The Chatter’s Box: Kyle Freeland Talks To The Rockies Insider

DENVER, Colo. –– Starting the second-half at 8-6 might not mean much to most clubs, but for the 2025 Colorado Rockies, that’s an outstanding stretch.

The club started the season on pace for more than 122 losses and poised to break the Modern Era record for most defeats in a season. Colorado wouldn’t win their eighth game of the season until their 45th game of the year on May 17. 

By that point, every other team had at least 14 wins. The Detroit Tigers had 30 victories, a win-total the Rockies only reached with an 8-5 win on Saturday, August 2. 

The recent success will be hard to sustain with the hardest remaining schedule in the National League, not to mention after three deals at the trade deadline that removed a trio of veterans. Ryan McMahon, drafted by the organization in 2012, and Tyler Kinley, signed before the start of the 2020 campaign, have left a void in the clubhouse. 

On the active roster, only Kyle Freeland has been with this team since before the start of the 2021 season. His big league tenure began back in 2017 when the Rockies were at the start of consecutive postseason berths. It stands to reason he would be a vital leader in a clubhouse full of young players looking for stability, guidance and the secrets of building a long and productive career.

Despite a series of viruses going through the roster over the past few weeks, spirits are high following the reset at the All-Star break. Winning games and being more competitive in losses will do that, even when under the weather.

All of this has come with youth on display. Colorado is tied for the most Major League debuts this season with 11 and even more seem on their way. Recent call-ups like 1B Warming Bernabel and RHP Dugan Darnell have been contributing immediately upon promotion. 

“I always believe in merit, right? You earn your way. You should get shot. You should absolutely get your shot,” interim manager Warren Schaeffer said. “We have to look for those opportunities to bring young players up to succeed, and that’s how we’re going to be good in the future. That’s how we’re going to take off.”

Welcome to The Chatter’s Box, a new Just Baseball series from Patrick Lyons. Because post-game media availability is focused entirely on the details of the previous nine innings, the conversations that take place in the clubhouse or during batting practice before a contest can take on a much more relaxed and jovial tone.

The following is a conversation with Kyle before the Rockies-Pirates game on Sunday.

Patrick Lyons: Your last start in Cleveland (July 30) was something. You were rather ill, even the night before when you knew you would be taking the ball the next day. 

Kyle Freeland: Those situations suck. I’ve had to do it a couple times in my career. But being the person that I am and the teammate that I believe I am – I’m going to go out there no matter what, if I can stand on my two feet and attempt to give my team some innings to help the bullpen out, I’m going to go out and do it. It was a tough one.

Those three innings were extremely tough on the body and on the head dealing with that sickness out there. It’s not fun, really. You’re doing your best. You’re trying to do everything you can for your team in that moment, in that short time that you’re out there. But again, it’s one of those situations that you don’t wish anyone’s in. You don’t want to be in it yourself. You don’t want your teammates to be in it. But sometimes those situations come up where you’ve got to bite the bullet.

Lyons: I knew that’s what got you through it. Not thinking about yourself, but your team. Though an extreme example, did it feel like with so many young guys on this roster, did you think this was an opportunity to make a lasting impact upon them with this outing?

Freeland: There can be layers to it. Of showing the grit of someone who’s been doing this for a little bit of time. And like you said, a lot of young guys in this clubhouse showing them, ‘Hey, no matter what you’re kind of dealing with, no matter what you’re going through in life or whatever, when you’re inside this clubhouse, if you have a chance to play, and if you can go out and help your team in any way possible, you got to go out and do it.’

Lyons: You lasted three innings and gave up two runs. To me, actually, I think that was pretty solid given the circumstances. Have gone back to look at that performance and do you think that was pretty good?

Freeland: I went back yesterday and watched the video, sat down with Nola, who watched it too. Actually made some decent pitches throughout those three innings.

A couple of them — one hit off the wall, one hit out. (José) Ramírez put a good swing on the pretty decent curveball, and then the cutter was just a bad pitch. But with the variations of velo that we were playing with, especially with the fastball, kind of got them off their game a little bit there for those three innings of mix and match.

My fastball — I could really only reach back about one time per at-bat to really put something on a fastball. So changing up those velos, kind of getting them off that where they’re geared up for 92 miles per hour and then here comes an 86 mile an hour fastball. It gets them off it. It kind of played a little bit for us in some ways. But again, it was one of those things where I’m just trying to hit a spot the best I can in that situation and not just get absolutely teed off.

Lyons: The club has been really good in the second half so far. How much have you been able to chalk that up to the mindset coming in after the break? Was it that team meeting you had in mid-July? Was that magic bullet to help change course a little bit?

Freeland: I don’t think there was really a magic bullet. I was thinking about it over All-Star break. Obviously, the first half was really tough, and we had to grind through it after getting rid of Buddy (Black) and (Mike Redmond) and making a lot of changes in this clubhouse.

Thinking about it, you know what, I think this is really good for our team, where we can all kind of separate for four days, relax, kind of reset, focus on a second half of baseball, and then really dive into that second half and see what we can do. And it’s going really good so far.

We’re playing really good baseball. We have an above .500 record in the second half. It’s been going really well. Again, I don’t think there was a magic word or magic statement that was said.

It was, for me, it was more like everyone hit that reset button over those four days. Let’s regroup when we come back and let’s start focusing this. Continue to focus on what we want to get done the second half,

Lyons: Antonio Senzatela and Germán Márquez are still here, but both on the injured list. They’re kind of both here and not here. Officially, Kinley and McMahon are not here anymore. What’s it like now for you with two less players who have five-plus years with this franchise?

Freeland: With Mac, I’ve been playing baseball for him for 11 years straight now. So it’s very different not having him in the clubhouse and now seeing him in not a Rockies uniform. It’s very different. I watched him grow up and turn into a man and turn into an incredible ball player. And Kinley, very similar. He was a staple in our bullpen for five years. Incredible human being, incredible family man. Got nothing but great things to say about both of them. I hope that their careers continue to progress and they do great things with their new teams and wherever their crews take them from now on. But yeah, it’s different not having those two veteran guys that I’ve shared a clubhouse with for quite a long time. It’s different.

Lyons: I don’t think a lot of people realize how busy of a schedule players have. It can be hard to keep track of everything happening in the baseball world. But have you been able to see some of the early success McMahon has been having with the New York Yankees?

Freeland: Yeah, we have. We’ve definitely been keeping tabs on all the guys that have been traded away. Not even this year, but years prior. Every year, when someone who has been close to you or has been a staple in the clubhouse, you make sure to keep tabs on those guys.

So watching Mac so far doing his thing with the Yankees and having success, being the Gold Glove third baseman we know he is, and being clutch at the plate coming up big late in games. It’s been fun to watch, and we’re all extremely happy and we hope he can continue to do great things and maybe get something on his finger.