SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Two of the Rockies’ newest relievers -- rookie Seth Halvorsen and second-year man Victor Vodnik -- are the best candidates to turn save situations into safe propositions. 

Last year, even big leads were anything but safe. The Rockies blew five leads of four or more runs in the ninth inning or later, the most by any team in the last 50 years.

The hard-throwing Halvorsen, 25, felt the delight and the disappointment in consecutive games at Dodger Stadium. He blew a 100.2 mph fastball by Max Muncy for a bases-loaded strikeout to earn his first Major League save in his ninth appearance on Sept. 21. The next day, Halvorsen served consecutive homers to Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts in the bottom of the ninth and took his first career blown save in a 6-5 loss.

Vodnik, 25, experienced one of those games, also against the Dodgers, that led to the dubious record. The Rockies’ five-run ninth-inning lead at home was dissipating on June 18 when manager Bud Black turned to Vodnik for his first ninth-inning save chance. But a disputed two-out, two-strike check-swing call kept the game alive for Teoscar Hernández to knock a lead-flipping, three-run homer in the Dodgers’ 11-9 victory.

Vodnik absorbed a less-colorful blown save against the White Sox on June 30, but from there turned in the best performance of the Rockies’ pitchers who took turns in the closer role. He had nine saves before going to the injured list with right biceps inflammation in late August. He returned at the end in a setup role.

So the two prime candidates for the ninth inning understand the highs and lows of the job. They also have top-end velocity and secondary pitches that can make either the main guy in a hard-throwing bullpen that showed promise at season’s end.

As camp begins, Black is looking at the bullpen as a whole as opposed to just a contest for closer.

“We have some ideas there, but that will fall into place as we get later in the spring -- the last couple of weeks,” Black said. “But when you talk about the eight-man group, we feel good about it as it stands, barring any unforeseen rash of injuries or anything that might occur. The talent is as good as we’ve seen, as far as the depth piece.”

The Rockies eyed Halvorsen as a key late-inning piece who didn’t need a lot of development time from the day they selected him in the seventh round of the 2023 Draft. Halvorsen was mostly a starter at Missouri in 2019 and ‘21. He missed 2022 with a fractured right elbow, then struck out 52 in 52 innings at Tennessee in 2023.

The lengthy college career as a starter helped Halvorsen build his strategy for the relief role.

“That’s helped to be able to learn to pitch and I take things from that time in my life, but I also changed my repertoire since going from starting to relieving.” Halvorsen said. “I adapted my slider. My changeup is the exact same as it was when I was a starter in college, and my slider has a little bit more of a horizontal break.”

Halvorsen flashed closer stuff during his inning in Wednesday’s 7-6 Cactus League victory against the Royals at Surprise, Ariz. Halvorsen gave up a ground-ball single on a 99.2 mph sinker to Cam Devanney but put the inning down on two more grounders. Daniel Vazquez hit into a double play and Jack Pineda grounded out on a 91.6 mph splitter, after Halvorsen had exceeded 100 mph on three of the previous four pitches.

“He has a lot of characteristics of a Major League pitcher -- not only stuff, but makeup,” Black said. “That was the player development [department’s] take -- his poise, his demeanor, his aptitude, a lot of things that players need to conquer the Major Leagues. He did that in a relatively short period of time.”