Young players have taken over the first month of the 2026 MLB season: Sal Stewart, Kevin McGonigle, Konnor Griffin, etc. All have been contributors and major players for their teams. There is one young player who is not being talked about, and his name is Chase Dollander. Dollander is quietly having a phenomenal start to his year as a bulk-reliever for the Colorado Rockies. Dollander is in a role he has never had before, but Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer has put him in a position to succeed. He is usually comes in after the 1st inning to miss the meat of the order for the other team. I would imagine this is building up Dollander’s confidence and it is surely building up his success rate.
He has had five ‘starts’ or bulk relief outings and one actual relief outing this season. He has a 2.88 ERA and an xERA just under that number at a 2.80. His FIP is a 3.34 which is higher, but if he ended the season at that number, I do not think anyone would complain. Dollander has an amazing K% as well, striking out 32 batters in only 25 innings, putting him at a K rate of 30.8%. Dollander also has a WHIP of 1.00. This has most people thinking that even though he pitches in Colorado, there will be an opportunity for him to continue his success.
The only mark on Dollander’s record that has cause for concern in my opinion would be his barrel rate. His barrel rate is within the 24th percentile with 54.8%,  causing his average exit velocity to go in the 11th percentile of 91.7%. These numbers are definitely not encouraging, but with the strikeouts and all of the other numbers I think we can safely say that this is a version of Dollander turning a corner to be on his way to be a quality major leaguer. Â
Dollander should be someone who is able to sustain a level of success. I know that we have not seen a Cy Young-level pitcher for the Colorado Rockies since Ubaldo Jimenez’s extended Linsanity run in 2010. Jimenez is considered the best pitcher in franchise history, but is outdone by Kyle Freeland in Career WAR for the team. The list of these pitchers is quite grim with names like Jhoulys Chacin. Aaron Cook and German Marquez round out the top five. Dollander is well on his way to becoming a pitcher on this list and hopefully, for Rockies fans exceeding Jimenez’s statistics throughout his young career.
Chase Dollander was terrible in his rookie campaign. He was one of the worst pitchers in the major leagues his rookie season. He recorded a 6.52 ERA across 98 innings with a 1.55 WHIP and significantly under a strikeout per inning. So what is so different this year that makes these 25 innings more encouraging? Well, the only unencouraging stats are the hard-hit rates, but everything else has improved drastically. He has even had an uptick in velocity from a season ago. Dollander has increased his K5 by 12% and his chase percentage by almost 20%. Dollander. Dollander has also decreased the number of walks he has given up as well. His BB% has gone down by 5%. I think the biggest difference for Dollander is filling up the strike zone and trusting his stuff. Coming out of the draft, that was one of the most important attractive things about the pitcher from the University of Tennessee, and he was not comfortable a season ago, especially at Coors Field. To be fair to the young Dollander, who is comfortable at Coors? Veterans of 10+ years are not comfortable there, so what makes you think a rookie would be? Â
I am excited to see Dollander continue to grow this season. Yes, he may have some ups and downs, but who doesn’t, especially at Coors field in your second season. Dollander is going to have a good season in year two and will ultimately provide the Rockies with a steady arm in the rotation that can give them every opportunity to put together a good product on the field for the first time since 2018.
