The feat of endurance that is following the 2025 Colorado Rockies reached its lowest point yet on Saturday.
The Rockies — owners of the worst record in MLB, the second-worst offense in MLB (by runs scored), the worst pitching staff in MLB (by ERA), the worst run differential in MLB and, let’s face it, the worst vibes in MLB — lost 21-0 to the San Diego Padres in a massacre at home.
Their record is now 6-33, the worst 39-game start to a season in National League history and tied with the 1988 Baltimore Orioles for MLB’s worst of the modern era (since 1900). By comparison, the 2024 Chicago White Sox, the losingest team in MLB history, started the season 11-28.
Saturday’s game was as brutal as the score suggests. For starters, literally, rookie Bradley Blalock began the game on the mound for Colorado and quickly ran into trouble, allowing five runs in the first inning. Rather than pull him, the Rockies let him wear it, keeping him out there until he had thrown 87 pitches.
He exited the game with 13 hits allowed, 12 earned runs, 2 walks and a single strikeout in 3 2/3 innings of work. His ERA is now 12.94 in five appearances (three starts).
He was relieved by Juan Mejia, who allowed seven runs (four earned) in 1 1/3 innings. Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. capped off the carnage against those two with a three-run homer.
Meanwhile, the Rockies mustered five hits against Padres starter Stephen Kolek, a Rule 5 pick making his second career start, despite the offensively friendly confines of Coors Field. He threw a shutout.
In their last six games, the Rockies have allowed 9, 8, 10, 11, 13 and 20 runs. They have allowed more runs nine games into May (85) than the Padres did in all of April (83).
How can the Rockies possibly be this bad?
With a run differential of -134 through 39 games, the Rockies are now on pace for a minus-557 run differential for the season, which would be the worst of the modern era by a galling margin. Here is what the, er, leaderboard would look like:
1. 2025 Colorado Rockies, -557
2. 1932 Boston Red Sox, -345
3. 1932 Philadelphia Athletics, -344
4. 2023 Oakland Athletics, -339
5. 2003 Detroit Tigers, -337
The current record-holding Red Sox are actually closer to the pace of 2025’s second-worst run differential team, the Miami Marlins, than what the Rockies are doing right now. We are talking about an outlier among outliers in miserable futility, without much reason to expect improvement.
As we learned with the White Sox last season, it’s actually pretty hard to get a historically bad team off the floor. With the way the game is played these days, where teams are either trying to win or are ripping up the floorboards to maximize future winning, Colorado isn’t trading for any major-league talent. If anything, they’re likely dealing any players with value when the trade deadline hits.
And despite three straight last-place finishes and no winning records since 2018, the Rockies’ minor-league system comes in as only the 18th-best on MLB Pipeline’s rankings. The only player in their top 5 with an ETA of 2025 is No. 1 prospect Chase Dollander, who is already with the team. He currently has a 7.71 ERA.
The Rockies are in the bad place right now, and they don’t really have an easy way out. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
(Matthew Stockman via Getty Images)
The Rockies do have some players on the injured list, but it’s not like there’s an obvious difference-maker coming back anytime soon. Kris Bryant is the most notable name of the group, and he a) hasn’t posted an OPS+ above MLB average in three years, b) is dealing with a lumbar degenerative disease that sounds hard to come back from and c) has been placed on the IL nine times since 2022. It’s not hyperbole to call his $182 million contract one of the worst in MLB history.
It is an absolutely miserable experience in Colorado right now. We have reached the point where Kyle Freeland, a nine-year Rockies veteran who grew up in Denver and once reached the top 4 in Cy Young voting, was on the verge of tears Thursday while talking about how his team is doing.
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