Following the Millions Spent to Roster the Rockies’ Worst Team Ever

The Colorado Rockies would rather forget 2025, but the money they spent to have a 119-loss season is worth following.

A detailed view of a Colorado Rockies hat and glove on the bench against the Atlanta Braves in the ninth inning at Truist Park. / Brett Davis-Imagn Images

Most Colorado Rockies fans have moved on to 2026 and for good reason.

The Rockies turned the page on the entire organization by hiring Paul DePodesta as the team’s president of baseball operations. He hired Josh Byrnes, a former Rockies assistant general manager, as his general manager, luring him away from the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. DePodesta opted to keep Warren Schaeffer as manager, removing the interim tag and earning praise from players who liked Schaeffer.

The change was needed. The Rockies were coming off their third straight 100-loss season and finished with 119 losses, narrowly avoiding having the worst record in baseball history. At times, it felt like the Rockies were working with nothing. That wasn’t necessarily the case.

USA Today’s Bob Nightengale released the final payroll numbers for 2025. Most of it was newsworthy for competitive balance tax purposes. But the Rockies finished with a payroll of $146.7 million. That was $3.56 million per win. For comparison, the Los Angeles Dodgers spent $417 million, won 93 games and spent $4.4 million per win. Throw in their 11 postseason wins and the average drops to $4.009 million per win.

So, how did the Rockies spend all that money?

Rockies Payroll in 2025

The final CBT payrolls with the Dodgers paying record taxes pic.twitter.com/W8B78F3Mkt

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) December 19, 2025

Let’s start with the veterans, most notably Kris Bryant. Since he signed a seven-year, $182 million deal in 2022 he has played in 170 games and is battling a degenerative back condition that threatens his career. He still has three more years left on the deal and the Rockies are on the hook for it.

But, Colorado also had seven other veteran deals on its payroll by season’s end, all of which played. That came to about $48 million and included pitcher Kyle Freeland, pitcher Antonio Sentazela, pitcher German Marquez, infielder Ezequiel Tovar, infielder Thairo Estrada, infielder Kyle Farmer and infielder Orlando Arcia. The Rockies have already shed Marquez, Estrada, Farmer and Arcia through free agency or turning down mutual options.

The Rockies spent $4.5 million on three arbitration eligible players — outfielder Mickey Moniak, pitcher Jimmy Herget and pitcher Ryan Feltner. They’re still on the roster and arbitration eligible, along with Tyler Freeman, Brenton Doyle and Brennan Bernardino.

The rest of the payroll money went to pre-arbitration players like catcher Hunter Goodman, the team’s only All-Star and Silver Slugger. But that’s not all, as they say.

Colorado owed the St. Louis Cardinals $5 million in offsets for the Nolan Arenado trade. There was the $7.8 million paid to Ryan McMahon before his trade to the New York Yankees. There was nearly $13 million paid to pre-arb players. A little-known fact is that player benefits come out of final payroll, too. The Rockies paid $17.5 million in those benefits.

That got the Rockies to that $146.7 million figure. Colorado is hoping to do more with less if the 2026 payroll is any indication. Fangraphs estimates the Rockies’ 2026 payroll at $97 million with a single Major League free agent signed. That would lead to a luxury tax payroll of $114 million.

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