Hours after the Rockies announced an extension for star center fielder Charlie Blackmon, Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post chatted with Blackmon’s teammates and manager about the newly inked contract. The question on the minds of many in the wake of the $108MM deal, which guarantees Blackmon $94MM in new money over the next five seasons (he was already signed at $14MM this year), was whether the Rox would be able to keep both Blackmon and Nolan Arenado. However, Arenado tells Saunders that his teammate’s considerable payday hasn’t prompted him to think about his own contract. “Honestly, I didn’t think about that,” said Arenado — a free agent after the 2019 season. “…I would rather not negotiate during the season. I’m happy for Chuck, and it’s not about me, it’s about him. I didn’t really put me and him together with it.”
Even more telling, though, were comments by second baseman DJ LeMahieu, who was candid in expressing his doubt that his camp and the Rockies will even hold talks. “No, there have been no talks and I don’t think there will be,” said LeMahieu. The 29-year-old LeMahieu, a two-time Gold Glove winner and All-Star, is set to hit the open market at season’s end.
Here’s more from the division…
- The Padres announced tonight that they’ve placed Wil Myers on the 10-day disabled list due to nerve irritation in his right arm and recalled right-hander Phil Maton from Triple-A El Paso. While Myers will be shut down from baseball activities entirely for the next few days, the Friars don’t consider the injury to be serious and are actually expecting a minimal DL stint, as MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell writes. X-rays have already shown that there’s no structural damage in Myers’ arm, per Cassavell, who adds that a specialist examined Myers and made the diagnosis of some apparently mild irritation. “It’s early in the season,” Myers told Cassavell. “If I can use these days to get this right, get my back right, to finish the last 148 games completely healthy, it’s the right move.”
- While they didn’t call a great deal of attention to it, the Giants beefed up their analytics department over the offseason, writes Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. San Francisco has become more aggressive in terms of infield shifting and, during Spring Training, displayed leaderboards with more modern metrics such as exit velocity in the clubhouse. Giants players have begun to ask for additional info on their launch angles and batted-ball tendencies, Pavlovic notes. Regarding the infield shifts, Pavlovic also points out that the addition of a strong defensive player in Evan Longoria, plus the increased emphasis on data, figures to make the club considerably more aggressive in terms of shifts.
I’d love nothing more than to see Arenado come home to OC and play for the Angels.
I’d sit out the top end of next year’s class and go all out for him after 2019.
Agreed, Arenado is a top 3 player in the league, in my opinion. Would love to see him wearing the orange and black but doubt that will ever happen. I get the feeling that San Francisco will be spending big on this huge class next year which will (unfortunately) take them out of the market for Nolan.
Arenado’s numbers away from Colorado is a slash line of .266/.313/.474, which means he is aided by his inflated home numbers. Blackmon did the smart thing and re-signed. Arenado would be wise to do the same.
I guess his world class defense is aided by Coors too?
You guys kill me. There is not one player on the planet that would not have better home stats than road stats if they played for Colorado. Not one. That doesn’t mean they can’t play elsewhere. Home/road splits for the Rockies hitters (actually all teams hitters in my opinion) are absolutely useless.
Home road splits for Rockies hitters are useless? Tell that to Mark Reynolds, who can’t get a job this year because he couldn’t hit on the road. Tell that to Dante Bichette and Vinny Castilla, whose careers ended after they left Colorado. Or Cargo. Colorado’s altitude difference to any other team in the league is extreme. Something like 450% higher. Of course it inflates numbers. And hurts pitchers.
Talk to Dexter Fowler and Matt Holliday, or any of a bunch of other ex-Rockies who hit just fine or better after sporting big home-road splits at Coors. Playing for the Rockies means your home numbers are better than they should be, but also means your road numbers are WORSE than they should be, due to adjustments you have to make. Virtually all ex-Rox hitters do fine when they leave.
Oh and by the way, Aaron Judge had a 230 OBP home/road split last year, as do almost all Yankees. Do we say his numbers are inflated?
Yankee stadium is a really good hitter’s park.
No, but defense is usually the first thing to go. especially at 3rd
When road numbers can be considered really good by the standard many on this site use, we can consider him a top 10 player. Using road numbers multiplied by 2 doesn’t make him close. He is a stud defender, that part is true.
What? No it’s not! Bat speed
and foot speed is usually the first to go.
Top 3 is a little extreme. He’s probably top 10.
.266 hitter away from Coors. Nowhere near top 10.
His homerun spilts are pretty on par home or away
The ball just drops a lil bit more in Denver
He is part of the top end of next year’s class.
Evan Longoria can move to the other side of the diamond all he wants
He ain’t winning 90 ballgames with that alone. Get that team younger!
The 2010 sf giants had an older average age on starting players
Buster posey was the only one under the age of 30
Baseball has changed quite a bit since 2010
Baseball has changed. Young players are a hot commodity. Older players don’t carry the same value anymore. It’s not hard to imagine that older players may now be undervalued. Im not saying the giants are going to win anything but they only had two options. Tear it down completely or add older players to supplement. They still fill the stadium every night and have3 Ws rings in the last decade.
The Pujols contract and many more show the folly of signing anybody to a long term contract. Owners are finally waking up.
I think Freddy Sanchez was like 29 but for the most part you’re right.
Getting younger doesn’t help if the young guys suck, there needs to be a build up of the farm before that can happen, you are looking at a few years for that to work, and blowing up isn’t necessarily the answer as that could take even longer.
Since you know the future…. Who is winning it all this year in every sport?
The O’s of course. Just as it is at the beginning of every season. #sarcasm
Yankees
and Nationals in the World Series. Nats win in 6 games!
Arenado’s reply sounds a lot like a way to say, “I still plan on testing free agency”
During the winter meetings, many of the people there were saying that Arenado was waiting to talk about an extension until he saw how many of the guys around him would be sticking around. That signing guys like Blackmon was a prerequisite for him signing. The Rockies have another offseason to talk with him about an extension.
Ah the panda is taking the giants back to the World Series…
Blackmon’s 4 hrs this year have all been on the road. Glad to see him get his big pay day. You’ll have to think he’ll be a corner outfielder before the end of this deal though.
great deal for Blackmon. Not sure what the Rockies are doing here, locking up a player through his age-38 season who wouldn’t have commanded even half that contract on the open market. But good for them to show loyalty to their guy.
Rockies have McMahon, Hampson, and Rodgers waiting in the wings to take over at 2B.
Still I’m not convinced they don’t consider re-signing DJ in the off season depending on his market and other factors.
With the likely departure of Parra and Cargo at the end of this season I see it likely that Desmond and Dahl slot into there spots in the outfield. Whether this means Blackmon moves to a corner with Dahl slotting into centerfield or not I have not idea. This should open up 1st base to McMahon at the very least. Depending on Rodgers development this year I think would really dictate the amount of desire on the part of the Rockies to sign DJ long term. DJ should slot in salary wise behind Blackmon in say the $15 million per year range give or take. With Arenado likely in the $30 million a year range. This would put long term deals with Blackmon, DJ, and Arenado at about $65 million a year for those three players alone. If the Rockies can sustain a $150-175 million dollar payroll in Denver moving forward I would say they can afford to keep them, and still field a strong competitive team that could compete for the postseason most years. I have no idea what the long term ability is to sustain that kind of payroll, or what a sustainable payroll for the Rockies would be.
As a fan I would love to see all three players remain in Colorado, and see the talent from the farm come up and joint them. I’m also not paying the bills, and I don’t know anywhere enough to know what it takes to field a baseball team. It is fun though to dream about the possibilities, and enjoy watching the games while I root for purple laundry.