Colorado Rockies news and links for Monday, August 4th, 2025
Since team icon Todd Helton ended his Hall of Fame career in 2013, first base had become quite the revolving door for the Colorado Rockies. Veteran stopgaps, rookie hopefuls, and a few decidedly not-first-a-baseman players all manned the position with varying degrees of success. However, none were truly a successor to Helton, and Andrés Galarraga before him.
The Colorado Rockies entered the 2025 season believing they might have finally found their first baseman.
Despite a brutal slump to kick off the 2024 season that saw him optioned to Triple-A Albuquerque, 2019 first-round pick Michael Toglia emerged triumphant on the other side. From June 6th onward, he hit .233/.331/.469 with 14 doubles, three triples, 21 home runs, and 47 RBIs. He finished the season one shy of the team lead for home runs and his 2.2 bWAR was good the the fourth-best rating on the team. Sure, he finished the season with 147 strikeouts, but his excellent walk rate—one of the best in the league—and his effortless power with contact helped offset the damage.
Toglia entered spring training this season virtually unopposed. His only competition—non-roster invitees Nick Martini, Keston Hiura, and Owen Miller—were not first basemen by trade and unlikely to make the Opening Day roster. Martini made the cut as a right fielder and designated hitter, but was designated for assignment at the end of May.
After parts of three major league seasons, Michael Toglia was the Rockies’ Opening Day first baseman. The seventh such player since Todd Helton retired, expectations of Toglia were high.
“No doubt he can become [a force in the National League] because he’s an everyday player,” former manager Bud Black said during spring training. “He plays defense, he hits for power, he’s durable. He just needs improvement in incremental ways offensively.”
Toglia even broke the franchise record for consecutive starts at first base previously held by Galarraga.
However, the incremental improvements on his successful 2024 rebound never came in 2025.
Toglia didn’t hit his first home run of the season until April 16th and had just three other extra base hits through his first 64 at-bats. During that time he walked only twice and struck out at a 50% clip.
He brushed off the early struggles at the plate.
“I had a stretch like this last year, but at the time, I had 250 at-bats under my belt, so it didn’t get magnified,” he told the Denver Post. “Now, since it’s at the beginning of the season, it just looks a lot worse on the scoreboard. So, keeping that in mind, I don’t let it bother me. I know I can go out and hit a couple of homers and the numbers will look right.”
The numbers never looked right.
Toglia finished May hitting just .194/.266/.349 over 54 games. His walks picked up a little, and he did hit six home runs. But he also struck out a league-leading 81 times.
The Rockies even briefly benched Toglia to work on his swing with the coaching staff, but he still struggled to make meaningful contact. He hit just .210 against fastballs and .170 against breaking pitches.
Having lost their patience, the Rockies chose to option Toglia to Triple-A Albuquerque for what they called “a reset.”
“Mike had some strikeouts, and we tried to be patient,” said Rockies general manager Bill Schmidt. “We thought, coming off last season, he was going to take a step forward. Ultimately, he took a step backwards. So we have to do a little bit of a reset, send him back down to Albuquerque and hopefully make some adjustments and see where it goes. We want consistency. We want him to figure it out. … I think there is a hitter in there. We’ve seen it at times, but not consistently.”
However, like in spring training—and as we discussed in our mid-season State of the Position series—there was really no replacement for Toglia.
The Rockies turned to Keston Hiura, Kyle Farmer, and even Orlando Arcia—who falls into the previously mentioned “decidedly not-a-first-baseman” category—to very little success.
Toglia was quickly returned to the roster, and for a brief moment, it looked like the reset had worked. In his first eight games back, Toglia went 10-for-33 at the plate with three doubles and three home runs, though he did strike out 11 times.
Unfortunately, the success was short-lived. Toglia hit .195/.254.381 in 31 games after being recalled with five home runs and 45 strikeouts. He was essentially right back where he started. However, this time there was a key difference.
There was competition.
The Rockies selected the contract of former top prospect Warming Bernabel following the trade of franchise cornerstone Ryan McMahon. Judging from the context, it was expected that Bernabel would be given a shot at third base while the Rockies looked for short term options.
Instead, the Rockies started Bernabel at first base on July 26th… and have in every game since.
Bernabel hit .438/.455/.906 with four doubles, a triple, and three home runs through his first eight career big league games. He hit in seven straight games starting with his debut, set the new franchise record for extra-base hits in his first seven games (dethroning Trevor Story’s 2016 record) and even played some solid defense at first base. Perhaps most importantly, he’s struck out just four times in 32 at-bats.
Toglia started just one game—as the designated hitter—during that stretch. Having lost his starting job and his regular playing time, on Sunday, he was once again optioned to Triple-A Albuquerque.
“Michael doesn’t need to be here and sit the bench. No good comes from that,” said interim manager Warren Schaeffer on Sunday morning.
However, it was also clear that no excuses were being made for Toglia.
“At some point, you just have to go and play better,” Schaeffer said. “That’s where Michael is. The mental resets — that’s happened this year, for sure — but he needs to go down there and work on what he needs to work on. He needs to flatten his bat path out. He needs to handle the top third of the zone where he’s swinging and missing a lot. He knows all of these things.”
That last part is the key: Toglia “knows all of these things.” They’re adjustments he’s been needing to make for his entire big league career.
Earlier this season, Toglia shrugged off the idea of dialing back his aggression at the plate to reduce his strikeouts.
“I think the trap is that if you fall into is trying to be too cute, and just trying to put the ball in play, for the sake of not striking out,” he said. “That can get you in trouble. I think there might be some of that going on with us. I know I have certainly felt that. I have done that in my career, but I’ve found that you have to be convicted and you have to be aggressive.”
Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post ruminated on this mindset for Toglia earlier this season.
“Make no mistake, the players themselves must also be held accountable. There is a stubbornness, or simply an inability, among many players to make the necessary adjustments,” Saunders wrote.
“Toglia has a long swing and ‘long levers,’ so he is strikeout-prone. I do believe he’s stubborn, especially when it comes to shortening his swing and altering his two-strike approach.”
The problem for Toglia now is that he’s no longer irreplaceable.
With his short-term job now taken by Warming Bernabel, and the next potential long term option in Charlie Condon (no. 2 PuRP) in Double-A Hartford, Michael Toglia now finds himself in a precarious position. On Sunday, the Rockies also claimed Blaine Crim—a career .283/.374/.487 Triple-A hitter with 60 home runs in the PCL—off waivers from the Texas Rangers.
Toglia has never really had a problem hitting in Triple-A. However, he can’t fall back on that during this “reset.” Not this time.
He will need to set aside any resistance to change and continue his evolution as a hitter if he wishes to reclaim what he has lost. His future in Colorado, and perhaps the next phase of his baseball career, depends on it.
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On the Farm
Triple-A: Sacramento River Cats 8, Albuquerque Isotopes 5
A series win is a series win, but the Isotopes dropped the Sunday finale to the River Cats (San Francisco Giants). The ‘Topes ran a bullpen game with Matt Turner and Connor Van Scoyoc combining for eight earned runs over the first three innings. Collin Baumgartner, Brayan Castillo, and Antoine Kelly kept the River Cats from running up the score further, but it was too big a hole for the Isotopes to dig out of. Zac Veen went 2-for-4 with two doubles and scored twice.
Double-A: Hartford Yard Goats 7, Reading Fightin’ Phils 1
Jared Thomas, Charlie Condon, and newcomer Roc Riggio were they core of the Yard Goat’s offensive attack against the Fightin’ Phils (Philadelphia Phillies) with at least two hits each. Condon went 3-for-5 with a triple and Riggio went 2-for-2 with two RBIs. On the mound, Michael Prosecky and Victor Juárez were the only pitchers used. Prosecky yielded just one run over six innings and Juárez worked a three inning scoreles save.
High-A: Spokane Indians 2, Hillsboro Hops 1 (F/10)
Organizational Pitcher of the Month for July Stu Flesland III gave up just one unearned run in six innings. That run was credited to him after reliever Davis Palermo took over in the seventh inning. The Indians were quiet on offense all night, scoring their first run on an Aidan Longwell sacrifice fly in the first and not scoring again until they walked it off in the tenth. Blake Wright laid down a sacrifice bunt—combined with a throwing error from Hillsboro—to drive in Caleb Hobson and win the game.
Low-A: Fresno Grizzlies 3, Rancho Cucamonga Quakes 2
A strong combined effort of four Grizzlies pitchers held the Quakes to just two runs throughout the evening while the offense took care of the rest. Arizona Complex League standout Wilder Dalis and middle infielder Roynier Hernandez each went 3-for-4 with an extra base hit. Jimmy Obertop went 2-for-4 and drove in the game winning run with an RBI single in the eighth inning.
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Closer Halvorsen (ebow) seeking more information after inconclusive MRI | MLB.com
Rockies righty Seth Halvorsen left the game in the ninth inning on Saturday with an apparently elbow injury, immediately signaling trainers after a pitch. It didn’t look good, and the young flamethrower had his MRI on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, the results of the MRI per Halvorsen were inconclusive, and both he and the Rockies will be seeking other opinions as they look to avoid Tommy John surgery.
Marked safe from Deadline move, Márquez focused on guiding Rox youth | MLB.com
Were it not for shoulder inflammation that landed him on the injured list prior to this year’s trade deadline, Germán Márquez would probably be wearing a different uniform right now. With his future uncertain, and unsure if he’d be willing to re-sign with the Rockies for 2026, Márquez is taking it slow and trying to help guide the increasingly young pitching staff at 20th and Blake.
“There’s a lot of talent here,” Márquez said. “It’s gonna turn out pretty good.”
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