A few years ago, two teams stood face to face in that darkness. However, while one—we can call them the comeback child—has clawed its way into respectability, another has spiraled into a jaw-dropping free fall. The White Sox surged. The Colorado Rockies? They have taken tragedy to a new level.

The Rockies are not just losing, the team is redefining futility. For six decades, the gold standard of failure belonged to the 1962 Mets with 120 losses. Then came 2024, when the White Sox outdid them with a jaw-dropping 121. And now? The Rockies are charging headfirst into that same abyss. ESPN’s Jeff Passan didn’t sugarcoat it on The Pat McAfee Show, calling the team nothing short of “tragic”.

There is the wreckage: a 4-25 record. Three separate six-game losing streaks. The team is 1-14, 1-13 at night, with a laughable 0-9 against lefty starters. In addition, they are striking out in 28.1 percent of plate appearances. This would crack the all-time record in MLB. The Rockies’ starters’ ERA is grotesque, 6.73. This is worse than anything MLB has experienced.

However, despite trying to be competitive, the team is already 15½ games behind the Dodgers. When did the insider say the team could outpace the 2024 White Sox as the worst team ever? Jeff Passon was not joking. The White Sox that year were 6-23 at this point. Colorado Rockies? Two games worse. This is not over yet. The team still has 46 games left against the Dodgers, Padres, Giants, and Diamondbacks. It can be said that the Rockies are going to track a minefield.

On Wednesday, the Rockies faced the Braves in the last match of their 3-game series. Luckily, they won 2-1, saving themselves from embarrassment (18th loss in a row and 6th consecutive loss in a series).

Now, Passan called them tragic not only because they are tanking. Nope. Dick Monfort is still shelling out a middle-of-the-pack budget. The issue? The Rockies are setting dollars on fire. “They spend money; they just do not spend it well”, the insider said. It can be identified from the scoreboard.

Rockies’ “big market” myth

The Rockies are trapped in a vicious cycle of mismanagement, and the proof is visible. The team is not broke; however, they sure do not know how to spend their money effectively. Since 2019, they have spent nearly half a billion on vital stars, yet instead of spending on sustainable team-establishment and enhancing their personal talent, the team has wasted money on short-sighted and high-risk contracts that have not panned out. This is not related to a lack of resources—it is attributed to a failure to utilize those resources effectively.

The idea that the team is a small-market team struggling to compete with big teams is becoming tough to believe. The Rockies’ spending patterns highlight that the team has the financial capability to compete. Yet their inability to make smart and strategic decisions is the base reason for their downfall. Their biggest deals—like the Nolan Arenado trade, where the team paid the Cardinals $50 million to take their team cornerstone, and the Kris Bryant contract, which has been more rated to rehab stints than playing time—are emblematic of their disjointed approach.

The Colorado Rockies’ plight is a cautionary tale of what happens when a team has the resources but lacks the direction. With mismanagement at every stage, the Rockies look destined to remain at the bottom of the MLB barrel unless something drastic transforms.

While once in a while, the Orioles have identified their way out of the darkness, the Rockies continue to spiral. Until management rethinks its approach, the team will keep burning money, all while their fans are left watching in disbelief. Can the team turn it around?