2024 Rockies by the Numbers: Colorado’s historically bad offense

Every year around this time I look through the numbers for the Rockies, looking for stats, rankings and trends. It presents a black and white image of the season that has just ended.

It wasn’t pretty for the 2024 Rockies.

Basic example: Colorado’s .242 average, .304 on-base percentage and .704 OPS were the lowest in franchise history, while his 1,617 strikeouts were the highest in franchise history. But then you probably already knew that.

But what you may not have known is that Colorado finished the season with a swing percentage of 50.9% and a chase percentage of 31.8%, the second highest in the majors behind Miami. In other words, the Rockies were rocking and blowing hard.

The peak of the Rockies’ ineffectiveness came from September 3–7, when the team struck out 75 times, the second most by a team in the modern era over a five-game period, trailing only the Brewers by 77,000. in 2017

Digging a little deeper, the following statistics are more revealing – the good, the bad and the ugly:

Blown off socks: Opposing hitters have hit .285/.354/.468 (.822 OPS) this season, hitting 221 home runs against Colorado pitching, the highest mark in all of those categories in the majors. Rockies pitchers allowed a 40.6% hard hit percentage, third highest in the majors, and average exit velocity was 89.4 mph, second best. They got the full Charlie Brown treatment.

Youth movement: The Rockies had 12 players 24 years of age or younger in the game, tying the 2012 club for the second-most in franchise history, trailing only the ’16 Rockies team (13 players). Four pitchers 23 years of age or younger (Bradley Blalock, Angel Chivilli, Anthony Molina and Luis Peralta) rose to the occasion, tying for the most in franchise history (also in 2016). Only the Angels used more pitchers 23 and younger (five).

Epic Fall: The Rockies’ ninth-inning ERA was 7.10, which was the highest in the majors by more than a full inning (Toronto had an ERA of 5.88). Opponents hit .295 against the Rockies in the ninth, also the highest mark in baseball. Colorado blew more than a five-run lead in the ninth and then blew six runs, the most in a single season in the modern major league era.

Bullish: It was certainly a small sample, but the six novices showed promiseespecially in the last weeks of the season. Jeff Criswell, Seth Halvorsen, Jaden Hill, Victor Vodnik, Peralta and Chivilli combined for a 3.84 ERA, 12 saves and 8.59 strikeouts per nine innings in 143 appearances. Points to better times in 2025.

High temperature: Halvorsen threw a fastball of 102.5 mph on September 26 when he made the save against the Cardinals in the Rockies’ 10-8 victory at Coors Field. It was the second-fastest pitch by a Rockie player in the StatCast era (since 2015), behind only Julian Fernandez in 2021, who hit 102.8 mph. Halvorsen threw a total of 47 pitches at least 100 miles per hour in 12 games.

Power Potential: Colorado hit 179 home runs, ranking 15th in the major leagues. And while the overall offense was bad, the Rockies flashed some power. Shortstop Ezequiel Tovar (team-high 26 homers), first baseman Michael Toglia (25) and center fielder Brenton Doyle (23) formed the only trio of majors under 26 years of age to hit at least 23 home runs. The offense will improve significantly if Tovar (28.8%) and Toglia (32.1%) can reduce their high hit rate.

Budding Star: Tovar, a Gold Glove finalist, added 45 doubles and four triples to his 26 dingers for a total of 75 extra-base hits, ranking second in the National League behind only Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani (99). Tovar led the Dutch League in doubles with 45 and tied for 11th most wins in a season in franchise history; the most since Matt Holliday recorded 50 doubles in 2007.