3 of the biggest mistakes that doomed the Rockies in 2023

3. Claiming washed free agents and not letting the kids play sooner

Coming into this year, fans knew that the Rockies were not going to be a great team but the optimism that surrounded them early on was around the youth invasion that was the Colorado Rockies.

At the second half of the season, the Rockies bolstered a lineup that featured at least five starting rookies everyday and were allowing the young stars to see big league pitching everyday which gave them the opportunity to get better and better.

Unfortunately, due to some moves made earlier this year, the Rockies were not always playing their younger stars right away and were allowing aging veteran players to take away some of these quality reps that I was just talking about.

On the Rockies opening day roster, it featured names like Jurickson Profar, Yonathan Daza, a Mike Moustakas who originally signed on a minor league deal and C.J. Cron who probably should have been traded before the season began while his stock reamined high.

Daza was the first one of the group to go as he was DFA'd last may. Followed by that Moustakas would get traded to the Angels. Cron would quickly follow him as well as the Angels acquired him and Randal Grichuk before the deadline and Profar would eventually become released at the end of Aug.

Unfortunately, these moves happened all to late.

For the best interest of the club, I do think it would've been much more valuable to the club to give Nolan Jones a spot on the opening day roster as it would have strengthen his case for NL Rookie of the Year as well as bringing up recent gold glove candidate Brenton Doyle. to the roster to help strengthen his case and help give him at least almost two more months of experience against MLB pitching as he consistently struggled at the plate.

I'm not saying bringing up Doyle and Jones would've solved all the Rockies problems last year, but it would have helped with their development in 2023.