The Colorado Rockies have begun their offseason with a change to their coaching staff, firing pitching coach Alon Leichman after just one season, The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal and Keith Law reported Thursday. Leichman, 37, was hired last December as part of a broader restructuring of Colorado's pitching department under president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta.

The Rockies finished the 2026 season with a 5.59 ERA, a 4.58 SIERA, a 17.5% strikeout rate, a 1.52 WHIP and a .283 opponents' batting average. They ranked last in the majors in all five categories and finished the campaign with their fewest strikeouts in baseball.

The starting rotation bore the brunt of the team's pitching woes, recording a combined 6.28 ERA across 757.2 innings. Colorado's relievers performed comparatively better, compiling a 4.80 ERA over 664 innings.

The Rockies initially showed signs of improvement under Leichman. During March and April, their pitching staff posted a 4.19 ERA and accumulated 249 strikeouts. The club also experimented with different approaches, including having Leichman call pitches from the dugout and employing multiple long relievers and openers. However, Colorado never again finished a month with a team ERA below 5.00 for the remainder of the season.

Despite offseason additions Tomoyuki Sugano, Jose Quintana and Michael Lorenzen, the pitching staff could not sustain its early progress. The Rockies finished with at least 100 losses for the fourth consecutive season, extending a prolonged stretch of disappointing results.

DePodesta had already highlighted the pitching problems during his end-of-season media availability. He pointed to Colorado's tendency to fall behind early, where the team's run differential through two innings was worse than its combined differential over the final seven. He also acknowledged the rotation's deficiencies and the challenge of getting sufficient innings from its starters.

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Finding a new pitching coach now joins the list of offseason priorities for DePodesta and manager Warren Schaeffer. It remains unclear whether assistant pitching coach Gabe Ribas, bullpen coach Matt Buschmann and director of pitching Matt Daniels, who were also hired last winter, will retain their positions.

Leichman previously worked as an assistant pitching coach with the Cincinnati Reds in 2023 and 2024 and the Miami Marlins in 2025. He also spent four seasons coaching in the Seattle Mariners' minor-league system and worked with Team Israel in the World Baseball Classic. The Rockies marked his first opportunity to serve as a major-league team's lead pitching coach.

Colorado remains deep in their rebuilding process, with improving pitching development a central concern. After four consecutive 100-loss seasons, the Rockies must make meaningful improvements to prevent another dismal finish in 2027.