Of empathy and the historically bad Colorado Rockies

I’ve been in Denver this week for the four-game Philadelphia Phillies-Colorado Rockies series. One thing that happens when I’m here is that I get overwhelmed: There’s so much to take in that I have trouble making sense of everything, and usually, I have to leave Denver before I can get it sorted.

I’m telling you this in large part to let you know where my mind is as I write this, which is a lot of places. As it turns out, historically bad teams (like the Rockies) raise lots of interesting issues, and right now, I have more questions than I do answers.

But I knew what I wanted to write about this week’s newsletter: empathy. In an attention-oriented culture, which we definitely live in right now, it can be easy to lose sight of people (or players) in the quest for clicks.

A team like the 8-42 Rockies is clearly not a good team. The numbers speak for themselves. But I think it’s important that we don’t forget the people those numbers represent.

Here’s a case in point from The Score’s Instagram account earlier this week:

As evidence, they cite these players:

• Kris Bryant — $27 million and likely out for the season

• Kyle Freeland — $16 million and a 6.15 ERA

• Ryan McMahon — $12 million and a .708 OPS

• Antonio Senzatela — $12 million and a 6.39 ERA

• Germán Márquez — $10 million and an 8.78 ERA

• Austin Gomber — $6.3 million and has not played

• Nolan Arenado — $5 million and traded to St. Louis

• Ezequiel Tovar — $4.2 million and .263 average

• Tyler Kinley — $4 million and a 7.11 ERA

Just to be clear, I’m not here to defend the Rockies front office. That the Arenado trade remains an MLB punch line is entirely on them, and the Senzatela extension was always a mystery. He is, as Mario Delgado Genzor has written, not well suited to today’s MLB game.

But I am bothered, for example, by the Freeland shade. Yes, his ERA is awful (though it’s down to 5.68, so there’s that). But note that his FIP is 3.14, which suggests that his inflated ERA is not entirely of his making.

When Freeland has pitched for the Rockies this season, he’s been plagued by inept defense (as in the most errors in MLB with 43) and a lack of Rockies offense. If you check run support numbers on Baseball Reference, you’ll find that Freeland has averaged 2.3 runs per game he’s pitched. That number ties him for second-fewest with four other pitchers. Only two pitchers have received less run support: Jack Leiter and Andrew Heaney.

In other words, at the time The Score published that graphic, the ERA was accurate; however, that number lacked context. And it wasn’t hard to sort this out. But I suspect that wasn’t the intention here. The intention was to show the ineptness of the Rockies front office and get clicks.

Also, I was in the room when this happened:

That was a hard moment to watch, but it was a very human moment and a reminder that any player is more than a contract and a stat line, that teams, like people, are complicated, and that there is an obligation to provide more than a cursory glance, even if ignoring context generates clicks.

Or consider that Ezequiel Tovar number. It looks pretty bad for a young shortstop that last year signed a seven-year, $63.5 million contract.

But, like Freeland, it lacks context. Tovar sustained a hip injury in the Rockies opening series with the Tampa Bay Rays. He did not play well and spent a month on the Injured List — he was only reinstated last Friday. As his numbers from the series with the Phillies show, Tovar appears to have found his swing, and he’s moving in the right direction

Again, that stat The Score cited doesn’t tell the entire story, and I think folks who write about sports have an obligation to study how those numbers came to be.

As I wrote earlier, I’m not here to defend the Rockies front office. They deserve, in my opinion, every bit of vitriol they receive. The 2025 Colorado Rockies are, after all, the product of that office’s work. The plan has failed, and those who put it together should be held accountable. It is easy for them to evade the tough questions.

The players, too, are not without agency. But I think when the jokes start, it’s important to remember there are people in those uniforms, and in addition to purple pinstripes and sunset City Connects, they’re wearing those losses — and not in a good way. Every player on that roster has gone down in history as a member of one of the worst teams in the Modern Era. Most of these players are just getting started, and that’s a lot to carry.

All they wanted to do was fulfill a dream, make a living and play baseball. This was the door that opened for them.

That’s not to give the players a pass. They are, after all, the ones on the field. They have to perform. But it is to ask that we remember they’re doing the best they can with what they have to work with at this moment.

We are living in times when I think more empathy in general would be a good thing, and I hope when the next round of “lol Rockies” memes hit, the authors will remember that.

These players are not above criticism, but they also deserve to have their stories told in an honest way.

What I’m Reading

• Five ways to fix the Rockies as they pursue worst MLB record ever | Denver Post — Troy Renck has five suggestions for Dick Monfort, and to my mind, he’s spot on.

• Sun of a gun: How the Rockies' Toglia (first base), McMahon (third) handle Coors Field's blinding sunshine | Denver Gazette — How do Rockies infielders navigate those blinding sunsets? Kevin Henry has answers.

• Colorado Rockies general manager Bill Schmidt before a baseball game Tuesday, May 28, 2024, in Denver | 9News.com — I believe this is the longest interview Schmidt has given.

Closing Thoughts

And that’s it for this week.

The New York Yankees are in LoDo this weekend for a three-game series, so we’ll see how that one plays out. The Rockies odds of scoring a win here are not good. (Seriously, though, the Rockies winning the series was totally rule.)

As always, thanks for reading, and feel free to share this with a friend.

Renee

★ ★ ★

Rockies Pitch is a newsletter that focuses on Colorado Rockies baseball. Find me on Bluesky at @Renee.Dechert.com.