It’s a new day. Play ball!

The days are getting longer, and today, Reader, we have Colorado Rockies baseball.

For the first time in a while, one may open the MLB app knowing that, somewhere, a baseball game is waiting for them.

In a long-standing tradition, the Rockies will welcome their follow denizens of Salt River Fields, the Arizona Diamondbacks at 1:10. (And, yes, the game will be free and on Rockies.TV.)

If the Rockies have a theme this year, it’s “Don’t look back.”

Here’s manager Warren Schaeffer all but using those words when meeting with media on February 12.

Schaeffer is, generally speaking, a good-natured person, but his tone here is clear: We’re not going back there.

After all, the Rockies have made many deliberate — and very public — changes to break with an old identity that came to mean failure and ridicule.

Consider all the changes that have taken place since the end of the season.

Walker Monfort has largely become the face of ownership as Dick Monfort recedes into the background and turns his attention to seeking a salary cap. (Good luck with that, but it’s the subject for another day.)

Much of the career-Rockies front office staff has been replaced with new faces and new ideas: President of baseball operations Paul DePodesta, general manager Josh Byrnes, three assistant general managers, and a host of coaching changes. (And those are only the changes we know of. Who knows what’s happened in the analytics department?)

Then there are the on-field moves. Gone are some familiar faces (e.g., Michael Toglia, Angel Chivilli, Germán Márquez, and Yanquiel Fernández) with a host of new players reporting to Rockies training camp. (Look, I write about the team, and I can’t yet identify all the new players.)

What does it mean?

On one hand, these are obviously the early moves in a long-overdue rebuild. Paul DePodesta has brought in some experienced veterans (e.g., Willi Castro, Eduard Julien, Tomoyuki Sugano, Michael Lorenzen, Jose Quintana, Brenan Bernardino) that are a marked improvement over the cheaper-but-less-skilled veterans of past seasons (e.g., Kyle Farmer and Orlando Arcia).

The veterans are there both to improve the level of play on the field and to mentor young players — and they have been vocal in saying they are looking forward to assuming that role.

I get it: This new squad looks better but not particularly good. Still, that’s a great place to start.

Moreover, the consistent “it’s-a-new-day” messaging serves a couple of purposes.

First, it’s a mantra to players: The past is in the past, and we’re not going back.

Part of that is in the actual design of spring training itself, which is very different in 2026.

But the shift is also philosophical. It’s difficult to express how awful things were in the Rockies historically bad 2025 clubhouse, but they were bad. It’s a testament to Schaeffer’s leadership skills — and probably a big part of why he got the job — that he managed to keep the vibe even modestly positive. These were young players stunned to find themselves part of an historically bad baseball team.

It was bad.

Every time Schaeffer says, “We’re not looking back,” it’s a reminder to players that they aren’t that team anymore.

But it’s also a signal to the outside world.

It’s a message to fans that it’s a new day, and they should expect better things (and buy tickets to games and Rockies.TV subscriptions). Walker Montfort has begun the long process of getting fans to buy in again, and he must assure them that they’re going to see a different team than the have for the last five seasons.

However, it’s also a message from DePodesta and Byrnes to the rest of the baseball world that the Rockies are no longer so strange and isolated. They are beginning to operate as a normal baseball operation that is open to the world and new ideas. Part of that is PR; part of it is laying a groundwork for trades later in the season — and DePodesta has been clear that fans should expect roster moves. (Look at the changes we’ve already seen.)

But, finally, after three months of dramatic change, today the attention turns to what happens on the field.

In the near term, we won’t know very much as DePodesta, Byrnes, and Schaeffer begin the work of crafting a new team. We do know that today, Antonio Senzatela will start.

Is the move significant?

Probably not. He’s an experienced veteran competing for the fifth roster spot, and the Rockies want to see what he can do. (He’s said he’s improved and added a new pitch grip during the offseason.)

And it will be interesting to see how the playing time is parsed out since ten players will be leaving the Rockies to play in the World Baseball Classic. In their absence, DePodesta has said to expect to see plenty of prospects getting playing time.

So in a number of ways, this will be a weird spring training.

But not weird in the old ”lol Rockies” way. This is weird in a “pardon-our-mess-we’re rebuilding” way. I suspect fans welcome the change.

Look, it’s a new day. Play ball.

Closing thoughts

I don’t know about you, but I’m excited.

Any day with baseball is a better day than one without baseball, and Paul DePodesta has made me very curious to see how his experiment plays out. Do I expect the 2026 Rockies to be good? No. Do I expect them to be interesting? Yes, I do.

And being interesting is better than being bad.

The journey starts today.

As always, thanks for reading —

Renee

Rockies Pitch is a newsletter that focuses on Colorado Rockies baseball.

Find me on Bluesky at @ReneeDechert.com or send an email to Renee@RockiesPitch.com