy drove a ball toward the right-field wall. Colton Cowser reached over the fence and took the walk-off homer away. The Denver Gazette later counted a 17-25 record in one-run games.
The 100th loss came on September 22 against Arizona. Colorado became the first team since the 1962-65 Mets to lose 100 games in four straight seasons. The year closed on September 27 with a 4-2 loss in Chicago. The Rockies finished 42 games behind the division winner.
The Rockies’ 2026 season will be remembered as the year the rebuild finally acquired a shape. Fifteen more wins did not erase the stigma of another 100-loss campaign. Five more wins would have. That gap haunted a clubhouse that lost so many games by inches.
Yet the foundation looked sturdier than at any point in years. Goodman established himself as one of the sport’s premier power-hitting catchers, and the club treated him as a cornerstone. Rumfield validated the new front office’s scouting eye. The returns from the deadline added depth to a farm system already waiting on Holliday and Dollander.
The work continued immediately. Colorado dismissed Leichman in October and hired Ethan Katz as pitching coach. The Baseball-Reference season page preserves a record that still reads harshly. For a fanbase that endured 119 losses one year earlier, though, the Rockies’ 2026 season offered something long missing. It offered a direction worth believing in.
7th February, 2017
17th June, 2026
5th March, 2016
29th March, 2016
17th April, 2016
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