Kyle Freeland was drafted by the Colorado Rockies eighth overall in the 2014 MLB Draft and never looked back.
After growing up in Denver, the left-hander made his MLB debut at Coors Field for the Home Opener in 2017. He saw his hometown team make back-to-back playoff appearances in 2017 and 2018, but also then saw them suffer through three-straight 100+ loss seasons, including the historically bad 43-119 season in 2025.
But Freeland is looking forward, and is using his experiences not only as a veteran pitcher, but also a veteran Rockie, to take on a bigger role as a clubhouse leader.
“2025 was a big leadership step forward for myself,” he said. “It’s probably the biggest thing that I learned.
“With some other veteran guys that had left – Charlie [Blackmon] the year prior, [Ryan McMahon] being traded, [Austin] Gomber being let go – and being one of the true sole veterans on the team, along with [Antonio] Senzatela, I kind of had to step into leadership and take on some more responsibility” he continued.
“And I had conversations with [Warren Schaeffer] about that – about taking the next step as a leader and taking on a little bit more responsibility inside the clubhouse and making sure that we’re on the same page in the clubhouse, so that frees up coaches and allows us to be the players that we want to be.”
Freeland said he, Senzatela and Schaeffer all worked together to keep the team on track while also being thrown into these roles themselves.
“[It was] a lot of conversations,” he said. “Communication is definitely key with that, and we’re still working through it with Schaeff being in his first year as the full-time manager. I know he got his feet wet last year, but the communication and the conversations that were having have to continue because he told us, ‘I’m going to be leaning on you guys for a lot of things because you’ve been in the league for quite some time. You understand things, you know how things work.’
“And vice versa,” he continued. “We are also going to lean on him for certain things as a manager when we have things that come up or questions or concerns. We’re able to have that open-door policy where we can go talk to him about it and get it taken care of so that it doesn’t create any sort of rifts or problems or anything throughout the clubhouse.”
Schaeffer also noted the unique position that Freeland is in, being a veteran in both senses of the word on this team.
“The fact that he’s been here a very, very long time coupled with the fact that he wants to lead is a very good combination,” Schaeffer said. “Kyle wants to make this place great. And I think you can gather that by talking to him – every time you talk to him – and I want to make this place great as well. So the collaboration between this staff room and that clubhouse with him in the middle of it, plus other guys, is a very good thing for us. It’s just a matter of pushing each other and getting the most out of each other.”
The Rockies also signed a trio of veteran pitchers as reinforcements this offseason, which Freeland described as “a little bit of weight off our shoulders.”
“Especially with how young we are, it’s nice to bring in some of those true older veteran guys,” he said. “[Michael] Lorenzen and [José] Quintana both have 10+ years in the league, and Quintana is going into his 15th season as a professional. It’s incredible to be able to have those guys to lean on and learn from.”
Schaeffer echoed the sentiment, and pointed out the unique role that Freeland plays in bridging the gap.
“I think it’s great to have Michael Lorenzen, Quintana, Willi Castro, Jake McCarthy, and [Tomoyuki] Sugano,” Schaeffer said. “But Kyle has the unique perspective of what we’ve been through the past couple years, which is very valuable in terms of the messaging to the players and what we’ve been through and where we want to go. The other veterans that have come in don’t necessarily have the feel for that, so I think both are valuable and the combination is what we want.”
Beyond leadership, Freeland, like the rest of the pitching staff, is working to refine his pitches in a new way this spring.
“I really want to get [my changeup] to a place where I feel comfortable with it and I could throw it for strikes and get outs,” he said. “I’ve been refining it for my entire career, but with the guys that we have on the coaching staff side now for pitching, picking their brains on what we can possibly do – new grip, different grip, different way of thinking, stuff like that. We’re working through that. We’ve got a lot of good stuff going, but it’s one of those pitches that’s always kind of given me trouble through my career of trying to figure it out and really understand it.
“So hopefully I can have that ‘Aha!’ moment or just that click where it’s like, “OK, there it is.’ And we’ve had that here and there, but it’s just one of those pitches for me that’s a struggle to learn.”
He has also been noticing the new vibes in the clubhouse, but kept things realistic.
“Things are great, very upbeat,” he said. “And I think that obviously comes with anything new – any big changes, that’s gonna stir up good feelings, especially when you get the guys back together and start playing ball again. We’re getting closer to the season, stuff like that, so everything’s gonna feel really good.
“But we have to also keep in the back of our mind what’s gonna happen in Game 3 when we get punched in the face – how are we gonna respond? We’ve got to make sure that we keep our heads on a swivel and it’s not just constant happy-go-lucky, ‘Things are so great! We’ve got new this, that and the other.’ It’s still a very hard game to play, and we have to play 162 [games],” he cautioned. “We have to play 162 very well if we want to get to the place where we want to be. But the vibes are incredible in the clubhouse. Guys are learning a lot from one another and meshing very well. It’s very light, and I think that’s a testament a lot to our front office and what Schaeff is wanting to see in this culture inside this clubhouse. So everything’s great right now.”
But overall, Freeland is looking forward to the 2026 season.
“I’m excited to see what this team does at the start of the year and throughout the entire season just because everything is new and everything is changing. We’re changing cultures, we’re changing direction, everything. So I’m truly excited to see what we’re going to do in the 2026 season.”
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