Rockies' season has nowhere to go but up

Yes, but: That doesn’t mean there's nothing to look forward to this season. For starters: Year two of Kris Bryant’s seven-year, $182 million contract will (hopefully) look much better than year one.

• Injuries robbed Bryant of all but 42 games last year, and though he hit well when healthy (.306 batting average), he curiously went homerless in Coors Field’s thin air.
• Now, he’s coming off a spring that saw him mash four homers in just 37 at-bats — flashes of the player that won Rookie of the Year in 2015, MVP in 2016, and hit 25 homers and made the All-Star team just two years ago.

Plus … There are some exciting young prospects who will get ample playing time this year and could form the core of the post-rebuild roster.

• Elehuris Montero (24 years old), acquired in the Nolan Arenado trade, should be the everyday third baseman after a stellar spring.
• Ezequiel Tovar (21), MLB’s No 25 overall prospect who was signed by the Rockies out of Venezuela in 2017, is the starting shortstop.
• And Zac Veen (21), an outfielder with plenty of pop who was drafted ninth overall in 2020, should get brought up later this summer to make his MLB debut.