SAN DIEGO -- The Rockies’ 2023 season will depend on bounce backs from players who struggled in 2022 -- a list that includes starting pitchers Kyle Freeland and Germán Márquez.

Freeland had a colossally poor April (6.16 ERA), and Márquez didn’t permanently pull his ERA below 6.00 until late June. Even with some stellar starts the rest of the way, Freeland’s ERA landed at 4.53, Márquez’s at 4.95.

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And while their struggles deserve deeper analysis of numbers and execution, manager Bud Black and general manager Bill Schmidt touched upon human factors.

Schmidt boiled Freeland’s start to one distracting issue.

“I might have screwed that up by doing the contract negotiation,” said Schmidt, who signed Freeland to a five-year, $64.5 million extension in April. “My personal opinion, he tried to live up to it and he put some undue pressure on himself.”

Black said last winter’s lockout, which delayed Spring Training, proved detrimental to Márquez, who changed his offseason routine by training in Denver, working indoors to avoid weather. This year, he has spent time in Denver and his native Venezuela, but will do his run-up to the season in Scottsdale, Ariz., as in past years.

“Germán needs the full six weeks to get his feet on the ground, get his arm in shape, get his pitches in order to give him the best possible chance,” Black said.

Drawing board (or trading block)
Cory Bellinger reached a reported one-year, $17.5 million deal with the Cubs, and there went the free agent candidate to fill many Rockies needs -- left-handed power and center field under a short contract.

Plan B? With lesser fits on the free-agent market, one option would be to explore a trade. Switch-hitting All-Star center fielder Bryan Reynolds is seeking a deal, but the Pirates control his contract for the next three seasons and hold the cards.

The Rockies continue to explore not only that option, but late-innings relief and starting pitching.

The juggling hitting coach 
Hensley “Bam Bam” Meulens will juggle managing the Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic with his new job as Rockies hitting coach. The Netherlands squad will leave March 1 for Taichung, Taiwan.

To prepare, Meulens has spoken with key Rockies players to become acquainted. Many of the team’s players live in the Scottsdale area, and most report to Salt River Fields at Talking Stick several days before they are due. Meulens will be there early, too. After he leaves, he will watch video of each player’s plate appearances.

The WBC championship game is March 21, nine days before the Rockies’ regular-season opener March 30 at San Diego. Meulens believes he will have enough time with the Rockies even if his WBC team advances that far.

“Spring Training is overrated, in my opinion, at that time for the hitters,” Meulens said. “You start to see them lock in the last 10 days, two weeks -- the last week, even.”

Another developing starter 
The Rockies acquired Minor League right-hander Jeff Criswell from the Athletics for right-handed reliever Chad Smith (0-1, 7.50 ERA in 15 Major League appearances). Criswell, who will turn 24 on March 10, was a second-round Draft pick in 2020 out of the University of Michigan. He went 4-10 with a 4.03 ERA in 24 games (21 starts) across three levels in the Oakland system last season -- including two starts at Triple-A Las Vegas.

Criswell went 7-1 with a 2.72 ERA in 22 games (17 starts) for a 2019 Michigan team that made the College World Series final, and was on the same starting staff as righty Karl Kauffmann, who was a second-round Rockies pick in ’19 and advanced to Triple-A Albuquerque last season.

That wasn’t the only connection. Schmidt’s son Matt, now a coach in the Royals’ system, also was on that Wolverines squad.

“Bill got to see him quite a bit that year when he pitched,” Athletics general manager David Forst said. “He was the guy they had targeted. Trading for a Major League reliever, that’s going to cost you a good player.”

Lottery luck
The first MLB Draft Lottery on Tuesday landed the Rockies in the ninth position in 2023. Had there not been a lottery, they would have picked eighth.