Rockies. Bullpen shows potential but has a lot to prove.

scottsdale, ariz.» Building a better bullpen took two midmarket teams to baseball’s promised land.

In 2015, the Kansas City Royals won the World Series, in large part because general manager Dayton Moore constructed a stellar bullpen. Last year, a corps of dependable and versatile relievers took Cleveland to Game 7 of the World Series before the Indians lost to the Chicago Cubs.

“For us, it just kind of evolved,” Royals manager Ned Yost said early in spring training. “We couldn’t spend a lot of money on starting pitching. So Dayton said, ‘We’re going to try to build a power bullpen.’ If we’re tied or have a lead from the fifth inning on, we should be able to close it out.”

Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich was clearly paying attention to the Royals’ blueprint. With the intention of turning Colorado into a playoff contender this year, Bridich signed former Royals all-star Greg Holland to be the club’s closer and gave left-hander Mike Dunn a three-year, $19 million contract, the most money the Rockies have ever spent on a free-agent reliever.

Now, after a mostly impressive spring training, put-up or shut-up time is on the horizon. Colorado opens the season Monday at Milwaukee.

“I think we have a dynamic bullpen here, a lot of good arms,” said Holland, who is guaranteed $7 million this season, with incentives that could bring the total to $14 million. “Plus, we have some veteran guys, which is good. From a standpoint of our talent, I think we are capable of being successful. That’s what we all anticipate.”

Rockies manager Bud Black hasn’t officially unveiled anything, and things could change this week, but it appears that the

eight-man bullpen will break down like this: Holland, closer; right-hander Adam Ottavino and lefties Jake McGee and Dunn in the seventhand eighth-inning roles; RHPs Carlos Estevez, Jordan Lyles and Jason Motte doing the middle-inning work; and rookie LHP Harrision Musgrave pitching long relief. Lefthander Chris Rusin, working his way back from a strained oblique, will take over the long relief role when he’s healthy.

As a whole, the aforementioned relievers posted a 4.22 ERA with 70 strikeouts vs. 22 walks through 29 Cactus League games entering Tuesday’s game vs. Texas.

“It’s sort of a real bullpen,” Black said, indicating he expects improvement from a relief group that posted a 5.13 ERA last season, the worst in the majors. “On balance, the work of the bullpen has been pretty good in spring training.”

Holland, who missed all of the 2015 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, has had moments of dominance this spring, but also bouts of inconsistency, as reflected in his 7.71 ERA. On the positive side, his fastball has touched 95 mph and his slider has shown extreme bite, big keys for him.

“It’s been a good spring,” Holland said. “For me, it’s not necessarily the