GREELEY — In recent years, Dick Monfort made headline-grabbing comments at the annual Northern Colorado Friends of Baseball Breakfast.
But the Rockies owner played it relatively safe on Saturday, offering a cautiously optimistic forecast for his team and thanking fans for their patience during back-to-back 100-loss seasons.
Monfort also touted the Rockies’ promising young defense, saying it had a chance to be the best “in the history of the game.”
Monfort acknowledged that the club is amid a youth moment but said he hopes the 2025 Rockies will provide an exciting brand of baseball.
“We have had a couple of really tough years and we’re transforming, hopefully, in front of everybody’s eyes,” Monfort said during his brief remarks at the lectern before a large crowd at the Island Grove Event Center.
Glancing at a table where a few reporters were seated, Monfort said: “No predictions here, by the way. I don’t know what we are going to end up with, but I think that you are going to start to see the building of a really good foundation of young players.”
The owner has previously offered predictions and drawn heat from some fans for those forecasts. Before the 2020 season, Monfort boldly predicted the Rockies would rebound from their disastrous 2019 season and win a franchise-record 94 games. Instead, the team finished the pandemic-shortened season with a 26-34 mark, followed by a 74-87 record in 2021 and a 68-94 mark in 2022.
At the breakfast in 2023, the owner said, “We have a lot of talent, and a lot of good things are going to happen. I think they are going to start happening this year, and I think we can play .500 ball.”
But the Rockies lost 103 games in 2023 and 101 in ’24, so it’s no wonder Monfort didn’t offer a prediction for 2025.
However, with Ryan McMahan playing third base, Ezequiel Tovar at shortstop, newcomer Thairo Estrada at second, and Michael Togila manning first, Monfort offered a bold forecast.
“The infield, quite honestly — and if you like defense, (and) I like defense — will be the best defense, maybe in the history of the game,” he said. “That’s a big statement. But you’ve got a Gold Glover at third, even though he never gets one. You’ve got a Gold Glover at short.
“Estrada, who we added, is a really good defensive player. And Michael Toglia is a great first baseman.”
Monfort added that two-time Gold Glove center fielder Brenton Doyle is “maybe the best defensive player in baseball.”
That defense and an improved pitching corps will make the Rockies “a fun team to watch” in 2025, Monfort said.
The owner also thanked the fans for hanging with a team that has posted six consecutive losing seasons.
“I know that patience is a virtue, and I know all of you have had to be patient the last few years,” he said. “I think you are going to see an exciting team. And they are hungry.”
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