Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland deserves a medal. Perhaps baseball’s equivalent of a Purple Heart. Because no one has started more games (119) or pitched more innings (622) at Coors Field. The gritty southpaw has watched 91 of his pitches sail over the wall at Coors and owns a 4.88 career ERA in LoDo. Still, the Denver native keeps trying, believing there is a solution — or at least survival — to pitching at a mile above sea level. Freeland, entering his 10th big-league season, is open to just about anything if it will help the Rockies win. So, when Rockies pitchers and catchers report to spring training on Thursday at Salt River Fields in Scottsdale, Arizona, Freeland will fully embrace experimentation by the club’s new front office and pitching staff. Openers? Shorter starts? Bullpenning? Pitch-calling from the dugout? Developing new pitches? Expanded repertoires? More changeups? Sure, why not? Kyle Freeland (21) of the Colorado Rockies watches the action during the first inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Coors Field in Denver on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post) “We have been having a lot of conversations about changes,” Freeland said. “There has been constant communication and conversations about ideas and questions. ‘Why are we doing this?’ ‘What can we possibly be doing differently?’ ” The philosophy of Paul DePodesta, the new president of baseball operations: let’s throw some things against the wall and see what sticks. What have the Rockies got to lose? After all, the team lost 119 games last season, and the starters posted a 6.65 ERA, the highest in baseball history since ERA became an official statistic in 1913. “I’m very open to experimenting and trying different things,” DePodesta said shortly after he was hired in November. “I’ve said this before: I don’t have all the answers by any stretch. I’m pretty relentless in trying to find them. I think we’ll probably be experimental, too. We have to be willing to try different things.” Freeland is all in. “Yeah, there (are) some funky, wacky ideas that have been thrown around in these conversations from the pitching side,” he said. “But you know what? It’s also extremely refreshing to hear those kinds of ideas and those thought processes, because it creates excitement inside the clubhouse to go out and try those and see if they work. If they don’t, you can move on to the next thing that you want to try out and try and find success that way.” ‘We want big arsenals’ DePodesta has put his faith in Colorado’s new staff: pitching coordinator Matt Daniels, pitching coach Alon Leichman, and assistant pitching coach Gabe Ribas. The Rockies have kept most of the details about their spring training experimentation under wraps. Leichman, however, wants his starting pitchers to be more versatile. Specifically, he wants them to expand their arsenal. “We’ve spoken about this internally a lot,” said Leichman, who came over from the Marlins. “We want big arsenals. We think big arsenals will be harder to game-plan against. You know, if a guy has six, seven pitches, that’s harder to game-plan for than if a guy has two or three, right? So we think that’s an advantage. Related Articles After Rockies baseball, veteran broadcaster Jerry Schemmel finds another calling | Journal Rockies make two trades, acquiring infielders T.J. Rumfield and Edouard Julien, and right-hander Pierson Ohl Will Rockies lose 90 games or fewer in 2026? | Mailbag MLB salary cap dispute heats up heading into labor negotiations | Rockies Journal Rockies’ Hunter Goodman on rebuild entering 2026: ‘We can’t just be happy to be here’ “The more weapons you have, the more random you can be. And each pitch has its purpose. There are pitches that are better for the swing and miss, and there are pitches for the (bottom) of the zone for groundballs. It all depends on a lot of things, but the more weapons you have, the more equipped you are for the game.” That’s one of the big reasons why the Rockies spent some money to sign veteran right-hander Michael Lorenzen. Lorenzen, who turned 34 on Jan. 4, will make $8 million in 2026, and the club option is worth $9 million in 2027. Colorado Rockies pitcher Michael Lorenzen (24), center, speaks during a pitchers question and answer session during Rockies Fest on Saturday at Coors Field in Denver. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post) Lorenzen claims he throws eight pitches: three fastballs, two types of changeups, a slider, a sweeper, and a curve. It’s doubtful all eight will survive the Coors Field test, but Lorenzen is open to giving it a try. “One thing I do love is problem-solving and growing as a pitcher, and I have grown as a pitcher by failing,” Lorenzen said. “So I feel like that’s why I’ve been able to stick around for as long as I have, and Colorado just seems untapped in that area. “So we’re gonna fail a little bit, but we have a good coaching staff that has been brought in and a new front office that has been brought in to hopefully make that learning curve a lot shorter than normal.” Raw and unproven talent Maybe so, but getting young pitchers to become comfortable mixing and matching a variety of pitches — especially at altitude — is an enormous challenge. Right-handers Chase Dollander, Ryan Feltner, Tanner Gordon, McCade Brown and Gabriel Hughes (who has yet to make his big-league debut) are still relatively raw and unproven. Dollander will be the litmus test. Drafted ninth overall out of the University of Tennessee in 2023, Dollander made his debut last season. He threw his four-seam fastball 48.7% of the time, followed by his curveball (21.3), cutter (12.4), sinker (9.9), and changeup (7.8), according to Baseball Savant. On the road, his repertoire worked well: He posted a 3.64 ERA, 1.173 WHIP, averaged 8.1 strikeouts per nine innings, and gave up six home runs in 10 starts (52.0 innings). Colorado Rockies pitcher Chase Dollander (32) reacts as he comes off the mound during the game against the Athletics at Coors Field in Denver on April 6, 2025. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post) At home, the Rockies’ rookie got rocked: 9.98 ERA, 1.978 WHIP, 6.8 strikeouts per nine innings and 12 home runs in 11 starts (46 innings). In his final home start of the season, on Labor Day, the Giants scored six runs on Dollander in five innings, cruising to an 8-2 win. The right-hander said he remained confident. “It’s just a matter of figuring it out,” Dollander said at the time, adding that he didn’t have a good feel for his curveball. “I’m going to figure it out; there is no question about it.” But he’s fighting history. Legions of pitchers became gunshy about pitching at Coors Field after getting shelled a few times, and they started backing off from throwing certain pitches. The Rockies hope Dollander doesn’t join those ranks. Getting ahead and staying ahead The key, for all of the Rockies pitchers, said, is to pound the zone, get ahead in the count and finish the job. Nibbling is a no-no. “We have to get ahead, stay ahead, and put them away,” Leichman said last month at Rockies Fan Fest. “We need them to get in the zone, stay in the zone. And when I say ‘get in the zone,’ I mean anywhere in that zone. Then stay in there. Don’t nitpick.” But once a pitcher gets bombed at Coors, that’s easier said than done. “We are in La La Land right now,” Lorenzen said. “It’s January and everyone is optimistic. You have to remember that we are going to get punched in the face. Shohei Ohtani will hit a homer against us in a big spot. That will happen. “But how good can we be after that? We have to believe that getting ahead and staying ahead is still our best path. We are talking about it right now. We will give up some bloop singles and then a homer, but we are still going to stick to the plan. Because we know from baseball history that the more you are in the zone, until two strikes, the better off you will be.” Freeland has experienced success and misery at Coors Field. In 2018, the Rockies’ last playoff season, he went 10-2 with a 2.40 ERA. The next season, he went 2-4 with a 9.25 ERA at Coors. “I’ve found that it’s about eliminating the fear and being confident and consistent in zone,” he said. “Some of the stuff that we’ve spoken to our pitching coaches about leading up to camp is going to be a learning curve for young guys — and even guys like me. “But the great thing is, we’re all very hungry to learn what they have offer us and get things rolling in the right direction.” Want more Rockies news? Sign up for the Rockies Insider to get all our MLB analysis. ...read more read less