As if the Colorado Rockies' 2025 season could get any worse, one of the few potential bright spots of their putrid squad in rookie pitcher Chase Dollander may have thrown his final pitch of the season on the eighth of September in a 3-1 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. As Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post reported, Dollander is headed to the injured list with a knee injury and will be missing his next start as a result — with Saunders saying that “his rookie season is likely over.”
Dollander, if his season is indeed over, at least went out on a high note. He allowed just one run on one hit in five innings (76 pitches) against the Dodgers this past Monday, which is one of the best starts of his career, being one of just four starts in which he allowed just one earned run five or more innings of work.
It looked as though Dollander had something left in the tank, but after he threw a four-pitch walk to start the sixth inning, the Rockies noticed that his left knee was bothering him more than usual. This led to an early exit for Dollander not just from the game, but it looks like it will also be an early exit from the 2025 season itself.
Considering how talent-starved the Rockies are this season, any bit of hope they can hold on to is worth keeping. For Dollander, the Rockies can look past his obscene ERA of 6.52 and see, at the very least, that his underlying metrics (5.22 xERA, 4.87 xFIP) show that he has plenty of room to grow, especially when he's just 23 years of age.
Dollander was the ninth overall pick of the 2023 MLB Draft, and he'll be looking to improve in Year 2, provided, of course, that he completely puts his knee injury issues in the rearview mirror.
Rockies' 2025 season is one to forget
The Rockies, on Thursday night, were shut out for the second game in a row, which is just a microcosm of all the struggles they've gone through all year long. They have a 40-107 record following their 2-0 loss to the San Diego Padres, and their run differential of -386 is poised to be the worst for any team in the modern era.
This campaign has simply been one to forget for the Rockies, a team that, after years of mismanagement, is finally paying the price. The silver lining here is that there's nowhere else to go for them but up… right?
