Purple Row After Dark: Which Non-Roster Invite Has the Best Chance of Making the Rockies?

Scottsdale, Ariz. – When Colorado’s spring-training complex opened its gates this week, 19 non-roster invitees reported alongside the 40-man roster, each carrying the same modest goal: force the front office to make room on the charter flight north at the end of March.

President of baseball operations Paul DePodesta has already laid out the template. Position players must flash athleticism and positional versatility; pitchers must show a fully developed arsenal rather than a one-pitch showcase. With those directives in place, the Rockies’ coaching staff will spend the next six weeks deciding whether any of the 19 can crack an Opening-Day roster that currently lists no obvious vacancies.

The invitation list, released earlier this week, represents the organization’s deepest non-roster class in recent seasons. While the club has not tipped its hand on favorites, DePodesta’s public emphasis on multi-positional athletes and mature pitching repertoires provides a clear lens through which evaluations will unfold. Every ground-ball rep, bullpen session and Cactus League inning will be weighed against that stated criteria.

For the Purple Row night owls monitoring each workout, the question is straightforward yet compelling: which of the 19 non-roster invitees—if any—will still be wearing Rockies purple when camp breaks?

The answer will begin to crystallize over the coming weeks as split-squad games and late-inning opportunities separate the statistically intriguing from the genuinely actionable. Until then, the 19 hopefuls share equal odds: impress the evaluators, fit the philosophical mold, and leave the decision makers no choice but to adjust the roster accordingly.