Former Colorado Rockies stars shared their stark opinions on the state of the franchise

The Colorado Rockies are one of the worst teams in the 149-year history of baseball, and have no good avenues of getting out of the darkest depths of Major League Baseball. After a sweep over the Miami Marlins — one of the worst teams in the National League — last week, the Rockies looked like their usual selves over the weekend as the New York Mets clobbered them in three straight games, completing the season sweep.

Remember when the Rockies were fun and competitive back in 2017 and 2018? With guys like Nolan Arenado, Trevor Story, DJ LeMahieu, and more, this franchise used to not be the laughing stock of the league, and made fans come to Coors Field to watch some good baseball, not to drink at the best bar in Denver.

In an article published by “The Athletic” recently, multiple former players commented about the current state of the Rockies, and the answers weren’t exactly something that owner Dick Monfort would want to see.

The most notable response came via text message from Troy Tulowitzki, who simply said, “I don’t comment on that organization.”

“The only way you get out of this, my opinion, is you have to really start over,” Arenado said. “Trade guys that have value and deal with the restart. But I don’t know if that’s what Monfort wants to do. That’s not really what they like to do.”

In case Arenado forgot, he had plenty of value when Monfort & Co shipped him off to the St. Louis Cardinals before the 2021 season. The only problem with that trade was that the Rockies also sent over a $50 million bag of cash that probably would’ve looked good in some cartoon about a robbery on the Boomerang channel. He’s right, however, as the club’s front office has done a very poor job at capitalizing on trade value in recent years, highlighted by their mishandling of Trevor Story’s departure, which resulted in a mere compensatory pick instead of a return package in a trade.

“You want to see them do well, and it’s tough to see, how it’s going right now,” Story said. “Yeah, it’s hard. Don’t necessarily want to speak on anything further than that.”

Story has been troubled by injuries throughout his time with the Boston Red Sox, but still has been in a better situation than he was in the Mile High City, which says a lot. Another former key asset for Colorado has also been better off in his new home in DJ LeMahieu.

“I think they’re a little behind, for sure,” said LeMahieu. “That doesn’t necessarily translate to wins and losses. It’s not like I’m going to point to that and say that’s the reason. But I think [joining the Yankees], it was like, ‘Wow, they’re really, really on top of things here.’ That was, like, one of the biggest surprises.”

Is Arenado right? Do the Rockies just need to tear everything down and trade as much as they possibly can to maximize value? They’re not going to get a top-10 draft pick in 2026 after this horrendous season due to the MLB’s anti-tanking rules, so they have to get as many assets as they can via trade. That probably means sending away Jake Bird, who is poised to be the team’s lone All-Star this season, a long with some other good pieces to contenders.

The Rockies are a long ways away from contending in the NL West, much less the National League or the MLB as a whole. Will these quotes from their former stars hit home for Monfort to show that his ownership has turned this team into one of the worst in the history of professional sports? Or will it just be another thing that he brushes off as he continues to count the money flowing into his bank account from the high concession prices at Coors Field?

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