Rockies Payroll Allocation Provides Glimpse into Why 2025 was Awful

The Colorado Rockies spent more than $100 million in salary in 2025, but one wouldn’t know it by the play on the field.

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

The Colorado Rockies had their worst season in franchise history in 2025, one that will require plenty of work to bounce back from.

The third straight 100-loss season forced general manager Bill Schmidt to step down. His assistant, Zach Rosenthal, stepped aside and the franchise is looking for new baseball leadership. Once Colorado finds that leader, the first job will be to determine whether interim manager Warren Schaeffer will be retained. As of this writing, seven other MLB teams are looking for managers.

The Rockies lost 119 games. While they managed to avoid taking over the record for most losses in a season, just about everything else was horrid, and that included the payroll allocation for the franchise by season’s end.

Rockies Payroll Allocation for 2025

David Frerker-Imagn Images

Per Spotrac, the Colorado Rockies spent $128.6 million in adjusted payroll allocations. Those allocations fall into four categories — active roster, injured list, retained and minor. The latter two require a bit of explanation. Retained is money the Rockies have taken on for former players that either facilitated trades or ate guaranteed money off a release. Minor is for minor league players that were called up at some point during the 2025 season.

Colorado’s active roster was paid $61.2 million at season’s end, encompassing the salary for the 28 players on the final active roster. The payroll leader was pitcher Kyle Freeland, who had a $16 million salary. Two other Rockies commanded more than $10 million — pitcher German Marquez and pitcher Antonio Senzatela.

The allocations get stranger from there. The Rockies finished with seven players on the injured list at a cost of $32.1 million. That’s more than half of what the active roster was paid and nearly a quarter of the total allocation. Much of that is wrapped up in the $27 million salary of first baseman Kris Bryant, who has a degenerative back condition that may force him to retire.

For a franchise that is trying to control costs, the retained payroll is curious. The Rockies had $27 million on that payroll, which included nine players. Many of them were traded this year, including $7.8 million picked up in the Ryan McMahon trade. That also includes $5 million for Nolan Arenado, who hasn’t played for Colorado since 2020. As part of the trade with St. Louis, the Rockies are picking up some of the cost.

Colorado picked up $7.6 million for minor league players in the Majors. For a team that lost 119 games, the fact that half of its overall payroll wasn’t on the active roster may be a clue why.

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