The Colorado Rockies‘ tough times have continued in 2026.
Tuesday’s 7-2 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks marked Colorado’s 100th loss of the season and its fourth straight year with triple-digit losses. The Rockies are the first team to suffer this unfortunate milestone since 1965, when the New York Mets lost at least 100 games in four straight seasons from 1962-65.
The 2023 season was Colorado’s first 100-loss season in franchise history, as the Rockies finished 59-103. In 2024, Colorado went 61-101 before finishing with a dismal 43-119 record in 2025, which was the worst mark in baseball by 17 games.
While Tuesday’s loss added another low point to Colorado’s recent history, starting pitcher Kyle Freeland, who has spent his entire 10-year MLB career in Colorado, was also in the spotlight.
In his potential final home start, the 33-year-old southpaw threw three-plus innings and allowed five runs on nine hits while recording two strikeouts and a walk.
Freeland, in the final year of a five-year, $64.5 million contract extension he signed with the Rockies in April 2022, was emotional all day.
“I didn’t know when it was going to hit me,” Freeland said. “And sure enough, when I parked my car in the players’ lot today, I had a rush of emotion hit me, realizing this might be the last time I’m walking into the stadium for a start.”
Freeland is Colorado’s longest-tenured active player. He has been through each of the Rockies’ four straight 100-loss seasons, but remains one of the franchise’s most successful pitchers.
Freeland is Colorado’s career leader in innings pitched (1,391.2) and starts (256), and his 69 wins are the third-most in Rockies history.
Despite Colorado’s 220-423 record since the start of the 2023 season, Freeland still believes in the direction the Rockies are heading.
“They’ve got the right guy at the helm with [Schaeffer],” Freeland said. “What they’ve done this past offseason, with the turnover in our front office and taking this organization in a little bit of new direction – ownership as well – everything that we’re doing inside this clubhouse, coaches, players, front office, staff, have been doing an incredible job making sure that this team and this [organization] is heading in the direction of winning.”
Whether Freeland will be part of that future remains uncertain. If he is not in Colorado after the 2026 season, it will leave a major hole in what is already baseball’s worst starting rotation. The group’s 6.24 ERA this season is last in the majors by more than half a run.
That number has to drop significantly if the Rockies want to avoid a fifth straight 100-loss season next year.
New leadership can lead to change, but Colorado will need significant improvement throughout the organization to turn its prolonged stretch of losing into sustained success.
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