Can the Debut of Chase Dollander Mark a Change in Culture?
After making his MLB debut at home on Sunday, Chase Dollander will have a key role in turning the culture around in Denver.
DENVER, Colo. – In the biggest debut of a starting pitcher for the Colorado Rockies in a decade, Chase Dollander delivered and came away with his first career win.
“I have to thank the guys behind me. They did a great job today,” Dollander said following a 12-5 win by Colorado. “Have to thank the bats. They were awesome today. They really did their jobs and just made my job easier.”
Standing at his locker beneath Coors Field still in full uniform, the dreams of a child were realized by the 23-year-old Dollander as he discussed a Rockies win that helped avoid a sweep at the hands of the Athletics.
The offense provided more runs than it did during the entire first week of the season on the road in Tampa and Philadelphia. The defense came together and squeezed the first out of an inning at third base, a no-no in base running. And the bullpen, dead last in all of Major League Baseball, allowed a single run over four innings of work.
Talk about running out the red carpet for your top prospect.
“I love debuts. It’s a special day for players, their first day in the big leagues,” manager Bud Black said post-game. “He did what he needed to do today to get the win, to be the winning pitcher in a major league game, which is what I stress to all our starters, especially in this ballpark.”
His six strikeouts — including one against Jacob Wilson, who hadn’t gone down on strikes in 55 consecutive plate appearances — made him the fifth Rockies’ pitcher with as many at home in Denver. Not bad for a kid being asked to stop a six-game losing streak after only one start in Triple-A.
“He was very poised out there. Kept his emotions in check,” teammate Kyle Freeland said of Dollander. “Even with an early two-run home run like that, he was able to settle in and go to work. That’s the kind of stuff we want to see.”
Freeland, another first-round pick by the Rockies, knows exactly about keeping those nerves in check. The Denver-born native of Colorado is the last starter in team history with six strikeouts in his big league debut at Coors Field, against the Los Angeles Dodgers, no less.
Arguably even more memorable was the debut of Jon Gray on August 4, 2015. He was a top 25 prospect in the sport immediately after being drafted third overall in 2013 with expectations hoisted upon him as a franchise savior.
Though Gray’s debut lacked the storyline and success of Freeland, his arrival helped mark a change in the pitching culture for the organization at a time in which it was desperately needed.
Quick and Dirty Development
Dollander entered his junior year with No. 1 pick potential. Transferring to the University of Tennessee from Georgia Southern University after his freshman year, he went 10-0 with a 2.39 ERA to lead the Volunteers’ rotation in 2022.
Dollander changed the grip on his slider, and the results were disappointing, to say the least. He surrendered twice as many homers as the year prior and saw his earned run average balloon to 4.75. Tennessee reached the College World Series, but Dollander was not given the ball during their two contests in Omaha.
Selected by the Rockies ninth overall in the 2023 MLB Draft, the organization opted to shut him down rather than send him out to Low-A Fresno or High-A Spokane. His professional debut in 2024 couldn’t have gone better.
The Evans, GA native started the inaugural Spring Breakout for Colorado, as well as the MLB Futures Game for the National League at Globe Life Field. His 2.83 ERA in 70.0 innings at High-A was followed by an even better 2.25 ERA at Double-A over 48 innings.
Despite starting six games during his first big league camp this spring (more than any Rockies starter), Dollander was optioned to Triple-A Albuquerque.
“He went down because he’s not the finished product,” GM Bill Schmidt said. “He showed well at times in spring training, but he also showed that there’s things that he needs to work on, and it’s going to take place up here now.”
Less than two years after hearing his named called by Commissioner Rob Manfred during the draft, Dollander is in the the Show.
Clubhouse Confidential
The news about Dollander’s debut broke on Friday at the home opener. Because of the incoming snow, first pitch temperature of 37 degrees, and the general disappointment of another slow start for the Rockies, the news of Dollander’s debut felt like the headline.
Before Dollander would ascend the bump at 20th and Blake Street, plenty was happening behind the scenes to make sure everything would be just right.
After a text from a hotel in Denver spoiled the news of his promotion to the majors, the first phone call he made before leaving Albuquerque was to his mother and step-father. They, along with his girlfriend and childhood friend, quickly made plans to fly to Colorado for the momentous occasion.
While Dollander’s friends and family scrambled to make plans, the Rockies’ clubhouse manager Mike “Tiny” Pontarelli was preparing the scene at Coors Field. All spring, he reviewed his spreadsheet of numbers for players and coaches to examine what was available.
For Dollander, he considered all the great pitchers that wore No. 32 during their career. Sandy Koufax. Steve Carlton. Roy Halladay. The lone National League Rookie of the Year Award winner in franchise history, Jason Jennings, wore No. 32.
Pontarelli craftily got the sense of whether or not Dollander also liked the number. “Kind of jokingly throughout spring training, I would say, ‘Hey, hypothetically, at some point, would this number feel good?’”
Dollander had a spark in his eyes when 32 was brought, and the rest is Rockies history.
Support Systems
It’s been a quick adjustment to Colorado’s clubhouse for Dollander. He was with the team for six weeks down at Salt River Fields in Scottsdale, AZ and the other starting pitchers did well to keep an eye out on the rookie.
“One person that I really leaned on was Feltner. He’s helped me a lot with a lot of different things. And then, you know, when Germán and Senzatela were both rehabbing, I got to see both of them and just ask them questions, pick their brains,” Dollander said of his teammate. “Then Freeland, he’s definitely a vet, and he’s given me some really good advice. There’s not a single person in there that I think is a bad person at all. So it’s really nice to be able to go to those guys and have that security.”
Then there’s an entire contingent of players that played alongside Dollander at Tennessee. There’s Jordan Beck and Seth Halvorsen, who was his roommate both in Arizona and in Knoxville.
“We had a really good team in ‘22 and ‘23 at Tennessee,” Halvorsen said. “To have that talent come up and play here, that’s a lot of fun. To be able to bring that winning (pedigree) — because we won a lot at Tennessee — so it’s instilled in players there and so we’re looking forward to that here.”
Had a five-run rally in the bottom of the eighth made the need for a closer irrelevant, Halvorsen, who warmed in the bullpen before the offensive outburst, would have given Colorado a trio of Volunteers on the day.
Somehow, a fourth was in attendance to provide further support. Hall of Famer and Special Assistant to the GM Todd Helton, in town for the home opener, changed his weekend plans to stick around for Dollander’s debut.
Next Up
Sunday’s start wasn’t an audition. Austin Gomber, sidelined on the 15-day injured list with left shoulder soreness, will need a lot more time on the shelf to get right. He made a rehab start with Triple-A Albuquerque on March 28 and hasn’t picked up a baseball since then.
A few more starts with the Isotopes would have been in the cards were Gomber able to return on April 8, but that’s not how it played out.
“There’s still work to be done, and it’s gonna have to be done up here,” Schmidt explained. “And that got accelerated with having to shut Gomber down for a little bit.”
Expectations for Dollander are high, but not unrealistic. He’s part of a wave of young players hoping to change the culture in Colorado and end a postseason drought that will stretch to seven years by the end of 2025. First, the Rockies need to get above .500 for the first time since 2018.
Ultimately, Dollander is not being viewed as a franchise-saving player, mostly because the sport requires multiple top-tier performers on a given playoff team at any one time. Instead, he’s a critical cog in a machine looking to build momentum and eventually take off.
“He’s got a good head on his shoulders,” Schmidt said. “There’s some physical adjustments that he’s gonna go through, and there’s gonna be some mental adjustments he’ll go through. You’re playing at the highest level against a lot of men that are very experienced players. So we wish him well. We think he’s ready to handle a good challenge.”
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