DENVER -- During the final days of the historically poor 2025 Rockies season, veteran infielder Kyle Farmer spoke with the perspective of a man who has been tabbed a leader on teams on polar ends of the success spectrum.
The makeup of the roster of the 43-119 Rockies elicited a frank assessment -- one that, as we’ll explain, was offered constructively.
“It’s actually nuts,” Farmer said.
The Rockies on Tuesday declined their end of a $4 million mutual option, so Farmer is receiving a $750,000 buyout. When he spoke at the end of the season, Farmer, 35, expressed hope that he would return to the Rockies in 2026, even though he knew Tuesday’s decision -- which put him in free agency -- was possible.
He spoke with no sour grapes (or anticipation of such). Never would there be bitterness from a player like Farmer, whose post-playing options include coaching, managing or front-office work should he desire.
So what was the craziness of which Farmer spoke?
Farmer broke in with the Dodgers, an evergreen contender in blue, and saw postseason playing time in 2017. He also saw smaller-market postseason play with the Reds in 2020 and the Twins in 2023. But he also was a part of the 62-100 Reds in 2022.
The Rockies signed him in November 2024 as a part-time player and veteran sounding board. Injuries and struggles for young players had him playing 97 games and starting for long stretches – even at first base, which he had hardly played. Late in the year, Farmer was playing on a team needing direction -- as in so many debuting players that they needed directions to the field, to the bus, to restaurants on the road.
The Rockies had a club-record 13 players debut -- a year after they tied the previous mark with 12. They used 19 players who were regular (as in non-rehabbing) members of the Double-A Hartford Yard Goats over the last two seasons. Farmer expressed hope that at some point the younger Rockies could recover from their breakneck paths to the Majors and turn all these losses into wins.
Regularly, Farmer was a whopping 12 years older than the next-oldest infielder.
Hence, nuts.
“I mean, either it’s a compliment to me that I’m still playing at 35 and I’m 12 years older than some of the guys on the infield with me, or it’s pretty shocking,” Farmer said. “It’s a young man’s game right now.
“I don’t know what the Rockies are going to do. I’m not sure. What I think they need to do is bring in some more older veterans that can lead these guys, and play well.”
Third baseman Ryan McMahon before he was sent to the Yankees at the Trade Deadline, catcher Jacob Stallings before he was released, Farmer and in-season pickup Orlando Arcia (now a free agent) were the veteran types. With Kris Bryant mostly unavailable for the fourth straight year because of injury, McMahon was the closest the team had to a mid-career star -- and McMahon’s only postseason trip with the Rockies came during his rookie year of 2018.
The Dodgers are celebrating another championship, while the Rockies are searching for a new leader of baseball operations to replace Bill Schmidt. The Rockies are seen as an organization in need of a revamp in how things are done from top to bottom, and beefed-up staffing in areas in which they’ve fallen behind other teams.
And, oh yeah, even in a youth movement, an infusion of proven Major League regulars with postseason accomplishments would help.
“Coors Field is a great place to play,” Farmer said. “Colorado is a great place to live. Whether it’s bringing in some veteran pitchers or some veteran players, that’s what they need to do. We’ll see. There’s a lot of stuff that needs to happen.”
Trades may be the best way for the infusion Farmer called for. But he allowed that his young teammates of '25 are capable of growing into winners if they learn from the losing.
“You would hope so, right? I’m looking at the teams that we’ve played against that are going to the playoffs this year,” Farmer said. “Take the Mariners, for example. They have been to the playoffs before. Then you look at us, and we have most of our starting lineup under three years’ service time.
“The good teams, the winning teams, there’s been a good combination of veterans and rookies. We just have a bunch of young players. They’re very, very talented. They’ve got a bright future. But it’s hard to go places that you’ve never been before.”