Former Royals starter faces biggest career challenge yet after Rockies deal

On January 8, 2025 the Kansas City Royals signed Michael Lorenzen to one-year contract after a solid stint with the club after arriving at the 2024 trade deadline.

But after a bit of an up-and-down season in 2025, where he threw to a 4.64 ERA, 1.33 WHIP and .266 BAA, the Royals deemed him expendable given their immense starting pitching depth and allowed him to test the free agent waters.

Now, nearly a year later – one day short be exact, on Jan. 7 – the 34-year-old has reportedly found a new home, one that could pose his biggest career challenge yet.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported Wednesday evening that Lorenzen had agreed to a one-year deal with Colorado Rockies worth $8 million that also includes a $9 million club option for the 2027 season.

Former Royals starter Michael Lorenzen could be in for challenging year with Rockies

At this point, baseball fans are aware of just how poor the Rockies have looked as team in recent years. They are coming off a brutal 119 loss season which marked the third straight season they’ve eclipsed the triple-digit loss mark and the seventh consecutive year they’ve missed the postseason.

On top of that, from a pitching standpoint, everybody knows how pitching at altitude can be a real problem.

According to Statcast’s Park Factor, the Rockies ranked as the most hitter friendly ballpark in 2025 by a substantial margin. Simply put, the ball just flies at Coors Field.

For a pitcher like Lorenzen, who already has some suspect surface level stats, this could pose as a real problem for him due to some concerning underlying metrics.

Lorenzen only struck hitters out at a 37th percentile rate of 21.0% last year, meaning more often than not contact was made on his offerings.

Of that contact, just over 39% of it was kept on the ground, placing him in just the 34th percentile of league arms. This means that over 60% of the contact he surrendered was either flyballs or line drives, which given the altitude and massive outfield dimensions of Coors Field, could result in plenty of homers and extra base hits.

And limiting the long ball has been a real issue for Lorenzen as he’s aged, allowing over 1.00 HR/9 in four straight seasons, including a very high 1.59 HR/9 clip in 2025, which amongst pitchers with at least 140.0 innings pitched last season placed him in the Top 10 highest totals (ninth to be exact).

For a team like Colorado, this deal makes a lot of sense. The Rockies need to ensure they bring in whatever veteran talent they can on the mound to add to their young up-and-coming names.

And for Lorenzen, getting a guaranteed $8 million payday – and potentially $17 million pay day should Colorado exercise their club option in 2027 – makes just as much sense, given the inconsistencies he showed entering his mid-30s last season.

That being said, that doesn’t negate the fact that pitching in Colorado will be no cake-walk, as 2026 will undoubtedly be the biggest challenge he’s had to face in his 11-year big league pitching career.