Rockies Mailbag: Can the bullpen be fixed? What is Dick Monfort’s plan?

Denver Post sports writer Patrick Saunders with the latest installment of his Rockies Mailbag.

Pose a Rockies- or MLB-related question for the Rockies Mailbag.

Greetings Patrick. Where do we start? Unproductive outs (as witnessed Sunday) or ineffective relief pitching?

As your statistics showed today, the Rockies’ bullpen is terribly inefficient. Is this a product of insufficient talent or lack of coaching in the organization? Should the Rockies spend more time and resources scouting pitching specifically?

— Robert Emmerling, Limon

Robert, you hit on two things that have plagued the Rockies throughout their ongoing six-season losing streak.

The stats you reference are from a tweet I posted on Monday illustrating the struggles of the Rockies’ bullpen:

• 5.78 ERA (highest in majors)

• 1.63 WHIP (highest)

• .290 avg. against (highest)

• 7.32 strikeouts per nine innings (third fewest)

• 4.43 walks per nine innings (second highest)

The Rockies’ bullpen is a mess, and it’s cost them a lot of games this season, most recently a 2-1 loss to the Nationals on Sunday, which wasted a terrific start from Kyle Freeland.

Are the bullpen woes because of a lack of talent or poor coaching? I’m going to go with the former. The team doesn’t have a true closer, and late-game relievers Jake Bird (6.25 ERA), Justin Lawrence (6.12) and Tyler Kinley (8.40) have all struggled much more than the Rockies anticipated. Possible closer Daniel Bard is out for the season with an elbow injury.

Relievers are notoriously volatile — good one season, bad the next. But most of the Rockies’ relievers have been bad this season, save for Victor Vodnik (4.39 ERA) and veteran lefty Jalen Beeks (3.76). But even Beeks, a possible trade chip as next month’s deadline looms, has been undependable. He has six saves, but he’s also blown five.

I suspect manager Bud Black knew his bullpen would be shaky back in spring training. But not this shaky. He’s tried to mix and match, but nothing has worked.

The Rockies will not make a major investment in a legitimate closer or quality set-up men until the team has a realistic chance of being a contender. In 2017, they invested in closer Greg Holland, and in ’18, they invested in Wade Davis. The Rockies made the playoffs in each of those seasons.

What will it take for (owner) Dick Monfort and company to get off their wallets, invest in the team and build another attraction at Coors Field? We are well on pace for our second 100-plus loss season, and we can’t boycott because transplants fill up Coors every home game anyway. I’m just so tired of being a fan of a franchise that doesn’t care about being competitive.

— Jericho Goering, Denver

Jericho, I usually ignore questions regarding Monfort because they are usually just rants. But you raise some interesting points I often hear from fans, so I’ll tackle your issues.

First, it’s a misnomer that the Rockies don’t spend money. Their current payroll is $147.2 million, ranking 16th in the majors. The problem is that the Rockies don’t spend their money wisely.

This season, the Rockies are paying Kris Bryant $28 million, and he’s played in only 24 games because of injuries. Bryant’s seven-year, $182 million contract has become an albatross for Colorado. I had an agent tell me that many in the industry thought the Rockies overpaid by as much as $50 million when they signed Bryant back in the spring of 2021.

Colorado is also paying Charlie Blackmon $13 million this season. I realize he’s a franchise icon, but he turns 38 on July 1 and he’s currently on the injured list with a strained hamstring. Blackmon has hit only three homers this season with a .747 OPS.

By comparison, the Pirates re-signed franchise icon Andrew McCutchen to a one-year, $5 million deal. He turns 38 on Oct. 10 and he’s hit 10 homers with a .741 OPS.

The Rockies paid Blackmon twice as much as they needed to.

As our Rockie Way project illustrated late last season, this is a difficult franchise to understand.

As for your contention that transplants fill up Coors, I suppose there is some truth to that. Still, a broad mix of fans go to Coors during the summer: vacationing tourists, fans of visiting teams, Twentysomethings hanging out at the party deck, families on a family outing and even hard-core Rockies fans.

I’m not a fan of boycotting local sports teams, but fans can do whatever they want. It’s your money. I just don’t think a boycott will change things.

By the way, the Rockies are averaging 29,023 fans per home game, ranking 16th in the majors. Toss out the two games in Mexico City in April that were counted as Rockies home games, and the average is 29,521.

We have two questions related to infield prospect Aaron Schunk.

Patrick, do you see Aaron Schunk getting called up this year?

— Josh Tobias, Meridian, Idaho

Hey Patrick, keep the great coverage coming! Brendan Rodgers’ injury provided an opportunity to call up an infield prospect. I can see the allure of giving our No. 1 prospect (Adael Amador) a taste to move along the development curve. Still, I thought Aaron Schunk (also a Top-30 prospect) was a deserving candidate, with his play so far this season at Triple-A Albuquerque. Any thoughts?

— Ryan, Pasadena, Calif.

Guys, Schunk is having a solid season for the Isotopes but he’s not exactly kicking down the door. He’s slashing .288/.334/.469 with seven home runs. You have to remember that the offensive numbers players put up at Albuquerque are not an accurate predictor of what they’ll do in the majors.

Plus, Schunk is not currently on the 40-man roster, and he’s not a shortstop, which limits his versatility.

Amador, who was on the 40-man roster at the time of his promotion, was brought up from Double-A Hartford because the Rockies wanted to get a reliable gauge of his development. The Rockies didn’t expect Amador to thrive — and they would have been surprised if he did — but they did want him to get a taste of the majors and see what he needs to work on.

Clearly, Amador has a lot of work to do at the plate (.171/.194/.200 slash line with one double in 35 at-bats) and at second base, where he was out of position or late to the ball on several would-be groundball outs.

What realistic move(s) could get the Rockies back to at least .500 baseball this season or next?

— Bill Coder, Highlands Ranch

Bill, the Rockies are on pace to lose 106 games this season. There is no way they can even sniff a .500 record this season. While several people in the organization believe the Rockies can become a .500 team in 2025, I am very skeptical.

Their starting pitching might be relatively solid next season with the return of German Marquez, but they need to beef up a punchless offense, and the bullpen is a mess. I don’t see them filling all of the holes by ’25. Reaching .500 by 2026 is more realistic.

Why are the Rockies still holding on to Elehuris Montero? He seems to have regressed from his progress last September, and I’d rather see Michael Toglia get those ABs.

— Jason, Tulare, Calif.

Jason, with Kris Bryant still on the injured list, Montero and Toglia have been getting plenty of at-bats. Toglia, in fact, has started 17 games since he was recalled from Triple-A on June 6.

But, to your main point, the Rockies still hope Montero develops into a productive power hitter. He’s made tremendous strides as a first baseman, but he’s in no-man’s land at the plate.

While he’s reduced his strikeout rate from 36.2% last season to 21.8% this season and increased his walk rate from 4.9% to 8.2%, he’s sacrificed power. Montero has hit only four home runs while carrying a .209 batting average. He hit .243 with 11 homers last season. Montero’s home run rate has fallen from 3.6% to 1.7%.

In my opinion, Montero’s production indicates he’s a marginal big-league player.

Toglia flashes a lot of potential but his inconsistency is troubling. Even though he’s hit seven home runs and his 6.0% home run rate is double the major league average, Toglia is batting just .194. His strikeout rate is 36.8%, far above the MLB average of 22.5%.

Want more Rockies news? Sign up for the Rockies Insider to get all our MLB analysis.