Rockies lose pitching wins leader, ESPN calls them ‘offseason loser’

The Colorado Rockies lost one of their better starting pitchers on Wednesday, as spring training for 2025 is set to begin.

According to multiple reports, Cal Quantrill is headed to the Miami Marlins on a one-year deal worth $3.5 million. Quantrill led the Rockies in wins last year, posting an 8-11 record. He made 29 starts (third most to Austin Gomber and Ryan Feltner) while posting a 4.98 ERA and allowing 23 home runs.

Quantrill’s 148.1 innings pitched were also the third most on the team. It’s not like he was stellar in his one season with the Rockies, but Quantrill ate up innings. Clearly, this late in the offseason he wasn’t part of Colorado’s plans moving forward, but we’ll have to see how the pitching rotation shapes up with pitchers and catchers set to report on Thursday.

Meanwhile, ESPN has grouped Colorado with the “offseason losers” from around MLB. This was before the Quantrill news dropped in an article posted on Wednesday morning.

Kiley McDaniel put the Rockies in the “others of note” category for losers after mentioning the Cardinals, Padres, Braves, Mariners and Pirates.

“The Rockies continue to tread water with no direction, dropping their payroll by $24 million from last season at this point and adding only two utility infielders on free agent contracts in a quiet winter. FanGraphs’ depth charts have Colorado as the worst team in the National League by a wide margin after it was narrowly the worst team in the NL last season,” McDaniel writes.

Last year, Colorado lost 101 games, one more than the Marlins who lost 100. It sounds like this upcoming season could be even worse. That’s tough for fans to read, considering the Rockies also lost 103 games in 2023.

For a franchise that had never had a 100-loss season up until that point, they might be staring a three-peat in the face. And a lackluster few months got even worse on Wednesday, with Quantrill headed to Miami.