2025 Rockies Keep away from the Loss File, However Their Season Ranks Among the many Worst-Ever

The 2025 season is over. Mercifully so, for the Rockies. When September kicked off, Colorado looked as if they had a genuine chance at avoiding not just tying or breaking the modern loss record of 121 that the 2024 White Sox set, but might even manage to avoid being one of the 10-worst teams of the modern era.

The Rockies then went 4-21 in September. They still avoided finishing with the most losses of the last 125 years, but by all of two defeats – they finished 43-119, tied for the third-worst record since 1901.

Here’s that brand new top 10 with the Rockies in place, from 1901-2025.

The 10 worst records of the modern era by losses (1901-2025)

       1. 2024 Chicago White Sox: 41-121, .253 W%

       2. 1962 New York Mets: 40-120, .250 W%

     T3. 2003 Detroit Tigers: 43-119, .265 W%

     T3. 2025 Colorado Rockies: 43-119, .265 W%

       5. 1916 Philadelphia Athletics: 36-117, .235 W%

     T6. 2018 Baltimore Orioles: 47-115, .290 W%

     T6. 1935 Boston Braves: 38-115, .248 W%

      8. 2019 Detroit Tigers: 47-114, .292 W%

      9. 1904 Washington Senators: 38-113, .252 W%

    10. 1952 Pittsburgh Pirates: 42-112, .273 W%

The Rockies’ horrid September – their third month of the season in which they lost at least 21 games and won just four, after seemingly having righted the ship a bit in the three months prior – also caused them to finish on the list of the worst winning percentages of the modern era. Here, the Rockies are once again tied with the 2003 Tigers, for the seventh-worst winning percentage since 1901.

The 10 worst records of the modern era by winning percentage (1901-2025)

     1. 1916 Philadelphia Athletics: 36-117, .235 W%

     2. 1935 Boston Braves: 38-115, .248 W%

     3. 1962 New York Mets: 40-120, .250 W%

     4. 1904 Washington Senators: 38-113, .252 W%

     5. 2024 Chicago White Sox: 41-121, .253 W%

     6. 1919 Philadelphia Athletics: 36-104, .257 W%

   T7. 2003 Detroit Tigers: 43-119, .265 W%

   T7. 2025 Colorado Rockies: 43-119, .265 W%

     9. 1952 Pittsburgh Pirates: 42-112, .273 W%

    10. 1909 Washington Senators: 42-110, .276 W%

There is something that the Rockies were worse at than anyone else in this 125-year period, and that’s run differential. While the 1932 Red Sox were the previous record holder, owing to their -345 run differential – that means they were outscored over the course of the season by 345 runs – the Rockies blew that out of the water. Whereas just 16 runs separate the ‘32 Red Sox from the 10th-place Philadelphia Athletics, the Rockies’ run differential was 79 runs worse than Boston’s, at -424. It is far and away the worst since the inception of the AL and formation of Major League Baseball.

The 10 worst run differentials of the modern era (1901-2025)

       1. 2025 Colorado Rockies: 43-119, -424 run differential

       2. 1932 Boston Red Sox: 43-111, -345 run differential

       3. 1915 Philadelphia Athletics: 43-109, -344 run differential

       4. 2023 Oakland Athletics: 50-112, -339 run differntial

       5. 2003 Detroit Tigers: 43-119, -337 run differential

     T6. 2019 Detroit Tigers: 47-114, -333 run differential

     T6. 1954 Philadelphia Athletics: 51-103, -333 run differential

     T8. 1962 New York Mets, 40-120, -331 run differential

     T8. 1936 Philadelphia Athletics, 53-100, -331 run differential

      10. 1916 Philadelphia Athletics: 36-117, -329 run differential

The Rockies made their way onto one last list you wouldn’t want to be on before the year ended, by a single run. The 2025 Rockies allowed the 10th-most runs of any team in the modern era, with 1,021. Check out this list: every team on it, save for the 2025 Rockies and the team they are tied with, the 1911 Boston Braves (known as the “Rustlers” that season), allowed well over 1,000 runs during one of the peak offensive eras in MLB history. The 1930s were the 1990s decades before that more modern offensive explosion, to the point it’s no wonder that this top 10 is almost entirely populated by clubs from those two points in time. 

The 2025 Rockies, though, became just the 12th-ever team to allow at least 1,000 runs in a season, and made it to the top 10 in the end, despite playing in a time where pitchers – home runs aside – rule the day, and offense is depressed. Some of that is Coors Field, as it has always been, but they allowed 5.4 runs per game on the road, too – that would be 882 over a full season, which would have been the second-most in MLB in 2025 behind only the Washington Nationals. Some of it is just the Rockies’ pitching.

Most runs allowed in a season in the modern era (1901-2025)

       1. 1930 Philadelphia Phillies: 52-102, 1,199 runs allowed

       2. 1996 Detroit Tigers: 53-109, 1,103 runs allowed

       3. 1936 St. Louis Browns: 57-95, 1,064 runs allowed

       4. 1936 Philadelphia Athletics: 53-100, 1,045 runs allowed

       5. 1929 Philadelphia Phillies: 71-82, 1,036 runs allowed

       6. 1939 St. Louis Browns: 43-111, 1,035 runs allowed

       7.  1999 Colorado Rockies: 72-90, 1,028 runs allowed

       8. 1937 St. Louis Browns: 46-108, 1,023 runs allowed

       9. 1939 Philadelphia Athletics: 55-97, 1,022 runs allowed

   T10. 2025 Colorado Rockies: 43-119, 1,021 runs allowed

   T10. 1911 Boston Braves: 44-107, 1,021 runs allowed

The 2025 Rockies are not the worst team of the modern era, especially if you just go by losses, but the run differential and total runs allowed tell you that they truly are one of the worst squads in MLB’s modern history. The 2024 White Sox, for as terrible as they were, also happened to be unlucky: their expected record had them at 48-114, which would have been one of the worst ever, yes, but not the worst. The Rockies, though? Their expected record says that they lost maybe one more game than they should have. Every list above reflects what their season was truly like, one as difficult as it seemed from the outside. With any luck, the organization can rebound a bit like the White Sox themselves did – certainly not all at once, but at least out of historically poor territory and in at least the right direction.

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