It's been a rocky road for Colorado Rockies

October 12, 2026

Key points from this story:

• Top 10 draft pick seven straight seasons
• No winning season since 2018
• Four consecutive 100-plus loss seasons
• Highest team ERA, 5.59 in 2026
• Most runs allowed, 944
• Kris Bryant earns 23% of payroll

Chicago Blackhawks have sullied the team's long-term reputation with putrid National Hockey League play over the same stretch. But no team has been as bad for so long as Major League Baseball's Colorado Rockies.

Professional sports leagues traditionally do what they can to make sure a team doesn't suffer in the doldrums for too long, thanks to draft rules which benefit the downtrodden. But the Rockies, who have had a top 10 pick in each of the last seven seasons, have somehow failed to pick a superstar or two who might form a nucleus around which to build at least a mediocre team.

Colorado hasn't had a winning record since 2018, when they finished second in the National League West with 91 wins. Since then, fans at Coors Field in Denver have seen nothing but a succession of depressing seasons -- 71 wins and fourth in the NL West in 2019; fourth in the COVID-19 year of 2020; fourth in 2021; last in 2022, with 94 losses; last in 2023 with 103 losses; last in 2024 with 101 losses; an embarrassing last in 2025 with 119 losses; and another last-place finish this year, with 104 losses. No MLB team has suffered through four consecutive 100-plus-loss seasons since the 'Can't Anybody Here Play this Game' New York Mets of 1962-65. The Mets at least had an excuse; they were an expansion team in 1962. Within seven years of existence, though, they won the National League East.

Rockies' hitting in 2026 was bad and their pitching was worse. The highest team earned-run average (5.59). The most runs allowed (944). The fewest shutouts (one). The highest batting average allowed (.288, 16 points higher than the runner-up Athletics).

The Rockies have a couple of decent players. Catcher Hunter Goodman belted 41 home runs. First baseman T.J. Runfield posted a .300 batting average to lead the team.

The bad personnel news? Kris Bryant, who was signed to a $182 million contract in 2022, has been a bust. He eats up 23 per cent of the Rockies' payroll, and injuries kept him out of the lineup altogether in 2026. A couple of other decent players who recently wore Rockies' uniforms, Nolan Arenado (traded in 2021) and Trevor Storey (left in free agency in 2022) could perhaps have kept the team from the disaster it has become.

But it's not totally gloom and doom in Denver. Several signs point to better days ahead. Three or four young players with bright futures will continue to improve. The Rockies' team batting average was fourth best in the NL this year. And how about this? They led the majors in runs scored in the eighth and ninth innings. Now, if they could just manufacture some of that magic through the first seven innings, pennants could be flying sooner rather than later over Coors Field.

Sports Comments

- Cathal Kelly of the Globe and Mail, on the Kawhi Leonard 'payment under the table' scandal: "Everyone knows Leonard did wrong. If not legally, then ethically. On Wednesday, Leonard received his punishment - a two-year, US$115 million extension with the Toronto Raptors."

- Kitty Kowalski on bluesky.com: "I'm old enough to remember when professional athlete Pete Rose destroyed his career over sports betting. And now they're using sports figures to promote gambling?"

- Super 70s Sports: "I'm watching playoff baseball with gambling lines on my screen and the announcers are talking about wagers. But Pete Rose is still a (pariah), right?"

- Headline at theonion.com: "New Orleans Pelicans Can't Help But Notice They're Not On NBA Schedule This Year"

- Cathal Kelly again: "Once five minutes from a World Series win, the Jays (spent the next) 11 months turning into a blue-and-white pumpkin."

- Mark Lazerus, on Bluesky: "White Sox fans: Please consider my formal application to the bandwagon. In Northwest Indiana, we generally like to think of ourselves as part of the extended South Side. And I grew up hating the Cubs, so that's gotta count for something, right?"

- Wilbur72, on Bluesky: "A coach finds a phone on the field and hands it to the head referee. Ref: 'How did you know it was my phone?' Coach: 'It says you missed 15 calls.'"

- Super 70s Sports: "Imagine going to remove Bob Gibson from a playoff game in the fifth inning. They'd have to roll you back to the dugout in a coffin."

- fark.com headline: "Tony Romo takes his 249th career sack from CBS."

- Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun: "Is the signing of Anthony Santander the worst free-agent deal in Jays history? B.J. Ryan used to hold that belt, but at least he had two decent save seasons before it all blew up for him."

- Another fark.com headline: "Is there tension in the Patriots locker room between coach and quarterback? Maye be."