DENVER (AP) — For the Colorado Rockies, progress meant raising their win total by 15 games — and their ticket prices by around 12%.
They're in catch-up mode all over the ballpark.
Click to Gallery
Walker Monfort, back, president of the Colorado Rockies, listens as Paul DePodesta, president of baseball operations for the Colorado Rockies, while responding to a question during an end-of-season press conference Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, in Coors Field in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Paul DePodesta, president of baseball operations for the Colorado Rockies, responds to question during an end-of-season press conference Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, in Coors Field in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Walker Monfort, back, president of the Colorado Rockies, listens as Paul DePodesta, president of baseball operations for the Colorado Rockies, responds to question during an end-of-season press conference Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, in Coors Field in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Paul DePodesta, president of baseball operations for the Colorado Rockies, responds to question during an end-of-season press conference Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, in Coors Field in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
“It’s never fun and there’s never a right time,” club president Walker Monfort said Tuesday, explaining the price hike aims to bridge the gap between the Rockies and the MLB average. “Obviously, coming off of another 100-loss season, that’s not easy to justify.
“Everything that we do from a business perspective, it’s about becoming more competitive on the baseball field.”
Monfort and president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta addressed a little bit of everything in a wide-ranging interview with media following a fourth straight 100-loss season. They chatted about starting pitching (no Rockies starter earned a win after Aug. 26), manager Warren Schaeffer (he received a vote of confidence), the looming lockout (staying ready) and injured slugger Kris Bryant (planning for anything).
“We’ve talked about progress, and I do think it’s important to talk about progress, but let’s not mistake it for being good,” DePodesta said. “We’re pleased with the progress, but we’re not pleased yet with where we are.”
One of the topics was the structure of the ownership group. The Monforts brought in Denver Broncos owners Greg Penner and Carrie Walton Penner in April through a minority investment from the Penner Sports Group.
But Walker Monfort said selling a majority ownership stake in the club isn't in the works.
“There’s not a plan for that,” Monfort explained. "Our relationship as it exists has been publicly explained. From our standpoint, they are partners. We entered into it to help to clear ourselves of debt that we took on from the COVID days.
“We’re in a much better financial position today because of that partnership than we would have been had we not entered into it. ... It just gives us a ton more flexibility compared to where we were positioned last year.”
DePodesta took on the task of turning around the Rockies nearly a year ago. He equated the 2026 season to having a decent meal and then waiting 45 minutes for the check.
“When it ends badly, it just leaves a bad taste,” he said.
The Rockies were trending toward potentially avoiding a 100-loss season. But they fell apart late, going 8-30 over their final 38 games, to finish 58-104. They were 43-119 a year ago.
Colorado became the first team since the 1962-65 New York Mets to lose 100 or more games in four consecutive years.
But there's hope — the Chicago White Sox, who lost 100 or more games every season from 2023-25 and then made the playoffs this year.
“This year, certainly objectively, if you look at a lot of the different underlying metrics, was a pretty significant leap forward,” DePodesta said. “But obviously with the won-loss record, there are more leaps that need to happen going forward for us to ultimately be where we want to be.”
DePodesta pointed out the emergence of first baseman TJ Rumfield, who was acquired in a deal with the New York Yankees last January and hit .300 this season. Outfielder Jake McCarthy was picked up in a January trade with Arizona and had 15 homers to go with 32 stolen bases.
“Our expectation is there will be a significant leap next year,” DePodesta said.
A sticky point is the status of Bryant, who's been limited to 170 games with Colorado due to injuries since signing a $182 million, seven-year contract before the 2022 season.
“Obviously, Kris wasn’t able to play this year, so we just have to continue to stay in touch with him and see how things progress through the course of this offseason,” DePodesta said. “I think we have to continue to move forward from a roster-building standpoint as if we’re not going to have him. If we do, then that’s a great bonus.”
For DePodesta, he can dig in this offseason. A year ago, it was all a whirlwind.
“We spent most of November and December hiring the coaching staff, hiring a front office,” DePodesta explained. “We’re excited this year, sort of getting a jump on the offseason, and be ready to attack it aggressively.”
See AP’s full MLB coverage here
Walker Monfort, back, president of the Colorado Rockies, listens as Paul DePodesta, president of baseball operations for the Colorado Rockies, while responding to a question during an end-of-season press conference Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, in Coors Field in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Paul DePodesta, president of baseball operations for the Colorado Rockies, responds to question during an end-of-season press conference Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, in Coors Field in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Walker Monfort, back, president of the Colorado Rockies, listens as Paul DePodesta, president of baseball operations for the Colorado Rockies, responds to question during an end-of-season press conference Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, in Coors Field in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Paul DePodesta, president of baseball operations for the Colorado Rockies, responds to question during an end-of-season press conference Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, in Coors Field in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — An extremely wealthy Chinese immigrant and his wife amassed a brood of 21 children through a surrogacy scheme and raised them in a “house of horrors,” prosecutors alleged Tuesday.
Guojun Xuan, 66, and Silvia Zhang, 39, were arrested at their sprawling mansion in Arcadia, a city about 13 miles (20 kilometers) northeast of downtown Los Angeles.
The children suffered daily beatings from cruel nannies as the couple watched over a network of surveillance cameras and laughed, according to prosecutors. The couple allegedly recruited women across the country to serve as surrogates, promising them that they were just looking for another child to grow their family.
The couple face several counts of child abuse as well as conspiracy to commit child abuse, accessory after the fact and dissuading a witness, according to Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman.
“This case is unprecedented. It is horrific,” he said during a morning news conference. “The physical abuse, beating and punishment that these very young children received is despicable.”
In an afternoon court appearance in nearby Pasadena, the couple pleaded not guilty and denied all allegations with a Mandarin interpreter. Prosecutors sought $100 million bail per person because of the serious nature of the charges and because they are flight risks.
The couple have over 200 personal and 70 corporate bank accounts with annual transfers of $250 million, Deputy District Attorney MacKenzie Teymouri said.
Both were said to have U.S., Mexican and Chinese passports, though investigators have not determined if they are all legitimate; prosecutors said they used fake passports to create some of the bank accounts.
Inside the couple's home, investigators found a bank statement showing more than $70 million in one account along with assets such as antique sculptures and specialty alcohol that added up to nearly $10 million, according to Teymouri.
LA County Superior Court Judge Kerry White set bail at $20 million each with home detention and a protective order against visiting their children.
Mitchell Krems, the couple's attorney, called the bail amount “absurd” for the type of charges his clients face and said Zhang's health should be taken into consideration.
Zhang, who appeared in court in a wheelchair, has a rare form of leukemia and is recovering from a bone marrow transplant, Krems said.
Fifteen children were removed from the opulent home last year after an allegation of abuse, and another six living elsewhere were also located. They ranged in age from 2 months to 13 years, with most between 1 and 3. Police believe Zhang gave birth to one or two of the children, while the rest were carried and delivered by surrogates.
Hochman said the couple set up an agency, Mark Surrogacy, that they operated from home and used to hire surrogates throughout the U.S. But prosecutors said the couple misled the women, telling some that they could not conceive and others that they only had one child and wanted one more to complete their family.
“The house could only be described as a house of horrors for these incredible young children,” Hochman said.
Zhang and Xuan were first arrested in May 2025 after a hospital reported that their 2-month-old infant had a traumatic head injury, the result of being violently shaken by a nanny, according to Arcadia police.
Police did not file charges at the time, saying they needed to complete the investigation.
Hochman said the couple set up three rooms they called learning centers, where the children spent several hours a day sitting at desks under the supervision of nannies.
Through an extensive surveillance system including motion-activated cameras, the couple watched and at times laughed as the nannies physically abused the children, including daily beatings, he said.
In one video, Xuan is shown entering a room and telling a nanny to strike a child harder, Hochman said, and in another he joins the nanny in hitting the child.
The nannies were allegedly told “not to leave any physical marks on the children,” and when police arrived to investigate in May 2025, the children were told to deny they had been beaten.
After examining the surveillance video, police issued an arrest warrant for Chunmei Li, the nanny seen hurting the 2-month-old infant. However she fled to Tijuana, Mexico, and then China.
After the children were taken into state custody, Xuan and Zhang were allowed supervised visits. During one such visit, Zhang read to a child and wrote in the book, “Tell them you're happy with me, tell them you want to come home,” lead prosecutor Teymouri said.
Krems said it was “patently false” that Xuan was involved in beating any of the children and blamed all the abuse on the nannies.
“My client, Mr. Xuan, intervened swiftly,” Krems said. “He fired the nanny, excised her from the house.”
When asked about the couple’s motivation, Hochman said that was part of the investigation, as was the parentage of each child.
Krems, Xuan’s attorney, previously told ABC7 that Xuan’s goal was to raise children who become productive adults.
“The reason he has all these children is because he wants them to contribute to society. He is not a man who is self-indulgent,” Krems said. “Some who are wealthy might spend on jewelry or cars, but he is actually spending his resources to help his children become educated.”
After Tuesday's court hearing, he said Xuan and Zhang immigrated from China to exercise their freedom and have as many children as they want.
“If they were white, if they were Elon Musk, and they weren't Chinese, they wouldn't experience this level of scrutiny,” Krems said.
Surrogacy is an arrangement in which a woman agrees to carry and deliver a child for another person or couple, often after an embryo transfer.
There is no comprehensive federal law regulating surrogacy, leaving most rules to the states.
California is considered to be surrogacy-friendly because it has clear laws governing the process. Both sides are required to have lawyers, and there must be a written, notarized contract before an embryo transfer takes place.
At least eight women came forward to say they were aggressively pursued to serve as surrogates. The women, many of them first-time surrogates, said they were given misleading or incomplete information about the couple’s family situation and intentions.
Krems denied that the couple lied to surrogates about their intentions.
The district attorney's office said a federal investigation was ongoing.
Marcelo reported from New York.
FILE - An aerial view shows the home of Silvia Zhang and Guojun Xuan on July 16, 2025, in Arcadia, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
