The Colorado Rockies are carving out a place in baseball history, but it’s not the kind you celebrate with champagne. After a 2-0 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday, completing a series sweep, the Rockies sit at a brutal 8-42 through 50 games. That’s the worst start in MLB’s modern era (since 1901), per ESPN, with only the 1895 Louisville Colonels’ 7-43 mark standing as a bleaker opening in the sport’s recorded history. Coming off a 2024 season where the Chicago White Sox set a modern low with a 41-121 record, you’d think it’d be a while before we saw a team flirt with that kind of futility. But the Rockies are on track to make the White Sox look like contenders.
If Colorado keeps winning at this clip—eight victories every 50 games—they’re staring down a 26-win season, which would rank as the third-worst win total in MLB history. The modern-era record for futility belongs to the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics, who scraped together 36 wins. To find worse, you have to dig deep into the pre-modern era: the 1890 Pittsburgh Alleghenys stumbled to 23-113 over 136 games (on pace for about 27 wins in a 162-game season), and the 1899 Cleveland Spiders hold the all-time low at 20-134 across 154 games. The Rockies’ current trajectory has them nipping at the Spiders’ heels, and with a full 162-game slate, they could cement a new benchmark for misery.
What stings even more is how this skid has unfolded. The Rockies actually started with a flicker of hope, winning three of their first 12 games. Since then? A brutal five wins in 38 games, leaving fans at Coors Field grasping for silver linings. The NL West isn’t doing them any favors, either. Every other team in the division—the Dodgers, Padres, Giants, and Diamondbacks—boasts a winning record, and most are in the playoff hunt. If those teams bolster their rosters with midseason trades, the gap could widen, making life even tougher for Colorado.
The Rockies’ struggles aren’t just about bad luck—they’re getting outplayed on both sides of the ball. Their offense has been anemic, and the pitching staff hasn’t been able to stop the bleeding. Even bright spots like third baseman Ryan McMahon, who’s drawn trade interest from teams like the Cubs and Dodgers, can’t mask the team’s overall woes. The front office shakeup—firing manager Bud Black and bench coach Mike Redmond after a 21-run loss to the Padres—hasn’t sparked a turnaround, with interim manager Warren Schaeffer and new bench coach Clint Hurdle trying to steer a sinking ship.
Now, the Rockies head into a weekend series at home against the New York Yankees, a team that’s got its own postseason aspirations. It’s a tough spot for a squad that’s already made unwanted history. Fans are holding out hope for a spark—maybe from young second baseman Adael Amador or a resurgent outing from pitcher Antonio Senzatela—but the math isn’t kind. At this pace, Colorado’s not just in the basement; they’re, as one X post put it, “tunneling their way to the center of the Earth.” For a franchise that’s shown flashes of fight in the past, this season’s collapse is a gut punch. But with 112 games left, there’s still time to rewrite the story—just don’t bet on a fairy-tale ending.
