Rockies face $126.55MM in future commitments and a roster crossroads this offseason

The Colorado Rockies are heading into an offseason carrying $126.55MM in future commitments, a 57-99 record, and a front office whose philosophy remains, per MLB Trade Rumors' Darragh McDonald, genuinely difficult to read.

What happened

McDonald's offseason outlook for Colorado lays out the financial and roster architecture the club will navigate this winter. The Rockies are not expected to compete in 2027, which makes the central question of the offseason a straightforward one to ask and a complicated one to answer: how aggressively will the front office shop players from the major league roster?

The guaranteed money on the books runs through 2030, anchored by four contracts. Kris Bryant carries $52MM through 2028. Ezequiel Tovar is locked in at $51.5MM through 2030, a figure that includes the buyout of a 2031 club option. Mickey Moniak is owed $16.25MM through 2028, and Willi Castro — who is not expected to play again this season after foot and knee injuries, per earlier reporting — is guaranteed $6.8MM through 2027. The club's 2027 guarantees alone stand at $48.05MM.

There are no option decisions to make this winter. The arbitration-eligible group includes Jimmy Herget (5.069 service time), Jake McCarthy (4.074), Ryan Feltner (4.071), Brennan Bernardino (3.153), and Hunter Goodman (3.010). McDonald identifies Herget and Feltner as non-tender candidates.

The free agent class departing Colorado includes Kyle Freeland, José Quintana, Tomoyuki Sugano, Jordan Romano, and — assuming their contracts are not added back to the roster, per McDonald's piece — Tyler Freeman and Keegan Thompson.

Why it matters

Paul DePodesta joined the organization as president of baseball operations roughly a year ago, and McDonald's piece treats that anniversary as a moment for honest accounting. The hope among many fans, as McDonald describes it, was that DePodesta would signal a new way of doing business — one less loyal to its own players past the point of logic.

The prior front office's reluctance to move players at peak value was well-documented in the piece. McDonald points specifically to the 2021 trade deadline, when Trevor Story and Jon Gray were not dealt despite being impending free agents on a club out of contention. Extensions for C.J. Cron and Daniel Bard, offered after both had found success in Colorado, also went sideways.

The evidence on DePodesta is, per McDonald, conflicting. On one side of the ledger: the trades of Angel Chivilli, Seth Halvorsen, Victor Vodnik, and Brenton Doyle — all players with years of control remaining. Three of those four are relievers; Doyle is a defense-first outfielder. Those moves, McDonald writes, felt like ones that would not have happened under the previous regime.

On the other side: Goodman, McCarthy, and Moniak were all subjects of trade rumors this past season and all remained through the deadline. Moniak was extended. McDonald describes the McCarthy and Moniak decisions as particularly puzzling, and characterizes the handling of those two as feeling more like classic Rockies decisions.

The distinction McDonald draws is meaningful. Moving complementary pieces — relievers, a glove-first outfielder — is a different kind of organizational commitment than moving everyday players. The offseason will offer a clearer test of which version of the DePodesta front office is actually running the show.

Where the club stands

The Rockies are 57-99 (.365) on the season, sitting fifth in the NL West, 39 games back in the division. They have been eliminated from both the division race and the Wild Card race. Their Wild Card ranking sits 12th, 29.0 relative to the cut line. The club enters Tuesday on a one-game losing streak.

With the postseason long settled, Colorado is playing out the schedule at Coors Field. Tuesday brings the Arizona Diamondbacks, with Kyle Freeland — one of the departing free agents named in McDonald's piece — taking the mound against Michael Soroka. Wednesday's probable is Mason Adams against Merrill Kelly, and Thursday's starter for Colorado is listed as TBD against Eduardo Rodriguez.

Freeland's Tuesday start carries a quiet kind of context: he is pitching for a club that will not bring him back under contract, in a ballpark he has called home for years, against a division opponent. The remaining schedule offers little in the way of stakes, but it does offer a window into which players are being showcased and which are being rested.

What we don't know yet

The biggest open question is the one McDonald poses directly: how aggressive will DePodesta be this winter with the players who stayed? Goodman, McCarthy, and Moniak all have trade value and all have years of control. Whether the front office treats this offseason differently than the deadline — and differently than prior regimes treated similar situations — is unresolved.

Castro's $6.8MM guarantee through 2027 sits alongside his current absence due to foot and knee injuries. The nature and timeline of his recovery have not been detailed in the reporting, and what that means for his availability or his trade value heading into the offseason is not yet clear.

Goodman, meanwhile, exited a game against the Padres with right thumb soreness and was listed as day-to-day, with a reevaluation that was scheduled for Tuesday. Whether that situation has any bearing on his offseason standing is not addressed in the current reporting.

Quintana, listed as a free agent in McDonald's piece, was reported earlier this week to be returning to the Rockies rotation after recovering from a career-threatening injury. Whether that return affects his free agent standing or the club's interest in retaining him is not addressed in the current reporting.

The non-tender question around Herget and Feltner is flagged but not resolved. Both are arbitration-eligible, and McDonald identifies them as candidates to be non-tendered — but that remains a projection, not an announcement.

What to watch

The DePodesta test is the story of this offseason. The trades of controllable relievers and a defensive outfielder established a baseline. The decisions on Goodman, McCarthy, and Moniak — everyday players with real market value — will tell a more complete story about whether the organizational culture has genuinely shifted.

The arbitration non-tender window will arrive in the winter, and the Herget and Feltner decisions will be among the first concrete signals. The free agent departures, particularly Freeland and Quintana, will clarify how much payroll flexibility the club is actually working with relative to that $48.05MM in 2027 guarantees.

And somewhere in the background, the $52MM still owed to Bryant through 2028 continues to be the largest single variable in any conversation about what Colorado can or cannot do. McDonald's piece does not resolve that question — it simply, and accurately, leaves it on the table where it has been sitting for some time now.