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As of mid-May, the Colorado Rockies are on track to break the single-season record for losses by 13 games. To honor the club’s pursuit of history (aka a 41-121 record), 5280 is compiling a living record of their season—so that future generations of Denverites might someday be able to look back and understand their ancestors’ shame.
May 31-June 6, 2025
- Current record: 12-50 (.194)
- Current pace: 31-131
Entering the week, things looked bleaker than ever for the Rox—an almost endless string of losses behind them, little hope on the horizon. They were stuck on nine wins (for comparison: the White Sox, the team with the second-worst record in the league, claimed their 10th victory in March) and had lost 22 straight series, an MLB record. Social media was merciless, treating the club like its own personal Rudy Gobert.
— Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) June 1, 2025
Like many desperate souls before them, the Rockies found themselves headed to Florida (for a three-game series against the Miami Marlins).
Alas, rather than succumb to the natural aura of embarrassment that afflicts the Sunshine State, these temporary Florida Men found what Ponce de Leon never could on that shimmering peninsula: new life. Hunter Goodman raked, hitting three home runs in the series; Thairo Estrada, recently back from injured list, provided some timely at-bats; and Kyle Freeland didn’t allow an earned run in six-plus innings to close out a three-game sweep of the Marlins.
Wins since June 2:
Colorado Rockies – 3
Scottie Scheffler – 0 pic.twitter.com/kb6sV9bI1b— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) June 4, 2025
Was this it? The spark the Fighting Monforts needed to kick off an unprecedented comeback that sees them make a daring charge at the Arizona Diamondback for control of fourth place in the NL West? Time will tell. Right now, the Rockies are basking in the golden rays of a soothing Florida escape—and enjoying the opportunity to do a little social-media dunking themselves.
May 24-30, 2025
- Current record: 9-47 (.161)
- Current pace: 26-136
The Rockies came into last week on a heater having taken one in a row—against the vaunted New York Yankees no less. Unfortunately, the Bronx Bombers managed to escape with a 13-1 victory in the second game of the series, putting a premature end to Colorado’s streak. The Rox haven’t seen the win column since.
Despite that broadside from the Yankees’ torpedo bats, the Rockies’ staff actually pitched pretty well this week, allowing 3.5 runs on average in the team’s other four games. This season, the bullpen has been mediocre (which, sadly, makes it the strength of the roster), but the starters have been awful. Against the Chicago Cubs, however, neither Carson Palmquist, German Marquez, nor Tanner Gordon allowed more than two runs (each hurler obviously learning a thing or two from Denver’s new ace). Not surprisingly, the Rox had a chance to win all three at Wrigley Field.
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They didn’t win any, which brings us to our embarrassment of the week—and maybe the season.
Earlier this year, ESPN ran an oral history of Coors Field’s first 30 years. The gist: Hitters love it, pitchers hate it. “I just know that when I was with the Padres and we’d come in, our hitters were like, ‘Yes!’ Our pitchers were like, ‘Oh, s—.’ You can see pitchers visibly rattled,” said Bud Black (RIP).
Yet the Rockies’ collection of beer-league bats ranks dead last in runs in the league. They’re actually better at Coors (tied for 21st), but that simply belies how awful the team’s hitters truly are: On the road, the Rockies are averaging 2.35 runs per game, almost a run less than the Blue Jays, who are second-to-last.
May 17-23, 2025
- Current record: 8-42 (.160)
- Current pace: 25-137
Alas, the firing of Bud Black has not provided the spark Monfort seems to have been hoping for, as the Rox are 1-9 since Warren Schaeffer took over. General Manager Bill Schmidt seems like the next logical neck for the chopping block, but after that, we dunno. Dinger, maybe?
In other news, it seems the Rockies’ compulsive losing isn’t just embarrassing, it’s downright dangerous. The Denver Post reported this week that a Parker man is suing the club after a foul ball struck him in the right eye during the first inning of a 2023 tilt against the Yankees. Plaintiff Timothy Roeckel says he never saw it coming because the view from his seat in a luxury box was impeded by “architectural elements.”
The suit also alleges the Rockies are responsible for damages suffered by the party involved therein due to the fact that, ipso facto, they suck: “Defendant’s longstanding poor performance on the field [has] contributed to a game-day environment in which spectators, particularly those in luxury suites, are less engaged with the action on the field.” (Remember: This happened in the first inning.)
According to the Post, there’s a law that shields stadiums from liability when spectators get hurt, but the lawsuit is still a bad look for the Rox. Or, as our food editor Mark Antonation put it in a 5280 Slack channel this week, “A real black eye for the team.”
May 10-16, 2025
- Current record: 7-36 (.163)
- Current pace: 26-136
It’s been so long since the Colorado Rockies mattered. The club’s lone World Series appearance came in 2007. Two years later, Troy Tulowitzski led the team back to the playoffs, but then fans would have to wait seven long seasons for a return to contention, with Nolan Arenado, Charlie Blackmon, and Kyle Freeland daring to achieve the unimaginable for the Rox: back-to-back postseason appearances.
Since then? Fourth, fourth, fourth, fifth, fifth, fifth in the NL West. The Rockies have cratered as a franchise, burrowing deeper and deeper into the basement. The thing about being underground, though: No one seemed to notice. Not the national media, not owner Dick Monfort (otherwise, he would have done something about the deteriorating roster—right?), and not fans, who continued to pack Coors Field to see the boys fumble their way through summer afternoons.
That blissful obscurity ended this week. Last Saturday, the Rockies, already off to the worst start in MLB history, lost 21-0 to the San Diego Padres at home. The crack of the Pads’ bats must have finally woken Monfort up, because he fired manager Bud Black the next day. That move roused the national media, which penned a flurry of pieces such as “Are Rockies worse than 2024 White Sox? Breaking down the numbers.” (Spoiler alert: They are. At this point in the season, Colorado is on pace to smash the single-season record for losses, which the Chicago White Sox set only last year, by 13 L’s.)
Bases-clearing sac fly
Oh no Rockies 😭 pic.twitter.com/TFVCZRQtDB
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) February 22, 2025
If Monfort was trying to serve Black up as a scapegoat, the move backfired. When asked about the firing, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “I don’t think Casey Stengel could change the outcome of that ballclub.”
And fans? Almost 40,000 attended the mile-high massacre this past Saturday. The Rockies embarked on a six-game road-trip following Black’s firing, so it’s too soon to tell if the Rockies’ newfound national ignominy will scare locals from showing their faces at Coors Field.
What might be the most embarrassing fact about this year’s losing, though, is that it’s pointless. During the media onslaught this week, 9News pointed out that in most professional leagues, the worst team gets the top pick in the draft the following season. But the Rockies have been so continuously bad (100-plus losses two years running), that MLB anti-tanking rules mandate that the highest the franchise can pick in the 2026 draft is 10th. As Denver Post columnist Troy Renck told 9News, “The team can’t even fail right.”
