Why the 2021 season will be the most important season in Colorado Rockies history

The 2021 season will be the most important in Colorado Rockies history. Yes, you read that correctly.

Considering how fans have been upset with Rockies ownership and their front office, many Rockies fans have claimed that they will “boycott” the team. Even before the Nolan Arenado trade, this was already seen in the Rockies TV and radio ratings. For TV viewership, their ratings dropped 24 percent after they dropped 18 percent in 2019. Both of those were among the steepest among all 30 teams and it will likely decline even further, at least to start the season.

You, as a Rockies fan, should pay attention with an eagle-eye this year. Why? Well, there are a few reasons.

Chief among them is that the Colorado Rockies could surprise some people.

That could be in a good way or a bad way. They could be the “snake in the grass” and “shock the world” by being in the playoff hunt late in the season. They could also be a 100+ loss team, especially if they trade Trevor Story, Jon Gray, and others during the season.

The Rockies will also have a lot of young talent and some of them could break out and prove themselves to be key cogs for the team for the coming years. Some of those could be Ryan McMahon, Raimel Tapia, Sam Hilliard, Brendan Rodgers, Dom Nunez, and Austin Gomber.

However, even if most of them don’t develop as the Rockies hope they do, the 2021 season will still be of vital importance. If a “boycott” of Coors Field and the area around Coors Field (e.g. McGregor Square) happens, the Rockies ownership and front office could pay attention more to the fans and their anger.

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Dick Monfort, at least as of early February, said that the team is “an exceptionally talented team” but said that they have just “underperformed” in the last few years. Once can be a fluke. Twice (especially with the shortened 2020 season) can still be seen as a fluke. But three years in a row is not a fluke. It’s a pattern.

And it’s a pattern that could cause some serious changes in the Rockies front office, managerial, and coaching staff, and perhaps, even with management. Especially if the minor league teams don’t win along with the MLB team, there will be no other thing to call the Rockies organization and the Jeff Bridich era: A complete and total failure.

It could be enough for Monfort to fire Bridich, hire a new GM, and a President of Baseball Operations (essentially, Dick Monfort would be “firing” himself, as he has said before), and perhaps replace some members of the coaching staff and, perhaps, even Bud Black as well. That latter moves would be something that would not be viewed as favorably as the three former moves.

As we touched on in our most recent podcast episode, we touched on how Black, by betting odds in Vegas, has the second-highest chance of being the first MLB manager to be fired this season. You can check that out below.

2021 will be the season where it will be a “put up or shut up” season. If the Rockies can prove everyone wrong and be a playoff (or close to playoff) team, more power to them. It will also prove that the ownership and management know more about the team than most fans and the media. But if most fans and the media are right, it will still be a huge season because it could change how the Rockies operate for years or even decades to come.