was a senior at Valencia High School in southern California and was pitching in practice against a college player. At that point, Bernardino had only recently rejoined Valencia’s program — which he had previously quit twice — after getting into trouble that led to him being kicked off the school’s basketball team.

But when Bernardino threw that heater up-and-in, causing a late swing and a shattered bat, the sawed-off moment was an omen.

“When that bat broke, I looked at my coach next to me and went, ‘Wow,'” recalled , Bernardino’s high school coach. “That is a very rare occurrence for a high school pitcher to do that against a college hitter. But that showed us: Brennan could locate any pitch. He didn’t miss middle. He did not try to throw the ball by you. He pitched. He was a thinker. He understood how to go east and west, north and south.

“That moment also changed his confidence coming back from quitting, because I think he then realized, ‘Damn, I’m pretty good.’ Just that one moment erased the doubts and gave him the confidence to pursue his baseball dream. That one pitch changed a lot of things for him.”

This season, the southpaw has been the Rockies’ best reliever after Colorado acquired him via an offseason trade with Boston for outfield prospect Braiden Ward. In a career year, the 34-year-old journeyman has a 2.82 ERA and 1.5 bWAR in 59 games entering the weekend.

The winding road to a dominant season in the Rockies’ bullpen probably wouldn’t have been paved without Snyder changing his mind when Bernardino walked into the coach’s office and asked to rejoin the team 16 years ago.

Snyder granted Bernardino’s request, but with an array of stipulations.

He had to keep his grades up. He couldn’t get into trouble outside of school anymore, and he had to stay away from the peers he hung out with, which ultimately led to his being dismissed from the basketball team. He had to do field work to prove he really wanted to be back on the baseball team. And he was going to have to earn his spot in the rotation during the season, even though Snyder knew Bernardino was his clear No. 1 starter.

“He got kicked off the basketball team for some knucklehead stuff, because every kid makes mistakes,” Snyder said. “But I also remember that when he got kicked off that team, I hoped he’d come back to our program. I do believe kids deserve second chances and especially second chances when you know what the potential is of that kid and what he could possibly do at the next level.

“That moment was a fork in the road for a kid like Brennan. You either go left or you go right. Right takes you down the wrong path, with the wrong crowd. Maybe that left turn takes you down to where you can get your life in order. I felt baseball was the path that could get his life in order. I hoped it would be, and obviously it did.”

Significant velocity jump

Bernardino says he looks back on that time in his life and “wouldn’t change a thing.”

“There’s some lessons I needed to learn,” Bernardino said. “God has a different journey for everybody, and that was mine.”

Little did he know at the time that journey would take him to multiple junior colleges, Division II, , independent league ball, and all across the globe to prove himself on the mound before he finally made his big-league debut in 2022.

Bernardino wasn’t recruited out of high school, so he went to College of the Canyons, a few minutes down the road from his high school. He made the team as a walk-on, but coaches wanted him to redshirt, and Bernardino wanted to play right away. His next stop was Los Angeles Mission College, where he again walked on.

He gained traction in two seasons there, while also adding significant velocity that took him from the low-80s to 90 mph in a single day after working with

“I flew him out to Arizona to work with Dick Mills in Scottsdale,” Bernardino’s dad, Danny Bernardino, said. “At the time, I was reading all of his articles and analysis on pitching. And I really liked what I was reading. But he was like something like $1,400 for one lesson, for three hours. It was the best money I’ve ever spent my life. Brennan came back (to California) and he had picked up about 6 or 7 miles per hour.”

Bernardino was an all-league selection in his second season at Los Angeles Mission College, but he was pitching hurt. He transferred to Division II , and platelet-rich plasma injections in his ailing shoulder weren’t helping. He continued to pitch in the fall of 2012 at Dominguez Hills, before Toros head coach Murphy Su’a finally ordered the pitcher to get imaging of his left shoulder.

That revealed tears in his shoulder, where the labrum had detached from the bone.

“That’s how badly he wanted (this MLB dream),” Danny Bernardino said. “And that goes to show why he never gave up afterwards, too.”

After redshirting in 2013, Bernardino emerged as CSU Dominguez Hills’ ace in ’14. But Su’a was careful in building him back up on the mound, and Bernardino was usually on a pitch count. One game late in the season against another prominent Division II program, Su’a pulled Bernardino in the seventh inning, even though the score was close and he was pitching well.

Bernardino reacted by slamming his glove in the dugout.

“I shared with him my thoughts, not so kindly, on why I made the decision to pull him,” Su’a recalled with a laugh. “And I mentioned to him, in front of the whole dugout, ‘You’re the only guy in this dugout right here that has a potential pro career. We can either relieve you right now, or I can send you out there and you can finish the entire game because we’re not coming after you.’

“That’s the kind of competitor that he is. He apologized to me. He’s a humble guy, but boy, you put him on the field, it’s like, just watch out and get out of his way.”

Bluffing way back into pro ball

That fire would come in handy in the years that followed, when Bernardino faced many moments where quitting the game would’ve been the much easier and more realistic option over continuing to pursue his MLB dream.

The left-hander was drafted at No. 785 overall by the Reds in 2014 and spent five years in the Cincinnati organization, reaching as high as Double-A. When the Reds released him in 2018, Bernardino refused to give up.

He spent the rest of that season with the Winnipeg Goldeneyes in the , and then pitched in the Venezuelan Winter League. When 2019 spring training rolled around, he was living in Arizona, and without a job.

So Bernardino took matters into his own hands. He went to various spring training complexes around the Phoenix area and tried to bluff his way in the door to get in front of a decision-maker, telling people at each complex that he was a player in that organization.

The ruse finally worked at Cleveland’s Goodyear facility, where an unsuspecting receptionist led him to the Guardians’ farm director, James Harris. Once in Harris’ office, Bernardino set his white lie straight.

The pitcher told Harris, “I am a player, just not for you guys yet,” and Harris replied that he would do some research and might call him later that night.

The next day, Bernardino threw a bullpen session at the facility and the Guardians signed him to a minor-league contract. But he only pitched in five games for the organization in ’19 before Cleveland shipped him to Toros de Tijuana in the Mexican League.

Bernardino then spent the next three years grinding to get another chance at affiliated baseball. Along the way, he developed a sidearm delivery. His break came in 2022, when an agent saw him pitching in the Caribbean Series. He pitched in the Mexican League All-Star Game on June 18 of that season, and eight days later, the Mariners signed him to a minor-league contract. On July 31, 2022, he made his MLB debut.

Bernardino only appeared in two games for Seattle, which designated him for assignment in April 2023. Boston claimed him off waivers, and he emerged as a key piece of the Red Sox bullpen over the next three seasons, posting a 3.46 ERA with 157 strikeouts in 167 games.

“Last year I was not the main lefty in the (Red Sox) ‘pen,” Bernardino said. “The year before that, for some time I was, and the year before that, for some time I was for most of the season. But I ended up losing that role. So it’s a good feeling to get that role back this year here in Colorado.”

Weak contact at Coors Field

Bernardino’s pitching in Boston led to his “Moneyball” moment when Colorado dealt for him last November, the first trade of Rockies president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta’s tenure.

Maybe it didn’t have quite the drama of when Billy Beane (played by Brad Pitt) and Peter Brand (the character based off DePodesta that was played by Jonah Hill) wheeled-and-dealed at the trade deadline to acquire a southpaw reliever in Ricardo Rincón, but the phone call from the real Peter Brand hit home for Bernardino.

For the first time in his career, Bernardino was not just a big-leaguer, but a big-leaguer worth trading for.

“(Paul) called me and just told me, ‘You know, you’re my first move,'” Bernardino said. “And it was a good feeling to be his first move. Of course I’ve seen the movie, but also just knowing the entirety of his career and how he (thinks about the game). …. Hearing that, it was kind of like, ‘OK, wow.’ It made me feel a little bit special.”

Amid his success this season, Bernardino has made up for a lack of heat with his funky arm slot, pitch location, and sequencing. His average fastball velocity is just 90.2 mph, which ranks in the But with a varied pitch mix that pounds the strike zone and mostly features a sinker, curve and cutter, Bernardino has been sensational, especially at Coors Field where he has a 2.22 ERA in 28 games.

Bernardino’s signature has been weak contact. He ranks in the 78th percentile in barrel rate (5.7%), the 85th percentile in average exit velocity (87 mph) and the 89th percentile in hard-hit percentage (32.1%). His curveball has been his most effective pitch, as opponents are batting just .151 against it.

All of which begs the questions: Will Bernardino be part of the next competitive Rockies team? Can he keep pitching well enough in the future to justify the trade of Ward, gives him future big-league potential for Boston?

Bernardino’s performance has been a bargain this year with a $925,000 salary and he is under club control But he’s one of the oldest players on the roster and is the Rockies’ oldest reliever.

Su’a believes Bernardino’s age matters less than the average pitcher, given his limited high school innings as well as the injury that led to his pitch counts in college.

“I think he’s got a 26- to 28-year-old arm right now, because his arm is more healthy because he doesn’t have the volume and the wear-and-tear that other pitchers have had,” Su’a said. “And plus, he’s not throwing triple-digits, right? So there’s less (strain) there, even when he’s throwing his maximum.

“All that leads me to believe he’s still got a lot in the tank and a bunch of really good seasons still ahead of him.”

The Rockies designated Lorenzen for assignment on Monday ahead of the series opener against the Dodgers at Coors Field, ending the one-year experiment with the veteran who never was able to find any semblance of a rhythm in purple pinstripes. A 2023 all-star with the Tigers who also threw a no-hitter later that season with the Phillies, Lorenzen posted a career-worst year for the Rockies.

Playing on a , Lorenzen’s Coors Field debut for the Rockies offered an early warning for his struggles this season. In that 10-1 drubbing by the Phillies on April 3, the 34-year-old was blasted for nine runs on 12 hits in three innings in the worst home opener loss in franchise history. Philadelphia was up 3-0 before Lorenzen even recorded an out, and posted seven runs in the opening inning.

It didn’t get much better from there for Lorenzen, who leads the majors in hits (168) and earned runs (91) while opposing hitters ripped him for a .338 average, also the worst in baseball. His 7.08 ERA in 26 games (25 starts) is the highest ERA in baseball for pitchers with at least 100 innings pitched. And Lorenzen’s hard-hit rate is 42.6%, the second-worst in the majors only behind another Colorado arm, southpaw Kyle Freeland’s 45.2%.

“It was just time,” Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer said of Lorenzen’s DFA in one of the biggest understatements of the Rockies’ season. Lorenzen ranked toward the bottom in as his eight-pitch mix was utterly ineffective at Coors Field, where he posted a 9.12 ERA in 11 starts.

If Lorenzen isn’t claimed on waivers, he’d be released, and the Rockies will owe him a $250,000 buyout that is part of his club option for 2027. Lorenzen’s departure opens a door for right-hander Tanner Gordon to re-join the rotation as a proving grounds for the rest of the season.

Gordon, 28, has a 5.55 ERA in 17 games (five starts) this season. He posted a 8.65 ERA in eight starts as a rookie in 2024, then a 6.33 ERA in 15 starts last season. The rest of the season will be a chance to show he’s improved enough to warrant a shot at starting in 2027. Gordon’s pitched much better in the second half, with a 3.43 ERA in five relief appearances.

“He’s going to get a shot to pitch every fifth day, and he just needs to keep doing what he’s been doing lately,” Schaeffer said.

Also of note regarding the rotation, right-hander Mason Adams — acquired at the deadline in the trade that sent Brenton Doyle to the White Sox — is off to a good start with Triple-A Albuquerque. He’s allowed two runs over a pair of four-inning starts. Rockies president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta said that Adams will get a shot in the rotation either this season or early in ’27.

TJ Shook’s re-arrival. In a corresponding move to Lorenzen’s DFA, the Rockies recalled right-hander TJ Shook from Triple-A. Shook has a 3.02 ERA in 40 games with the Isotopes this season, including 28 games finished and 11 saves.

Colorado will use Shook in a variety of ways out of the bullpen, and Shook says he made adjustments since his debut in June, when he was blasted to the tune of a 9.53 ERA in four games before being sent down. Shook, a starter-turned-reliever, was acquired by the Rockies from the Mets with the first overall pick in the minor-league portion of the Rule 5 Draft in December.

“(I used that first MLB stint) to see how my stuff plays (at Coors Field) and I went back to look at some video, fine-tuned some mechanical things on the lower half, and my body’s feeling good, arm’s feeling good, and hopefully I get out there and throw up some zeroes,” Shook said.

Hunter Goodman update. The Rockies’ all-star catcher didn’t play in the series against the Giants over the weekend in San Francisco due to left shoulder inflammation that occurred from a swing in the previous series in Arizona.

Goodman was a scratch again on Monday, and Schaeffer says he remains day-to-day, but didn’t rule out of the possibility of a stint to the injured list. He will be re-evaluated ahead of Tuesday’s game. Missing these games is dwindling Goodman’s outside shot at the franchise home run record of 49, set by Larry Walker in 1997 and Todd Helton in 2001.

Brett Sullivan has been catching in Goodman’s place. The Rockies don’t have another catcher on the roster, so should something happen to Sullivan while Goodman is unavailable, Colorado’s likely emergency catcher is Cole Carrigg. The rookie played the position briefly in college and in the lower minors.

A week into NFL training camps and it’s already brutal out there. And not just because of the heat.

The Giants’ Cam Skattebo, who’s built like, and plays like, a giant mountain goat, left practice Friday. So did ace edge-rusher Brian Burns. The Seahawks’ Jadarian Price got dinged with lower body soreness. The Packers’ Josh Jacobs suffered a groin injury this past Thursday.

Pro football is one of those games in which the world’s best sprinters have to prepare for a marathon. You can’t win a division title in early August. But if a critical player goes down with an injury, you can sure as heck lose one.

“I don’t like the term. I feel (very) NBA when I hear ‘load management,’ right?” Payton told reporters Thursday at Dove Valley. “But I believe in the science.”

So do the wanna-be scientists up in the Grading The Week (GTW) offices, come to think of it. Which is why we’re glad to see Payton and his staff exercise discretion over the first seven or eight practices of training camp with Broncos veterans as opposed to trying to exercise them to death.

Broncos load management — B

It’s a tricky balance. The only way to master a violent game is to practice violence, repeatedly. The old fuddy-duddies among the GTW crew are now well-known for complaining about the state of NFL tackling in the 2020s, much to the chagrin of the younger crowd. They often speak of tackling as if it were some lost martial art, practiced by shoguns with single-bar facemasks.

On the flip side, the goal here is to be playing football until early February, and your “best” football from, say, late November onwards. The Broncos aren’t The Junction Boys, and Paul “Bear” Bryant has been dead for 43 years.

So if Payton chooses to keep vets such as 30-year-old wideout Courtland Sutton, who blew out his knee early in the 2020 season, on a pitch count until the middle of the month, by golly, that’s good by us. Especially after a week in which two of Sutton’s fellow receivers, Jaylen Waddle and Marvin Mims, Jr., both appeared to tweak something over the first few padded practices of camp. Nik Bonitto and Luke Wattenberg suffered injury scares early in the week, while Friday saw Mims, Nate Adkins and Matt Henningsen all leave practice early — and the latter via a cart.

So if said pal continues to fret about the Broncos being “physically ready” for September 14 in Kansas City, or the rigors of a Week 1-6 stretch that features (and the NFL did this on purpose, surely), the Chiefs, the Jaguars, the Rams, the 49ers, the Chargers and the Seahawks, ask him if he can name the NFL’s “preseason champion” from last year. Or, heck, any “preseason champ” since 2006. We’ll wait.

Rockies’ trade deadline tweaks — C

Rebuilding the Purple and Black from Rox bottom was always going to be a process — and a long one — for Paul DePodesta and Josh Byrnes. And nothing about their trade deadline activity affected our trust in said process. That’s a good thing.

Also good: The club’s top five minor-league prospects, according to MLB.com, are all still here. So is catcher Hunter Goodman, who was never likely to be moved. And outfielders Mickey Moniak (age 28) and Jake McCarthy (29), which was more of a surprise, given their experience and their left-handed bats. Maybe other teams were less enamored with the two veterans’ respective gloves — Moniak sported a minus-2 Defensive Runs Saved total,

If there’s a “down” side, it’s the logjam that remains in front of top hitting prospects, Charlie Condon and Zac Veen. And you tend to get what you give — and when you’re giving away a light-hitting outfielder and two set-up arms, you can’t expect much in return. Of the three minor-league arms acquired, Mason Adams (ex-White Sox) is now, according to MLB.com, the eighth-best arm in the farm system, while Aiden May (ex-Marlins) is now No. 10.

Colorado president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta believes the beleaguered franchise took another step toward returning to contention on Monday, as the Rockies swung three deals ahead of the MLB trade deadline.

The Rockies shipped center fielder Brenton Doyle to the White Sox in exchange for two prospects; sent reliever Antonio Senzatela to the Brewers for two prospects; and completed the whirlwind of a day with a final last-minute deal, giving reliever Victor Vodnik to the Marlins in exchange for infielder Connor Norby and a prospect.

But while the return on those trades can impact Colorado’s big-league team in the near future, and also possibly down the line, who the Rockies didn’t trade amid a sellers market says even more about how the front office feels about the current core of the team. All of the team’s position players, as well as a bulk of the pitchers, are under control through next season.

In the lineup, catcher Hunter Goodman, outfielders Jake McCarthy and Mickey Moniak, and outfielder/first baseman Troy Johnston — all the subject of trade speculation, especially Goodman — remain in purple pinstripes.

“We had a lot of players that were asked about, and we had a set price in mind of what it would take to acquire any of our players,” DePodesta said. “We think we’ve got a lot of good players here. We think we have the foundation of something that has a chance to be pretty good.

“So with that, it was going to take a lot to pry any of those pieces away. And I don’t think we got particularly close on any of those players because our internal price was going to be higher than what the market would bear.”

While the Red Sox — one of the teams interested in trading for the slugging Goodman — paid a premium for a catcher DePodesta says the Rockies didn’t hear any offers that warranted trading Goodman, who is tied for second in baseball with 33 homers. Goodman has a lot more power than Rutschman, but the former is below-average defensively, while the latter

Boston sent three of its top five prospects to the Orioles in exchange for Rutschman, who has one year of club control left as opposed to Goodman’s three.

“So far this year, (Goodman) has been as good as any offensive catcher in all of baseball,” DePodesta said. “He’s here hopefully going forward for a little while now, and we still have control of him for a few more years. We think he’s the centerpiece of our offensive team right now. So if we did entertain (a trade), it was going to have to be a really substantial deal to do that because we value him really highly.”

One player involved in each of the three of Wednesday’s deals will start in Colorado’s organization in Triple-A.

Right-handed starting pitcher , the White Sox’s No. 8-ranked prospect who was the centerpiece of the return for Doyle, could help the Colorado rotation as soon as 2027. That is an area where the Rockies need the most help in order to become relevant again. Southpaw reliever Mark Manfredi (who came from the Brewers as part of the trade for Senzatela) and corner infielder Connor Norby (big-league experience in return for the Vodnik trade) will join Adams in Albuquerque.

Meanwhile, the Rockies stood pat on Moniak — who is under club control through next season and was the subject of ample trade interest — because DePodesta believes the 2016 No. 1 overall pick by Philadelphia is “an important part of what we’re doing (with our turnaround) … his value both on the field and off the field is really important to us.”

A club source says the Rockies have been working on an extension for Moniak that would eliminate his final arbitration year and add two years to his contract, keeping him in Colorado through the 2028 season. On Monday evening, MLB.com’s Thomas Harding first reported for a price tag of $16.25 million, which a club source confirmed. Moniak is playing on a $4 million salary this year.

The deal will be made official on Tuesday.

“He is a legitimate middle-of-the-order bat for us. He’s a leader in our clubhouse. He’s a veteran who’s been around a little bit longer,” DePodesta said. “He’s also been in some different organizations. So he knows what it should look like. He also knows maybe what it shouldn’t look like, which is just as valuable. And that’s important, not just for his peers in the clubhouse, but also for me and for (manager Warren) Schaeffer as we try to shape our culture here.”

Because of the control that the Rockies have over the majority of their roster, DePodesta says he entered 2026 viewing the season as the start of a multi-year runway to see how the club could improve. That gave Colorado “a lot less sense of urgency” to sell off more players at the deadline.

“(These position players who were the subject of trade interest) are playing well for us,” DePodesta said. “There’s no reason for us to move them unless it gave us a real opportunity to improve ourselves.”

DePodesta added that when he came to Coors Field on Monday, he wasn’t set on any of the three trades that ended up finalizing prior to the 4 p.m. deadline. The Rockies had extensive conversations with the White Sox and Brewers over the past week, but the specifics of those trades came into focus on Monday, and the Vodnik deal with Miami was largely put together over the course of the day.

To cap off a day of ample roster activity, the Rockies recalled outfielder Jordan Beck and right-handed reliever Nick Frasso from Triple-A ahead of the series opener against the Rays at Coors Field. Frasso, who was acquired via a July 20 trade that sent reliever Seth Halvorsen to the Dodgers, will be the ninth Colorado player to debut this season.

After losing their previous six series, the Rockies took three from the Royals this weekend to open a six-game homestand at Coors Field. In the process, Colorado surpassed its 43-win total from 2025 while also showcasing several roster pieces whom the Rockies could move ahead of Monday’s 4 p.m. MT deadline.

In Friday’s homestand opener, right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano threw 6 2/3 innings of one-run ball Sugano’s been Colorado’s best starter this year, with a 4.47 ERA and 1.9 bWAR in 19 starts. That includes a 3.78 ERA and 7-2 record within hitter-friendly LoDo. He’s surged as of late, with a 2.95 ERA in three second-half starts.

Sugano’s salary is affordable ($5.1 million this year) and he’ll be a free agent at the end of the season. Among the teams in the hunt for the playoffs, the AL East-leading Rays, NL Central-leading Brewers and wild card contenders in the Cubs, Diamondbacks and Phillies could all use another reliable starter for a postseason push.

Saturday’s blockbuster trade that sent Cy Young southpaw Tarik Skubal from the Tigers to the two-time defending champion Dodgers took the top starting pitcher off the market.

Skubal, who is on an expiring contract, was dealt for three prospects in a deal that lacks a wow factor for Detroit’s return. The Tigers got outfielder Zyhir Hope, MLB Pipeline’s No. 25 prospect, plus right-handers River Ryan (No. 68) and Brady Smith (the Dodgers’ 17th-ranked prospect).

Of course Sugano won’t demand a return like Skubal, who is just the sixth reigning Cy Young winner to be traded in-season. But for a team desperate to shore up the back end of their rotation with someone who can gobble up quality innings, Colorado could get a prospect or two in return for the Japanese veteran.

In Saturday’s 12-6 win, all-star catcher Hunter Goodman continued his torrid season with two homers in his MLB-best sixth multi-homer game of the season. Pitchers are scared to attack Goodman with the fastball but he continues to hammer offspeed pitching, with his 32nd homer coming on a slider and his 33rd coming on a changeup. His 33 homers are tied for second in the majors with the Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber, with the Astros’ Yordan Alvarez setting the pace at 35.

Somewhat suspiciously, a day after blasting 808 feet worth of homers amid a 4-for-5, 5-RBI day, Goodman sizzling bat was not in the lineup in Sunday’s 8-1 victory that was highlighted by Kyle Freeland’s first career complete game. It was the Rockies’ first complete game since Chad Kuhl threw one on June 27, 2022, as Freeland allowed just one run on five hits and two walks. The 115-pitch effort came amid 99-degree temps at first pitch, the second-hottest first pitch temperature in Coors Field history behind a 100-degree game in 2012.

Back to Goodman: While there are reservations about Goodman’s defense — his sabermetrics at the position — his overwhelming offense and the fact that there are several teams in the playoff chase in need a power bat at the position could outweigh those concerns.

Whatever the case, the asking price for Goodman remains high.

Rockies president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta previously told The Denver Post a couple weeks ago that the return to trade Goodman would need to be substantial, as the front office sees him as a piece of Colorado’s next competitive team. So whatever the Rockies could get in a last-minute deal for the catcher would have to accelerate the club’s hopes of a rebuild faster than keeping Goodman’s power bat in the lineup for the three more years does.

The Athletic’s Ken Rosental reported last week that the Rockies want multi-player packages in return for Goodman. Colorado told Boston and Tampa Bay those packages would need to included each organization’s top prospect (shortstop Franklin Arias of the Red Sox and outfielder Theo Gillen of the Rays). The Yankees, whose catcher Austin Wells is hitting .162 with 7 homers, figure to remain in the mix as well.

Colorado’s other most obvious trade candidates are outfielders Mickey Moniak and Jake McCarthy, plus reliever Antonio Senzatala. McCarthy is among the best hitters in the National League with a .289 average along with 11 homers, including one Sunday, while Moniak is hitting .273 with 17 homers. Senzatela, who has a $14 million club option for 2027, has a 3.61 ERA in 34 games this season.

Trading Moniak or McCarthy would conceivably be a quick way to clear a roster spot for the debut of Charlie Condon, the first baseman/corner outfielder who is one of Colorado’s top prospects and has been knocking on the door in Triple-A Albuquerque.

The Rockies will no longer be spooked by their shadow, holding on to players like family heirlooms. It was this type of scared behavior that prevented them from shipping out Trevor Story for Mets top prospect Pete Crow Armstrong or left-handed reliever Brent Suter for anything.

It will be an upset if Colorado executes fewer than two deals. President Paul DePodesta and general manager Josh Byrnes recognize the importance of this mile marker.

In a season of progress, the poor play of late notwithstanding, the Rockies cannot miss this opportunity to upgrade their future rotations.

It is time to sell, sell, sell!

The Rockies are positioned to take advantage of this market. It is why they are still listening on catcher Hunter Goodman — Rays, Red Sox and Yankees need help — and asking for No.1 prospects in every conversation. I wouldn’t move him, but the argument exists to do so because the remaining three years of control after this season will make the return breathtaking.

The more realistic moves involve outfielders. Making calls and listening to rumors, it seems possible the Rockies could get the Yankees interested in outfielders Jake McCarthy or Mickey Moniak. If the return is right-handed starter Will Warren, pull the trigger.

A 27-year-old durable starter is exactly what the Rockies need. Southpaw Ryan Weathers represents another possibility.

There will be a good deal available with the Rays, Phillies, Astros and Guardians all connected to the Rockies’ outfielders.

Brennan Bernardino is a prime piece. The left-handed reliever has not yielded a run in five appearances since the All-Star break and is matchup neutral, effective against both lefties and righties.

Of course, the Rockies will listen on starters Kyle Freeland, Michael Lorenzen and Tomoyuki Sugano, but the return could be limited without attaching a minor league prospect like Zac Veen. Dealing from their own farm system is something the Rockies have rarely done over their last 15 years.

The creativity and elasticity of the new front office must be on display over the next few days. That should also involve eating money on Antonio Senzatela’s deal — hit up minority owners Greg Penner and Carrie Walton Penner for cash — to improve the prospect in return. Senzatela has stunk over the last month, posting a 7.04 ERA, but has remained effective on the road throughout the season (2.57 ERA, .238 batting average against).

For the first time in forever, there is trust that the Rockies’ front office will make the right moves. The trade deadline is the next pathway to improvement, and one that the Rockies must ace in every way.

JK OK: Was that a press conference or a stream of consciousness by J.K. Dobbins on Friday? The running back predicted he would be the No. 1 back in the league and play 17 games this season. To drive home his point, he verbally pinky-promised the media twice. All I can say is if Dobbins breaks a pinky this season, it will prove someone is poking a voodoo doll of his likeness.

Romo no more? CBS pressed pause on Tony Romo following his OWI arrest in Wisconsin, promoting J.J. Watt to its top NFL booth with Jim Nantz. Now, the question is whether Romo will ever get his spot back. He has $72 million remaining on his contract, but his declining performance over the past few seasons has placed his future in jeopardy. Romo is going to have to make quite the comeback if he wants to call another Bo Nix comeback.

Bigger Hunter: Travis Hunter is faster despite getting bigger. The former CU Heisman Trophy winner is listed at 185 pounds, and told Jaguars reporters that his goal is to eclipse 23 mph in a game. He is playing nearly two defensive snaps to every one on offense in camp, which tracks with the idea that Jacksonville wants to establish him at cornerback.

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With the MLB trade deadline approaching on Aug. 3, the Rockies are again sellers, and Colorado’s would love to make some splashy trades that help expedite the franchise’s rebuild.

But there’s no guarantee DePodesta will have the chance to do so.

“It really is just about what opportunities present themselves,” DePodesta said. “I’ll be disappointed if there are some good opportunities that present themselves and we’re not, for whatever reason, able to execute on those. I guess it’ll also be disappointing if those opportunities don’t arise. But we can’t force them.

“We’re not of the mindset that we’ve got to make two or three trades, even if all we’re getting back are low-level prospects. We like the players we have, and if there’s a way for us to get better, we’ll certainly explore it. But we have no mandate to move anybody.”

The Rockies already swung one deal earlier this week, sending flamethrowing reliever Seth Halvorsen to the Dodgers in exchange for Triple-A reliever Nick Frasso and Class-A outfielder Landyn Vidourek. That trade was essentially for one like pitcher (Frasso has a high-90s fastball) whom the Rockies believe can help their bullpen soon, as well as a gamble on a toolsy position player in Vidourek whose performance hasn’t yet lived up to expectations.

Beyond that, DePodesta says there is no one on the roster that the club would absolutely refuse to trade, though there are a handful of players whom the Rockies see as central to turning the corner to being competitive in the next few years. Slugging catcher Hunter Goodman is certainly on that list, and it’s likely that right-handed starter Ryan Feltner, first baseman TJ Rumfield, third baseman Kyle Karros and southpaw reliever Brennan Bernardino are, too.

“We would have to be really compelled, both in the short- and intermediate-term, to do something like (trading Goodman),” DePodesta said.

All of the Rockies’ position players are through next season, as is the bulk of the pitching staff. DePodesta and GM Josh Byrnes like the direction of this year’s team — which is currently  a 22-win improvement from last year’s 119-defeat disaster — but DePodesta knows the Rockies need to be aggressive when possible in order to continue to pad that improvement.

“The biggest thing this year was just showing meaningful progress, not just on the field, but just as, if not more importantly, off the field as well with our environment, our culture, our mindset, etc.,” DePodesta said. “To date, we’ve been really pleased at all those things.

“… So as we go into the deadline, the way we’re evaluating is like, ‘Are there moves that we can make that would accelerate that progress going forward, or potentially broaden our ability to get to where we want to be?’ That’s really our basis for making any of these types of decisions.”

Players on the roster with expiring contracts, or options on their 2027 deals, make sense for Colorado to shop.

In the rotation, Michael Lorenzen — who has made a team-high 21 starts with a 6.53 ERA — has a club option for next year that includes a $250,000 buyout. Kyle Freeland has a that vests if he pitches 170 innings, which is unlikely. The Colorado native currently has a career-worst 7.28 ERA, but perhaps a contender could see him as a long reliever.

Plus, Tomoyuki Sugano will be a free agent at the end of the season. He has a 4.76 ERA in 17 starts, and has had stretches this season (2.84 ERA in his first six starts) that could have some buyers seeing him as an effective back-end rotation addition. And in the bullpen, starter-turned-reliever Antonio Senzatela has a $14 million team option for 2027 that doesn’t include a buyout. He has a 3.60 ERA in 31 games this season, but has regressed lately, with a 11.74 ERA over the last month.

Those four are the team’s top pitchers who are contenders to be trade bait for the Rockies to obtain what they desperately need — young, controllable, and capable starting pitching prospects. DePodesta acknowledged starting pitching is “an area we need to shore up going into ’27.”

“We just don’t have as many in-house options that are already performing at this (big-league) level,” DePodesta said. “That said, we’re pretty pleased with Gabriel (Hughes) and Tanner Gordon pitched great (his last couple outings), and he’s had some really good outings overall. And so we want to be able to give some of our younger guys more opportunities (in the rotation) because we think we’ve got some other ones as well that that should be coming from the minors.”

Among position players, the Rockies could use their outfield depth to add to their pool of minor-league starting pitchers.

While Mickey Moniak (under club control through 2027) and Jake McCarthy (through 2028) have been key parts of the Rockies’ offensive turnaround this year, they could be expendable if the price is right. So could Troy Johnston (hitting .296) or Jordan Beck (demoted to Triple-A amid a rough season, but has potential). Brenton Doyle, going through another down year and injured for the last couple months, probably wouldn’t fetch much interest on the market.

Whatever the Rockies end up doing — or not doing — DePodesta & Co. are surely keeping in mind that the vast majority of traded prospects end up being fringe MLB roster players at best. There are few exceptions to that rule, so every trade made by sending a player with big-league service time for a prospect comes with inherent risk.

That fact is what makes DePodesta’s job of turning around Colorado’s fortunes all the more daunting amid his first trade deadline in LoDo.

“When I first took the job, I would have (said) that there are probably a lot of players that will be part of that next great Rockies team that aren’t yet here,” DePodesta said. “They might be free agents. They might be in the minor leagues in a different organization. They might be in college. I hope they’re not in high school.

“All of us here are anxious to make (the return to contention) happen. So we don’t want it to take an overly long period of time, but some of it’s out of our control, in terms of the talent we’ll be able to acquire.”

At the start of the Rockies All-Star’s freshman season at Goodman struggled, including a five-strikeout game in which he tried to bunt in his last at-bat because his confidence was so low. But Goodman never stopped working, and that sweat equity included routine hitting sessions well past midnight in the Tigers’ cages.

“I would wake up in the morning and have all these TrackMan numbers sent to me from late, late in the night,” recalled Clay Greene, the Memphis hitting coach who recruited Goodman. “Come to find out, Goodman (and one of his teammates) would eat dinner, play some video games, then go back up to the cages and hit.

“He was not going to go to sleep unless he had a good round. And he was not going to sleep until he figured it out.”

A week after that five-strikeout game, Goodman homered twice on the same day, one dinger in each game of a doubleheader. He didn’t look back, and that afternoon was one omen sandwiched between many that foretold his rise into one of the majors’ preeminent power hitters.

At 2, Goodman would wait on the porch for his dad to get home to hit tennis balls past dark. At 6, he gave his mom a bloody nose when he cranked a whiffle ball into her face in the front yard.

At Memphis, as he burst onto the college scene as a sophomore, he hit a grand slam in three straight games in a single series. After he fell to the Rockies in the fourth round of the 2021 draft — there were concerns about him coming out of a mid-major, as well as over Goodman’s strikeouts and potential behind the plate — Goodman kept hammering harbingers.

He blasted 36 homers across his first season of pro ball. Then 25 homers for Double-A Hartford in ’23 before getting promoted to Triple-A Albuquerque, whereupon Goodman hit a grand slam in his Isotopes debut.

The power hasn’t let up since his establishment in the majors, as he set a Rockies record for homers by a backstop over the past two seasons while becoming only the fourth NL catcher to hit 30-plus dingers in consecutive seasons. The 26-year-old’s list of accomplishments dates back to those late nights in the Memphis cages, where Goodman would hit round after round of breaking balls off the pitching machine to address what was then a kryptonite.

“I hit some home runs in high school, but it wasn’t a crazy amount,” Goodman said. “College is when I started to realize I could hit a lot of homers and that I can do a lot of damage. Learning to adjust to the breaking ball and be able to pull that, and get it to the pull side in the air, I focused on that a lot. That was a turning point in my hitting career.”

Swing path, barrel rate, bat speed

A combination of swing mechanics and approach cemented Goodman’s status as an elite big-league power hitter, which in turn has made him the subject of an array of trade rumors leading into the Aug. 3 deadline.

At 5-foot-11, 200 pounds, Goodman’s lower half is built like a tank. He is a traditional pull-hitter with his power — all but eight of his 31 homers so far have gone to left or left-center. But that pull-happy approach is enabled by an opposite-field mindset.

“He’s trying to hit fastballs just off the right of center field, which puts him on time for all the offspeed,” Greene explained.

That strategy also enables Goodman to keep his barrel on plane in the zone. Hence his in barrel rate at 17.6%. That, combined with bat speed (75.4 mph average, which ranks in the 88th percentile), enables Goodman’s consistent power despite a of 34.9% that only ranks 102nd.

“His bat is in the zone for a long time, from deep in his swing all the way to extension,” Rockies assistant hitting coach Jordan Pacheco said. “That’s why he can get sliders out front with power, and he can handle hard 98 (mph fastballs), too.”

Goodman’s high leg kick is central in his fluid power swing, as it enables his back leg to corkscrew into the ground.

“He generates a lot of force in his back leg, so even though he has that big forward move (with the leg kick during load), he’s still holding the ground really well to generate power from the back side,” explained Spokane Indians manager Tom Sutaris, who worked with Goodman as the Hartford Yard Goats hitting coach in 2022 and ’23, shortly before Goodman’s debut.

During his time in Hartford in ’23, Goodman went through a June slump (.207 with only two homers and 27 Ks in 24 games). His power waned, his swing looked tired, and he wasn’t consistently tapping into his backside strength because he was jumping at pitches. But he worked with Sutaris and Rockies minor league hitting coordinator Nic Wilson and he debuted less than two months later.

Goodman still leans on the lessons from that slump three years, two all-star selections and a Silver Slugger Award later.

“It was a blessing in disguise that (a horrible slump like that) happened then, because when I go through it here in the majors, I can lean back on moments like that and then figure it out from there,” Goodman said.

There are still improvements for Goodman to make at the big-league level, even as he’s mastered the art of torquing his hips in preparation to create a slingshot effect on the pitch as soon as his front foot comes down from what oufielder Mickey Moniak describes as “one of the most controlled leg kicks I’ve ever seen.”

While Goodman can hit the ball as hard as just about anyone — his max exit velocity is 116.2 mph, the 10th-best in baseball — he still strikes out too much (32.3% K rate ranks in the bottom 5% of MLB), swings too much (54.2% of the time) and chases too much (swings at 40.4% of pitches outside the zone).

But none of that matters much to the buyers on the trade market, especially those who are in desperate need of a catcher who can rake, and rake in the clutch. Goodman’s 11 homers in the seventh inning or later this season lead the majors, and since the start of last year, he’s tied for the second-most homers in that category with Mariners backstop Cal Raleigh.

A massive haul for Goodman?

Three teams from the American League East are likely about Goodman.

The Rays, in the divisional lead by 2.5 games over the Yankees, have gotten a combined six homers from their two catchers. The Yankees’ Austin Wells (.158 average, 6 homers) is having a dismal season. And the Red Sox, who climbed back into the playoff chase with a recent hot streak, have gotten four homers from their two catchers.

Rockies president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta acknowledged he’s received ample interest on Goodman, as well as other players, from clubs around the league as Colorado stands as a clear deadline seller.

DePodesta wouldn’t go so far as to say Goodman () is untradable, noting that “there are probably a lot of players that would be very difficult for us to trade. Goody being one of them, because we see him as part of our future.”

But DePodesta left the door slightly cracked to a potential deal for the slugger, if a team was willing to give Colorado the moon and the stars in return. Such a package could include a big-league starter and/or high-caliber starting pitching prospects that Colorado desperately needs.

“For us to move him, the pieces that would be coming back would have to be really meaningful for us to even entertain that,” DePodesta said. “We’re also under no sense of urgency to do it.”

Goodman’s salary is $810,000 this season, but using Fangraphs’ WAR he would be worth $19.2 million this year in free-agent dollars. By that metric, the Rockies are getting about 24 times more value out of Goodman than for what they are paying him.

A major factor in Goodman’s trade allure, beyond his home run tally and contract controllability, is that he can’t simply be dismissed as a product of Coors Field. Entering Wednesday’s series finale against the Nationals, he’s done far more damage on the road than in LoDo, with a higher average away from Coors Field (.282 vs .231), more homers (18 vs 13), a higher OPS (.964 vs .814), and a significantly higher (156 vs 92).

Goodman says he’s not expending energy thinking about the possibility of a trade, or in another vein, a multi-year extension with Colorado that could be on the horizon. The even-keeled, chaw-chewing, small-town Tennessee outdoorsman is simply worrying about mashing more homers.

Meanwhile, as the phone rings in DePodesta’s office, the Rockies could have a major, franchise-altering decision to make as Colorado tries to climb out of the hole of the last three 100-loss seasons. The massive haul that a trade for Goodman would demand could drastically accelerate the rebuild.

On the other hand, as Goodman’s homer pace flirts with the Rockies’ single-season record of 49 (set by Larry Walker in 1997 and then matched by fellow Hall of Famer Todd Helton in 2001), it’s easy to see the catcher as a centerpiece of the next competitive Colorado team.

Whatever happens, Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer notes the whirlwind of the trade deadline clearly isn’t affecting Goodman in the box.

“The trade rumors have been swirling for a while now, and (Sunday) he hit three homers, and (Tuesday) he hit another game-winning homer,” Schaeffer said. “I ain’t worried about Hunter Goodman right now. He’s got his head on his shoulders.”

That is what the shirt, worn by some Rockies teammates, reads. It is a lie.

Hunter is great, man.

With the trade deadline looming on Aug. 3, vultures are circling and trade rumors are surfacing over what it would take for the Rockies to move Hunter Goodman.

Goodman tied his career-high with 31 home runs on Tuesday, dropping to his back knee to launch an 87-mph slider over the left-field fence. He remains on pace to tie the single-season club record of 49.

He has more power in his bat than his former high school football teammate Kenneth Walker III has in his legs.

Only seven catchers have hit 40 homers in a season, leaving Goodman stalking Johnny Bench’s National League high-water mark of 45 set in 1970.

Goodman is a big deal, an All-Star. But he is not bigger than the Rockies.

He is great. But he is not greater than the Rockies need for starting pitching.

The easiest way for the Rockies to rebuild is by dealing Goodman.

And that is exactly what should NOT happen.

There is more than one way for the Rockies to climb back to relevance. They can execute multiple moves, including trading Mickey Moniak, Jake McCarthy, Antonio Senzatela, Brennan Bernardino, Kyle Freeland, Michael Lorenzen and others.

Shipping out their 26-year-old catcher is the fastest path forward. It is not the best. The Rockies can afford to be patient with this chess piece.

The idea of trading Goodman sounds nuts to Rockies fans who are slowly warming back up to the franchise after nearly a decade of incompetence and arrogance.

People familiar with the Rockies’ thinking say the front office would have to be overwhelmed to deal Goodman.

Two agents suggested Wednesday it would take four of an organization’s top 30 prospects, including one in the top three and a second in the top 10.

A former big league GM believes the Rockies could only land three players because a pair of other catchers are on the market, Oakland’s Shea Langeliers and Baltimore’s Adley Rutschman.

One-time Reds and Nationals GM Jim Bowden proposed a blockbuster with the Red Sox: Goodman in exchange for big league starter Connelly Early, middle infielder Marcelo Mayer, defensive catcher Carlos Narvaez and No. 4 pitching prospect Kyson Witherspoon.

That is not the Herschel Walker deal, but it represents a dramatic overpay.

That is why the Rockies must pick up the phone if Boston, the Yankees or Rays call. Any team making this move will view Goodman as a long-term solution and believe it can win the World Series.

Desperation is the world’s worst cologne, and if somebody wants to swing a deal that requires pinching their nose, the Rockies have to consider it.

Remember, they are under new management. No longer are they trotting out tired excuses — we love our players, we did not get any offers, we want to hold onto our guys until they have no value — that produced the annual Snoozapalooza at the trade deadline.

There is actually a good explanation for keeping Goodman, whom ESPN ranks as MLB’s eighth best trade candidate.

First are the finances. Goodman remains under team control through the 2029 season.

There has been no movement on a long-term deal — when shortstop Ezequiel Tovar got his extension in 2024, he approached the Rockies and signed what, at the time, was a team-friendly, seven-year, $63.5 million contract. However, the Rockies can follow Goodman through the arbitration process without breaking their budget.

For now, he is the most cost-controlled big bat in the big leagues.

Secondly, Goodman has evolved into a serviceable catcher, improving enough to silence talk of a position switch or becoming a full-time DH. He is also a trusted pitch framer and ranks fourth in successful ABS challenges this season.

As the Rockies assess who will be part of their core when the team contends again, Goodman is penciled on the list because of his power, position and paycheck.

It would be cool if Colorado kept Moniak and McCarthy, players easy to root for because of their energy and production. But the Rockies desperately need rotation help, knowing prized free agents are never going to line up to pitch at Coors Field.

Colorado’s top pitching prospects — JB Middleton, Brody Brecht, Griffin Herring — are all struggling this season, and Sean Sullivan did not look like a future starter in his three-game big league cameo this summer.

The Rockies can never fear trading position players for arms, and they have a battery of capable outfielders on the big league roster and in Triple-A.

Moniak has resurrected his career in Colorado. He could pull a top 20 pitching prospect and a second player in the top 30. You have to trade him.

McCarthy profiles so well for the Rockies with his speed and positional versatility that it would hurt to ship him out. But with the Phillies and Astros making calls, DePodesta and Byrnes cannot be blamed if they take multiple pitchers for the leadoff hitter.

And if a contender wants a defensive whiz in Brenton Doyle for a first-round draft pick — that is what the Giants got for all-glove, no-hit catcher Patrick Bailey in May — do it.

Why deal Moniak, McCarthy or Doyle? Internal options. Cole Carrigg needs to play every day. Charlie Condon is thisclose to a promotion as he boasts 20 home runs and a .408 on-base percentage at Albuquerque. He strikes out 24.6 % of the time, countered by a 13.8% walk rate.

His bat is ready for the bigs.

“With Charlie, first of all, he’s getting used to playing first base and the outfield. Second of all, as he has evolved as a hitter, he is showing he is smart, structured and disciplined,” Byrnes said. “He is learning to strike that balance with getting to a spot to do damage. He has done that really well.”

The Rockies also have Jordan Beck hitting the reset button at the plate with the Isotopes, Zac Veen, a work in progress defensively, with 48 extra-base hits and the athletic Sterlin Thompson in the mix.

“We have real depth there,” Byrnes said. “And that’s a good thing as we think through our best roster moving forward.”

Senzatela, rejuvenated as a reliever, has to go. Same with the lefty Bernardino. The idea is to get younger and better, eventually.

The new front office, which impressed agents with its accurate draft valuations, is starting to inspire confidence that it can deliver a productive trade deadline.

It should not include Goodman. But clearly on the mound, the Rockies need a lot more good men.

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In a 10-3 blowout over the Reds, Colorado scored four runs on five consecutive knocks with two outs. The new faces brought to the lineup by president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta and general manager Josh Byrnes were central in the hit brigade.

Jake McCarthy got it going with a bunt single. Then Mickey Moniak, a solid signing by the Rockies’ previous administration, singled. Dynamic rookie Cole Carrigg singled. Then DePodesta acquisitions TJ Rumfield and Willi Castro both singled, before fellow Colorado newcomer Troy Johnston lined out into the shift up the middle to end the frame.

That sequence underscored how four of those players — the left-handed hitting McCarthy, Rumfield and Johnston, plus the switch-hitting Castro — have been key in Colorado’s offensive turnaround. The unit has gone from one of MLB’s worst in 2025 to one of the league’s best in ’26. And that quartet, who are all turning in strong seasons, signals the philosophy behind DePodesta’s long-term lineup-building strategy.

“Probably what it shows is our flexibility of thought in terms of what a good player can look like for us,” DePodesta said. “Those guys aren’t all out of the same cloth. Jake is an outfielder with terrific range, well above-average speed. He can impact the game in a lot of different ways, can play the small-ball game, can steal bases. He’ll also hit some homers.

“TJ and Troy are both, to some degree, magicians with the barrel. They can find ways to get hits. They hit good pitching. And TJ in particular has shown himself to be an excellent defensive first baseman. They can both hit for power. And for Willie, a lot of his value doesn’t necessarily show up in the stat sheet, because his dependability provides an incredible amount of roster flexibility for us.”

All four players were either cast off or overlooked last offseason, enabling the Rockies to bring them into their fold.

The Rockies claimed Johnston off waivers in early November, a couple days before DePodesta was hired. Colorado director of baseball operations pulled off the move, but DePodesta was consulted on it.

The other three players all came to Colorado in January.

The Rockies in exchange for one of the minor-league pitching prospects, Josh Grosz, the club got in last summer’s deadline deal that sent Ryan McMahon to the Yankees. And the Rockies in exchange for an unproven bullpen arm, Angel Chivilli, who has only appeared in eight big-league games this year. As for Castro, Colorado to a two-year, $12.8 million deal after the 2024 All-Star had a down year split between the Twins and Cubs.

Johnston says finding value in players that other teams are willing to discard will be a key factor in Colorado’s attempted turnaround.

“If you’re not going to go out and sign a $60 million guy, then you’ve got to make a way to find the undervalued guys that really put together a lineup and put together consistently good at-bats,” Johnston said. “DePodesta and this front office are valuing so many key things when bringing in guys like me (and McCarthy, Rumfield and Castro).

“They’re valuing (expected weighted on-base average). They’re valuing chase rate. They’re valuing all the advanced stats that goes into the seasons that you’re seeing (these key newcomers) are having.”

Dramatic turnaround at first

Rumfield has been Colorado’s best player by bWAR this season (2.6 entering Tuesday, just ahead of catcher Hunter Goodman’s 2.4) while emerging as a National League Rookie of the Year candidate.

After easily winning the vacant first base job in spring training, Rumfield carried that momentum into the season and is coming off honors in May and June. He’s hitting .296 with a .476 slugging (both first among qualified NL rookies), plus 13 homers, 51 RBIs and a club-high 28 multi-hit games. He’s also been strong defensively, ranking in the 88th percentile in outs above average at first.

Compare that to the nightmare season the Rockies got from the position last year via Michael Toglia, who hit .190 while striking out at a 39.2% clip. By non-tendering Toglia and trading for Rumfield, DePodesta sent a clear message that the Rockies need to move away from the egregious strikeout rates that plagued them the last three 100-loss seasons and towards contact hitters. This year, Rumfield’s K rate is 14.5%.

“One of the biggest things is that (DePodesta and Byrnes) don’t hire people to change,” Johnston said. “They want players they bring in to have a lot of success doing whatever they do well. That’s what they tell a lot of the guys: ‘We need guys that can drive in runs, that can move the bases, walk.’ They really focused on walking, cutting down on strikeouts, and just hard contact.

“With TJ, one of the most interesting parts about him is that he always stays within himself. He knows exactly who he is as a hitter.”

Rumfield says he’s not paying attention to the Rookie of the Year race, in which he is a dark horse behind the top candidates, Cardinals second baseman JJ Wetherholt and Reds corner infielder Sal Stewart.

But he looks around the Rockies clubhouse and sees a lot of young talent, many of whom are new to the team this season, that he thinks can help accelerate Colorado’s turnaround from last year’s historic 119-loss season.

“We’re building a good culture of young players, and that’s what the foundation of a good franchise is going to be,” Rumfield said. “It’s about having guys who are hungry. Like DePodesta said in spring training, you’ve got to have guys who can excel at the big-league level and not just be here. We have those guys in the clubhouse, and if you get enough of them, you start to put together the wins and play better baseball.”

‘A scrappy offense’

In the outfield, McCarthy has picked up the slack of Brenton Doyle (hitting .207 and hampered by injuries) and Jordan Beck (suffered a hamstring injury in May, and has been in Triple-A since late June after hitting .183).

McCarthy leads the Rockies , ranking fourth in the NL, and is one of three players in the majors with an average over .300 and slugging over .500. He is also first in the NL with a .392 average with runners in scoring position, is one of MLB’s fastest players and has been a solid defender in all three outfield spots.

He says his goal since coming to Colorado via trade is to “make Paul and Josh look super smart,” which he’s done so far. He also understands the assignment: Put the ball in play, use his speed (he leads the club with 17 steals, and his six bunt hits are tied for fourth in the majors) and limit the K’s (17.0% strikeout rate).

“I’m not trying to have weak contact, but I would rather hit a weak ground ball than strikeout just because there’s always an opportunity for an infield hit,” McCarthy said. “I understand we want to be a scrappy offense. I’m part of that. I feel like the Brewers are a good example of that. That (approach) wears on you as a defense.

“You combine that with the Coors Field element, and it’s how we can make an offensive identity.”

Meanwhile, Johnston is hitting .295. While McCarthy has bucked the norm by raking against lefties (.360) and Rumfield is hitting .311 against righties, Johnston is hitting .326 against righties. And Castro, who is hitting .264 this year, has played all four infield positions plus right field and center field as the team’s premier utility player.

DePodesta explains that Castro’s versatility has enabled other players to “carve out their niche.”

“Having him on this team is very instrumental for Kyle Karros, for TJ Rumfield, for Troy Johnston, for all those guys to get the opportunities they got to show what they can do at this level,” DePodesta said. “Willi gave us the ability to construct our team in a lot of different ways and to provide opportunities to young players (because he can play all the positions they play).”

As the Rockies aim to avoid becoming the fifth MLB team to lose 100 or more games four seasons in a row, manager Warren Schaeffer believes DePodesta’s additions to complement key returners such as Moniak (.276 average) and Hunter Goodman (30 homers) have already changed the lineup’s mentality.

“This offensive group is a group you want to go to battle with every night, and that’s what Paul wants, that’s what (Byrnes) wants,” Schaeffer said. “Guys that are a tough at-bat every at-bat, 27 outs, all night long, not giving anything away. We have a lineup full of those guys who typify that.

“The second inning (last Saturday showed)… we don’t have to hit (a bunch of) homers — just put the ball in play, and good things will happen in this ballpark.”

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