The Rockies spent years building up their rotation, and last year finally got to see some reward.

They drafted Jon Gray and Kyle Freeland. They scouted Antonio Senzatela and signed him as an international free agent. Then they traded for Germán Márquez in 2016, promoting him later that year. And they got Austin Gomber last year as part of the Nolan Arenado trade to complete their five.

It was their a strong and consistent pitching group last year. All five were able to tackle the challenge of pitching at Coors Field, where balls move differently because of the altitude. They are going to try to do it all again this year, but without one key piece: Gray is now in Texas as the Rangers Opening Day starter. Gray expressed a desire all last season to stay with the Rockies, but contract talks, which started before the July trade deadline, dried out. The Rangers swooped in and offered him the four-year, $56 million contract he was seeking.

The rest of the group remains the same though, and they’ve added Chad Kuhl from Pittsburgh to the mix. Losing Gray will take a toll, but the group is still confident they can pick up where they left off last year.

“I don’t think it’s any secret that one of the strongest aspects of our team is our starting rotation,” Gomber said. “We know the responsibility that we have. If we want to go where want to go — we want to be playing October baseball — we know that we are going to be a big part of it.”

The starting five: 

LHP Kyle Freeland

2021 stats: 23 GS, 4.33 ERA, 1.417 WHIP

Freeland will get the nod on Opening Day for the second time in his career. He was the first of the five ready to see game action this spring, having spent the majority of his lockout in Arizona facing live hitters. After playing around with a new changeup, he’s decided to go back to his half-circle grip for the season. He missed the first two months of last season, but is entering the season healthy and already able to go five-plus innings.

RHP Germán Márquez

2021 stats: 32 GS, 4.40 ERA, 1.272 WHIP 

Márquez took a big leap forward last year, making the All-Star team and almost pitching a no-hitter. But the fatigue of pitching a full season after the shortened 2020 hit him hard in September, and he fizzled out. He rushes his delivery when he gets pressed, and the Rockies have worked with him on learning how to exhale and minimize the damage when he gets into a bind. To take a step forward this year, he needs to consistently command his fastball, something that was an issue on and off last year. Márquez is also trying to implement his changeup more, a pitch that plays especially well at Coors Field.

RHP Antonio Senzatela 

2021 stats: 28 GS, 4.42 ERA, 1.340 WHIP

Senzatela was statistically the Rockies most consistent pitcher last year, and, aside from a bout with COVID, he avoided injury. The Rockies rewarded him with a five-year extension. And they’ll be looking for him to take the next step now. He’s also — you guessed it — working on that elusive changeup.

LHP Austin Gomber

2021 stats: 23 GS, 4.53 ERA, 1.240 WHIP

Last year was Gomber’s first time consistently starting in the major leagues. He had some run-ins with injuries — elbow in June and back in September — but overall proved to be a reliable competitor. He picked up a few valuable cues from his year at altitude — including sleep and diet changes — and plans to shudder more of his in-between-starts workload on the road this season.

RHP Chad Kuhl

2021 stats: 14 GS, 28 G, 4.82 ERA, 1.432 WHIP

Rockies signed Kuhl for $3 million at the start of spring training. He spent his entire career prior to this with the Pirates, where he was their opening day starter a year ago. He caught COVID midseason. And the Pirates moved him to the bullpen after. His spring training starts haven’t given the Rockies anything to be over the moon about, but March is all about experimenting. Kuhl was trying out a new windup, and is still tinkering with the right motion.

Other options:

No team can get through the year with just five starters, but the Rockies depth pool is looking a little too shallow.

They can always go to a long reliever to open — like Ashton Goudeau, Jhoulys Chacín or Ty Blach (not on the 40-man but a strong contender to break camp with the team) — but that dries out their bullpen for future days.

There’s Peter Lambert, who had just one start in spring training. The Rockies were being cautious with Lambert, who had Tommy John surgery in 2020, after having elbow soreness at the end of the MLB lockout. He is not a candidate for a bullpen role, and despite having two years of service time, still has very limited experience pitching at the major-league level.

Their only other options at the moment are Ryan Feltner, who debuted with a thunk last year, and Ryan Rolison, their top pitching prospect who has only pitched in a few Triple-A games.