Colorado Rockies: What are the 25 best seasons by Rockies aged 25 or under?

Recently, MLB.com ranked their top 25 players that are aged 25 or younger entering 2021. That made us think of what are the 25 best seasons by Colorado Rockies that were in their age 25 season or younger? So we compiled this list.

Some things to note about this are that in the first five seasons of the Rockies, they will not have a single player represented in this countdown. Why? None of them were under the age of 25. For example, on the 1995 team, the average player age was 30 years old. For the Blake Street Bombers, while they had great seasons, none of them were 25 or younger when they were in their heyday.

In fact, the only one that even had a season with the Rockies when he was 25 or younger was Vinny Castilla, the youngest member of the Blake Street Bombers. However, that was in 1993 when he was 25 and the Rockies were in their inaugural season. He, however, had his worst year as a Rockie that year.

So how are we evaluating each of the Rockies on this list?

For analyzing each season, WAR is a good barometer but it is not the be-all, end-all. Part of that is because of the 2020 season. For those seasons (and to the cynics, yes, the Rockies did have multiple players that are on or were close to making this list despite the Rockies not playing well as a team), we considered how their stats would look in a full, 162-game season. But we will never know if that would have held up had they played 102 more games.

So while that will hurt them, it was still a full season for what could have been played. So, in other words, we could rank some of them very high or completely omit them because they didn’t have the whole amount of the other seasons. We took more of a middle ground with it.

Part of it is because defense is considered and before 2002, Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) was not calculated so the defensive metrics are suspect … at best.

To be considered age 25 or under for the season, they must be 25 or younger on June 30 of a season. This is the number that is used by any baseball stats site (Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs included) for determining their age for a season.

We also gave more weight to the Rockies team achievements that year. For example, if two players have identical stats in 2007 and 2012, the 2007 player will rank higher because that player was key to a playoff run when the 2012 team was the worst in Rockies franchise history. All stats are also from Baseball-Reference.

Let’s dive into the top 25 seasons by Rockies at or under the age of 25.

25) Rex Brothers’ 2013 season (Age 23 season)

Rex Brothers makes this list as the only reliever on here and it’s because they don’t pitch enough innings but Brothers pitched a lot for the Rockies in 2013 and he was phenomenal.

Brothers took over in the closer role mid-season after Rafael Betancourt suffered through appendicitis and multiple other injuries. In 72 games in 2013, he finished 40 games and he had 19 saves in 21 opportunities along with 12 holds. Overall, he had an ERA of 1.72 with a FIP of 3.36 and an ERA+ of 257. He allowed less than seven hits per nine innings, walked 4.8 per nine innings, and struck out more than 10 per nine innings. He had a WAR of 3.1.

The injury bug ended up hitting Brothers the next season and in ensuing seasons as 2013 was his last full season in the majors. He returned to the majors with the Cubs in 2020 and he is still in their organization.

24) Jeff Francis’ 2006 season (Age 25 season)

Jeff Francis’ 2006 season was not as good as his 2007 but he was 26 in 2007 and therefore, that season does not qualify. However, his 2006 season still qualifies for our list.

In 2006, the Rockies, despite only having only a 76-86 record, had their best record since 2000 and Francis was part of the reason behind that. In his second full MLB season, he went 13-11 with a 4.16 ERA in 32 starts (199 innings). In those 199 innings, he averaged 8.5 hits, 0.8 home runs, 3.1 walks, and 5.3 strikeouts per nine innings. That home run average was 9th-best among NL qualifiers. He also had a WAR of 3.3.

23) Nolan Arenado’s 2014 season (Age 23 season)

Nolan Arenado was not quite “Nolan Arenado yet” and the Rockies still were a few years away from contention. Part of the reason why he is ranked so low for this season is that he was injured. He only played in 111 games and, offensively, he was good but not as good as he later became.

He had 18 home runs and 61 RBI with a slash line of .287/.328/.500 with an OPS+ of 115. He won a Gold Glove, despite missing more than 50 games, as he still had 12 Defensive Runs Saved and a 3.6 WAR.

Except for 2020, in every season since, Arenado was an All-Star and ranked in MVP voting, neither of which happened in 2014 for him, which is also part of the reason why this season is ranked lower than some of his others.

22) Kyle Freeland’s 2017 season (Age 24 season)

2017 was Kyle Freeland’s rookie season and the Denver native started his career solidly. He went 11-11 with a 4.10 ERA in 33 games (28 starts). In 156 innings, he had a 128 ERA+, a 4.57 FIP, a 3.4 WAR, and came in 7th in NL Rookie of the Year voting.

He faded as the season went on as in August and September, he went 0-4 with a 5.45 ERA and opponent’s hit .336/.408/.507. But he was still a big part of the first Rockies team to make the playoffs since 2009.

21) German Marquez’s 2017 season (Age 22 season)

2017 was also German Marquez’s rookie season and he was really close in rankings with Freeland and our next spot for a few reasons but Marquez slots in the middle for a few reasons.

He went 11-7 with a 4.39 ERA, a 4.40 FIP, and a 115 ERA+ while averaging 8.2 strikeouts and 2.7 walks per nine innings. He came in 5th in NL Rookie of the Year voting and he had a 3.6 WAR.

Like Freeland, he faded as the season progressed as in his final 10 starts, he went 2-3 with a 5.43 ERA. Batters hit .323/.366/.595 against him in that span too.

20) Jon Gray’s 2017 season (Age 25 season)

Jon Gray was the Rockies ace in 2017 but he isn’t ranked higher or even as the top Rockies starter at or under the age of 25 from that 2017 season for one main reason and it’s the main issue of Gray’s MLB career: injury.

Gray, who turned 25 the previous November, went 10-4 with a 3.67 ERA in 20 starts. In 110 1/3 innings, he struck out 112 batters while walking just 30 (9.1-to-2.4 strikeout-to-walk ratio) with a 3.18 FIP, a 138 ERA+, and a WAR of 3.0. He ended up receiving the start for the Rockies in the 2017 Wild Card game against Arizona and he was bombed in what, to date, has been his only postseason game.

In 1 1/3 innings, he allowed seven hits and four runs (all earned) before he got pulled in favor of Scott Oberg in the Rockies eventual 11-8 loss.

Not a great way to end the season but his season was still is good enough to get on our list and top our list for the trio of Rockies starters under the age of 25 in 2017. Despite pitching 50 fewer innings, he was the best of the trio and that’s why manager Bud Black turned to him in the Wild Card game.

19) Tyler Chatwood’s 2013 season (Age 23 season)

After a rough first season in Colorado, Tyler Chatwood did very well in his second season as a Rockie. He made 20 starts, going 8-5 with an ERA of 3.15, a FIP of 3.66, and an ERA+ of 142. His strikeout rate dropped a bit from his 2012 season (5.7 to 5.3) but he dropped his walk rate significantly from 4.6 to 3.3 per nine innings.

He only ranks 19th on our list because he only made 20 starts since he missed some time due to injury, as he did for nearly every season he was with the Rockies.

18) Jhoulys Chacin’s 2011 season (Age 23 season)

Jhoulys Chacin was one of the first pitchers that seemingly figured out Coors Field and was able to pitch well in numerous seasons with the Rockies. However, the Rockies weren’t very good when he was with the team and they rarely gave him any run support whatsoever.

That was definitely shown in 2011 when he had a record of 11-14 but his ERA was only 3.62. In 194 innings (31 starts), he had an ERA+ of 126, a FIP of 4.23, and a WAR of 4.1.

He averaged 7.8 hits, 0.9 home runs, 4.0 walks, and 7.0 strikeouts per nine innings. Opposing batters only hit .231/.315/.392 and they fared even worse against him in the first half of the season as, before the All-Star break, opponents only hit .201/.287/.365 with an ERA of 3.16.

In 2011, he actually pitched better at Coors Field as he was 6-7 with a 3.57 ERA in 18 starts there while he was 5-7 with a 3.68 ERA in 13 starts on the road.

15) Todd Helton’s 1999 season (Age 25 season)

Like his 1998 season, Helton’s 1999 season is another one that WAR seems a bit suspect and that’s partially because of the poor defensive metrics for the time but part of it is because 1999 was the season with the most amount of offense in any year in the sport since 1930 (2000 is the only season that has surpassed it since).

Since the Great Depression, only one MLB team has scored 1,000 runs in a season and that was in 1999 when the Cleveland Indians scored 1,009 runs. The average MLB hitter’s slash line was .271/.345/.434.

As for Helton, he played in 159 games and he had 185 hits, 39 doubles, 35 home runs, 113 RBI, walked 68 times, struck out 77 times, and had a slash line of .320/.395/.587. He had an OPS+ of 122 but only had a WAR of 2.9. That WAR wouldn’t even make this list if we just considered WAR but with those offensive numbers, Helton’s 1999 season definitely deserves to be on the list and not in the bottom few selections either.

14)  German Marquez’s 2020 season (Age 25 season)

German Marquez could have been higher on this list for his 2020 season had it been a full season but as we all know, it was only 60 games, which hurts him. After all, we’ll never know whether or not players played as they did for 60 games or if they would have continued it for 162.

However, since it’s only 60, if you just look at totals, no season from 2020 would pale in comparison. So, with that, we took the middle ground on it.

In 2020, Marquez went 4-6 with a 3.75 ERA. He had 13 starts (which led the league) and 81 2/3 innings (which also led the league) as well as a 140 ERA+. His 3.28 FIP and his record suggest that he was even a victim of the Rockies poor offense. He also cut his home run rate in half but his walk rate and strikeout rate each got a little bit worse compared to 2019.

13) Joe Kennedy’s 2004 season (Age 25 season)

For a Rockies team that tried to turn to veterans via free agency in 2004, including some Rockies of the 1990s (like Vinny Castilla and Steve Reed) but their best player outside of Todd Helton was left-handed starting pitcher Joe Kennedy, a young pitcher the Rockies acquired in the 2003-04 offseason from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in a three-team deal.

Kennedy went 9-7 with a 3.66 ERA in 27 starts (162 1/3 innings). He had an ERA+ of 135, a FIP of 4.35 with a career-high in strikeouts per nine innings at that point (6.5 K/9). He had a 5.6 WAR as a pitcher (-0.2 as a hitter so that is factored in his total WAR)) but that pitcher WAR was 6th in the NL despite missing a month due to injury.

It earned him the Opening Day start for the Rockies in 2005 but he was traded to Oakland for Eric Byrnes and Omar Quintanilla after having a complete 180 in 2005 (7.01 ERA in 16 starts before being traded).

He passed away at the age of 28 in 2007 due to hypertensive heart disease.

12) Antonio Senzatela’s 2020 season (Age 25 season)

Antonio Senzatela was the Rockies best player on their entire team in 2020 and he will look to continue that 2020 success for the Rockies in 2021.

In 2020, he went 5-3 with a 3.44 ERA in 12 starts. He had an ERA+ of 153 with a 4.57 FIP, which suggests he had some good luck. The strikeout rate dropped from 5.5 to 5.0 strikeouts per nine innings but his walk rate dropped nearly in half as it went from 4.1 to 2.2 per nine innings.

Just looking at total WAR (2.8), that nearly would have gotten on our list as it but considering that was just in 60 games, Senzatela’s 2020 season was definitely deserving to be a bit higher on the list. If you were to extrapolate his 2020 WAR for a full season, Senzatela would have been second in WAR for any Rockies player aged 25 or under but since it was not a full 162, he finds himself at 11 on our list.

11) Trevor Story’s 2016 season (Age 23 season)

Trevor Story was tasked with replacing Troy Tulowitzki in the 2016 season and he has answered the call on that. He broke onto the scene in 2016 where he hit 27 home runs. 72 RBI, and hit .272/.341/.567 with an OPS+ of 122.

He also had 14 Defensive Runs Saved, which was tops on the Rockies that year.

Why isn’t he ranked higher? Injury. He only played in 96 games due to a fractured finger while sliding into second base headfirst.

10)  Carlos Gonzalez’s 2010 season (Age 24 season)

2010 was Carlos Gonzalez’s best season with the Rockies but we have it a little lower than you may think for a few reasons.

In 2010, Gonzalez led the NL in hits (197), won a batting title (.336), was first in total bases (351), was second in slugging percentage (.598), 2nd in RBI (117), 3rd in runs scored (111), 4th in home runs (34), and 6th in OPS (.974).

He won a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger Award and also came in third in NL MVP voting. But his 5.9 WAR is tied for 9th among Rockies aged 25 or under, which is part of why he is lower on this list than you may expect.

9) Trevor Story’s 2018 season (Age 25 season)

Trevor Story’s 2018 season was, arguably, Story’s best season. That’s because of his improvement on offense after his injury-plagued rookie season and sophomore slump in 2017.

In 157 games, he hit .291/.348/.567 with 37 home runs, 108 RBI,  42 doubles, 27 stolen bases, and a 127 OPS+. The average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage were a 52, 40, and 110 point jump from his 2017 season. For OPS+, it was an astonishing 43 percent jump.

The slugging percentage was second in the NL, his 5.6 WAR was 7th in the NL, his OPS was 5th, 174 hits was 10th, 339 total bases was 2nd, doubles was 4th, stolen bases were 6th, and extra-base hits was first in the league.

He was an All-Star, won a Silver Slugger Award, and came in 8th in MVP voting.

His 5.6 WAR would have him lower than some of the players already ranked in our list. So why is he higher than, for example, Carlos Gonzalez, whose 2010 season was ranked just below Story at 10? The Rockies made the postseason this year and Story was a huge part of that.

In the Wild Card Game, when the Rockies defeated the Cubs, he went 3-for-6 in that game with a run and a double. He didn’t play particularly well in the NLDS when Milwaukee swept the Rockies but he did well in the regular season and he was a big factor in the Wild Card game as well.

8) Ubaldo Jimenez’s 2009 season (Age 25 season)

Ubaldo Jimenez was a contributor to the Rockies 2007 National League Champion team but he contributed more to the 2009 team, which also made the playoffs.

In that season, Jimenez 15-12 record with a 3.47 ERA in 33 starts. In 218 innings, he had a FIP of 3.36, an ERA+ of 136, struck out 198, allowed fewer hits than he did in 2008 (8.2 to 7.6 H/9), walked fewer batters (4.7 to 3.5 BB/9), and struck out more batters (7.8 to 8.2 K/9).

He had a pitching WAR of 5.5 (and 0.4 WAR as a batter for a total WAR of 5.9). That pitching WAR is high enough to be the 6th-highest of any pitcher in Rockies history, behind the two players ineligible for this countdown (Jimenez in 2010, Pedro Astacio in 1999), the aforementioned Joe Kennedy in 2004, and two more pitchers that are still on this list.

7) Jhoulys Chacin’s 2013 season (Age 25 season)

As it was in 2011 (and number 18 on our list), Jhoulys Chacin was a victim of bad run support and seemingly figured out Coors Field, which is something that many pitchers had by this time.

In 2013, he was coming off an injury-plagued 2012 season and he flourished once again. He went 14-11 on the season with an ERA of 3.47 in 31 starts. In 197 1/3 innings, he had an ERA+ of 129. His FIP was exactly that of his ERA (3.47), his walk rate was at his career-low (2.8 BB/9) and his home run rate (0.5 HR/9) dropped by more than half of what it was in 2013 (1.3 HR/9) and nearly half of what it was in 2011 (0.9 HR/9).

He was pretty good at Coors Field (9-5 with a 4.18 ERA in 18 starts) but he was even better on the road in 2013. However, he got less run support on the road. He was only 5-5 in 13 starts but had a phenomenal ERA of 2.44.

6) Nolan Arenado’s 2015 season (Age 24 season)

This was the season that Nolan Arenado really broke out for the Rockies. He played in more than 133 games for the first time in 2015 and his offense really stepped up a notch or two from his 2014 numbers.

In 157 games, Arenado had 97 runs, 177 hits, 43 doubles, 42 home runs, 130 RBI, 34 walks, 110 strikeouts, a .287/.323/.575 slash line, a 124 OPS+, and 22 DRS.

Both the home runs and RBI led the league as did the total number of extra-base hits, the doubles were second, the slugging percentage was second, the .898 OPS was 5th, his hit total was 5th in the league.

He had a WAR of 6.3 in this season.

5) Nolan Arenado’s 2016 season (Age 25 season)

By WAR, Arenado’s 2016 season was better but they are so close and because of the higher offensive production that he had in 2016, I’m going with this in a slot higher.

Arenado played in 160 games and he had 116 runs, 182 hits, 35 doubles, 41 home runs, 133 RBI, 68 walks, 103 strikeouts, a slashline of .294/.362/.570, a 129 OPS+, and 13 DRS.

His WAR was 5.9 for this season and that’s mainly because of his Defensive Runs Saved. It went down from 22 to 13. His offense (OPS+) went up five percent so that’s why we have this season ranked higher.

4) ) Troy Tulowitzki’s 2009 season (Age 24 season)

While Troy Tulowitzki is just making his debut on this list at number four, this is not his only time on here.

In 151 games in 2009, Tulowitzki scored 101 runs, had 161 hits, including 25 doubles, 32 home runs, 92 RBI, 20 stolen bases, a slash line of .297/.377/.552, an OPS+ of 131.

The Rockies made the playoffs this year and Tulo’s regular season was a big reason behind it. He hit .250 (4-for-16) in the NLDS that year as the Rockies were dispatched in 4 games by the reigning World Champions and future NL Champs, the Philadelphia Phillies.

3) Troy Tulowitzki’s 2010 season (Age 25 season)

In 2010, his last season of eligibility for this list, Tulo played in 122 games, hit 27 home runs, had 95 RBI, hit .315/.381/.568, had 32 doubles, 148 hits, an OPS+ of 138, and 19 DRS.

Despite only playing 122 games, he was an All-Star, came 5th in NL MVP voting, won a Gold Glove, and a Silver Slugger Award, and had a WAR of 6.7, which was the second-highest number in his tenure as a Rockie.

2) Troy Tulowitzki’s 2007 season (Age 22 season)

Tulowitzki had a cup of coffee in the majors in 2006 (25 games) but still qualified as a rookie in 2007 and had a fantastic season.

In 155 games, he scored 104 runs, had 177 hits, including 33 doubles, 24 home runs, 99 RBI, a .291/.359/.479 slash line, and a 109 OPS+. Those offensive numbers (particularly the OPS+) but his 34 DRS is what puts this season over the top of any other season by him.

His WAR was 6.8, which was the highest for him as a Rockie, the highest by a Rockies offensive player aged 25 or under, and the 7th-highest among any Rockies offensive player (Larry Walker, Ellis Burks, and Todd Helton have the six spots ahead of Tulo’s 2007 season).

Not a bad season to start your career. Come in second in NL Rookie of the Year voting, go to the World Series, and rank in MVP voting, all while you’re 22 years (he turned 23 during the 2007 playoffs).

But there’s one more season that tops them all for Rockies aged 25 or under.

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1) Kyle Freeland’s 2018 (Age 25 season)

Considering that Kyle Freeland had this season in a year that the Rockies made it to the playoffs (and also made it to the Division Series for just the fourth time in franchise history), there was really no competition for the number one spot.

Freeland went 17-7 with a 2.85 ERA in 33 starts. In 202 1/3 innings, he had a 166 ERA+, a 3.67 FIP, and he allowed an average of 8.1 hits, 0.8 home runs, 3.1 walks, and 7.7 strikeouts per nine innings. In the regular season, the opposing batters hit .240/.308/.358 and he had a WAR of 8.2. He fared even better in the second half of the season as in his final 13 starts, he went 9-1 with an ERA of 2.20.

For Rockies single-season records for any pitcher, Freeland’s 2.85 ERA is second, 17 wins is second,  winning percentage is 10th, WHIP is 7th, 8th in hits allowed per nine innings, and ERA+ was second

By WAR as well, it really wasn’t a competition for number one. The second-highest WAR by a Rockie aged 25 or under was Troy Tulowitzki at 6.8.

In fact, outside of Todd Helton’s 2000 and 2004 season and Larry Walker’s 1997 season that won him the MVP, this is the best single-season that a Rockies player has ever had. It is the best pitching season a Rockie has ever had so that’s part of why Freeland tops this list.

What do you think of our list? Did we forget a season or think you’d change the order up? Let us know either in the comment section or on social media pages.