It appears that the Colorado Rockies wanted to lean into bringing in a new pitching coach with some MLB experience on his resume. Ethan Katz fits the description and will now work on helping one of the ballclub's weakest areas.

Katz was named pitching coach on Monday by the Rockies' organization. Last season, Katz served as assistant pitching coach for the Houston Astros. Before going to the Astros, Katz spent five seasons as pitching coach for the Chicago White Sox.

His career also includes five seasons of professional baseball. The Rockies drafted Katz out of Sacramento State University in the 2005 MLB Draft. He spent four seasons in the Rockies' minor-league system, then went to play for Victoria in the Independent Golden Baseball League in Canada.

What about his road to becoming a pitching coach in the major leagues? That journey started back in 2013, where he was pitching coach of the Los Angeles Angels' rookie level club in Arizona. In 2014-15, he was pitching coach at Single-A Burlington.

Then, in 2016, he was pitching coach at High-A Bakersfield in the Seattle Mariners' organization before going to the Double-A Arkansas squad as pitching coach in 2017-18.

In 2019, Katz got his first major-league job with the San Francisco Giants as an assistant pitching coordinator before becoming an assistant pitching coach in 2020. 

Rockies fans have known for a long time that Coors Field is a bit of a hitter-friendly ballpark, which affects how the Colorado pitching staff works. There was not one Colorado starter last season with an ERA below 5.00. Tomoyuki Sugano had the best ERA with a 5.37 ERA while posting a 12-12 record. Brennan Bernardino also was good last season, too.  

Antonio Senzatela finished with a 3.61 while with the Rockies, but he was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers. That worked out good for him as he'll pick up a World Series ring for his work with the ballclub.

Their team ERA last season was 5.59. That is just not acceptable for a major-league ballclub looking to break out of losing 100-plus games over the last four seasons. Also, it's just ridiculous to have starters not able to go further than two, three, or four innings in ballgames.

That puts way too much pressure on the Rockies' bullpen. Relievers need to be in a position to come in and help the team secure victories.

Katz comes in and will have a full plate to address. There are holes to fill all throughout the pitching staff. It's his job now. Rockies fans can now wait and see what happens next.