​Eli Whitney | March 20, 2026

There’s a different energy around Tyler Freeman this spring. A looseness. A comfort. The kind that only comes when a player stops auditioning and starts belonging.

After joining the Rockies late in last year’s Spring Training with barely a week to get his footing before Opening Day, Freeman spent much of 2025 learning on the fly – new teammates, new city, and a new organization. Now, a full offseason and a complete Spring Training later, the infielder-outfielder-whatever-you-need speaks about Colorado like a man who has finally exhaled.

“It’s definitely somewhere I want to be for a long time,” Freeman said. “It’s a place where I want my family to grow up. It’s just a place I want to win.

Simple words. But there’s a weight behind them – or more accurately, the absence of one.

Working Through It

The spring didn’t start without its bumps. A back issue, that he’s still battling, slowed Freeman early in camp, and for a player whose game runs on athleticism and movement, that’s never a small thing. But he chipped away at it, stayed patient, and found his rhythm.

“It was a little tough with the back thing early on, just kind of getting my way back and getting healthy, getting back on the field,” he said. “But once the groove started going, it started going well.”

There’s something poetic about a player who plays loose needing to first get loose himself. With less than a week left in Cactus League play before Opening Day on March 28th, Freeman has been doing exactly that – swinging freely and looking like a player who has shed the cautious energy of his first year in purple and replaced it with something more natural.

​The Super Utility Life

Some players bristle at being labeled as utility players. Freeman wears it like a comfortable t-shirt.

Second base, right field, left field – the conversation about where exactly he’ll line up on any given night is still fluid, with matchup-based deployment a possibility but nothing set in stone. Freeman’s answer to all of it is refreshingly unbothered.

“It’s kind of a role I’ve been in my whole career,” he said. “I’m up for the challenge. Whatever [Warren] Schaeffer wants to do, that’s what I’ll do with open hands.”

Open hands. It’s a good way to put it – not passive, not resigned, but genuinely ready to receive whatever the situation calls for. On a young roster still sorting out its best combinations, that kind of flexibility isn’t just useful. It’s quietly essential.

Freeman is also making sure that he’s not the only one to figure out the intricacies of this particular balancing act. Ryan Ritter and Cole Carrigg – both now navigating their own infield-outfield utility roles – have found a willing resource in Freeman, who has been generous with what he’s learned.

“Just trying to share what I’ve learned – how to prepare for when your name is called, whether it be in the outfield or the infield, and how to plan that and attack that,” he said. “They’re really great teammates. They’re ready to learn, ready to win.”

It’s a small thing, maybe. But clubhouses are built on small things.

No More Playing Scared

​If there’s one phrase that seems to capture the Rockies’ spring vibe this year, it’s this one, straight from Freeman: “We’re not going to play scared anymore.”

​The Rockies have made aggressive baserunning a point of emphasis this spring, and for Freeman – who swiped 18 bags last season – it feels like the volume has been turned up on an important facet of his game.

“We had a very young team last year, and now it’s time to turn the page,” Freeman said. “It’s time to be aggressive – whether it be on the bases, in the box, whatever. We’re going to be known as a team that takes extra chances. And if we go down trying, we go down trying.”

There’s an infectious quality to that mentality. This team isn’t making bold proclamations about October – it’s a team deciding, quietly but firmly, to stop playing small. For Freeman, whose speed has always been a weapon, playing in a system that actively encourages him to use it could make 2026 a genuinely fun year to watch him run.

The Weight is Gone

​Ask Freeman about the difference between this spring and last, and he doesn’t hesitate.

​Last March, he was a late addition, scrambling to learn names, tendencies, and clubhouse rhythms in the waning days before the season began. It was a lot to absorb. This March, he’s the one helping others absorb it.

​“Definitely a lot of weight off my shoulders,” he said. “I know the faces a lot better.”

He’s not trying to prove he belongs anymore. He knows he does. In a Rockies clubhouse that’s full of youth and still finding its personality, Freeman has stepped into the role of someone who sets a tone – not with big speeches, but with the way he prepares, the way he talks to the younger guys, and the way he plays when his number is called.

Freeman isn’t the headline on this team, and he’d probably tell you he doesn’t need to be. He just wants to help this team win. With Opening Day just around the corner, he looks every bit ready to do exactly that – wherever they happen to put him.

Written by Eli Whitney.