The Colorado Rockies demonstrated some marginal improvements in the 2026 season, but after losing more than 100 games for the fourth year in a row, it is clear that they are still in a phase of rebuilding. 

While Colorado's offense was very productive and finished in the top five in multiple metrics last season, the pitching staff continues to be egregious, and it is a bottom-feeder in Major League Baseball. 

The Rockies did not have a starting pitcher on their staff in 2026 who finished with a winning record or an ERA below 5.00. Tomoyuki Sugano came the closest with a 12-12 record and a 5.37 ERA over 29 starts, but the last nine starts of his season were disastrous as he went 0-7 with an 8.06 ERA. 

Colorado's pitching is not anywhere close to reliable at the moment, and if the organization wants to meaningfully improve, not just in 2027, but in the years to come, it must overhaul this part of the team entirely. 

The good news for President of Baseball Operations Paul DePodesta and his front office staff is that there are plenty of free-agent pitchers on the market who are better than those the Rockies relied on in 2026. One such pitcher is left-hander Foster Griffin.

Griffin, 31, faced an uphill battle during the early years of his Major League Baseball career. Injuries and inconsistent time on the mound eventually led him to decide to play professionally in Japan, where he remained from 2023 through 2025.

Griffin returned to MLB in 2026, and as a member of the Washington Nationals, he looked like a completely different player. Griffin made 22 starts for Washington last season and posted a 12-3 record with a 3.06 ERA across 129.1 innings of work. 

Griffin's efforts earned him the first All-Star selection of his career, but even for as good as he was, he was still traded to the Cleveland Guardians at the deadline in August.

Griffin's production dropped with Cleveland as he went 3-3 with a 5.19 ERA over the course of nine regular-season starts and 43.1 innings of work, but he got back on track in the playoffs while taking on the roles of a reliever and a starter. Over three postseason games (one start), Griffin went 1-0 with a 3.48 ERA.

Griffin understands what it takes to be successful in MLB, and he took the time to play internationally to get to that point. The Rockies should leave all options on the table in terms of upgrading the pitching staff, and Griffin could be available at a fair price point.

According to recent free-agent projections by MLB Trade Rumors, Griffin is predicted to earn a three-year contract worth $39 million. 

Colorado's payroll was among the bottom 10 in baseball in 2026 at $121.5 million, but if the projection for Griffin's next contract is accurate, it should not be that hard to achieve. 

This is especially true if the next Collective Bargaining Agreement establishes a salary floor for teams to abide by, in which case the Rockies would be compelled to spend more money anyway. 

Griffin's MLB sample size may be small, but he has proven to be valuable, and $13 million per year is not a lot to ask of a team that should be doing anything to get better on the mound.