Jon Gray has stood out as a potential trade candidate for months, and the Rockies indeed “began putting feelers out to teams regarding Gray during Spring Training,” according to FanSided’s Robert Murray. Gray is eligible for free agency after the season and has only improved his trade value by posting a 2.93 ERA/4.19 SIERA over 46 innings so far into the 2021 campaign.
There isn’t any sense that a deal could be particularly close, since teams usually don’t make major trades this far in advance of the July 30 trade deadline. In addition, the Rockies’ front office has also undergone a sea change since Spring Training, as Bill Schmidt took over as interim general manager earlier this month after Jeff Bridich resigned his GM post in late April.
While the GM change could make a Gray trade (and perhaps a wider-scale rebuild for the Rockies) more likely, it would count as a surprise if the right-hander was moved quite so early in the season. That said, as Murray notes, an aggressive team could benefit by landing Gray now, and Colorado would land a larger trade package if Gray was a “rental player” for more than just the last two months of the regular season.
Gray has rebounded well from a rough 2020 season that saw him spend a lot of time on the injured list due to shoulder inflammation, and post a 6.69 ERA over 39 innings. Looking at his 2021 numbers, that difference between his ERA and SIERA indicates that Gray’s performance hasn’t exactly been ace-level, as his strikeout (22.9%) and walk (9.9%) rates are both below average and he has enjoyed a .250 BABIP. On the plus side, Gray has done a very good job of limiting hard contact, and his usually-solid grounder rate has risen to a new career best of 53.7%.
Gray has pretty even home/road splits over his career, which is no mean feat considering his home ballpark is Coors Field. Interestingly, Gray has generally pitched better at home than on the road in recent years, including a startling split of a 2.00 ERA in 36 innings at Coors Field this season as opposed to a 6.30 ERA in 10 innings on the road. Granted, these are very small sample sizes, but Gray’s ability to pitch effectively in the thin air of Denver makes it intriguing to see how he would fare in a more normalized pitching environment.
Some executives, in fact, believe the Rockies should try to capitalize on Gray’s success at Coors Field and try to sign him to a contract extension. Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post also thinks extension talks are a possibility, but with an “emphasis on ’attempt,’ ” meaning that the likelihood of Gray signing a new deal seems pretty low, this close to his trip to the free agent market. Saunders ultimately believes Gray will be traded elsewhere prior to July 30.
I know they need to trade him, but he is one of very few pitchers who thrives in Denver. He is not intimidated by Coors Field.
I don’t want to see Gray or Story go but one or both are gone
Send him to Atlanta.
You spelled Anaheim wrong
LAA doesn’t know how to get pitching brought in. So, Atlanta it is.
This is the exact type of subpar pitching the angels target. Fully expect Perry to trade a top 10 prospect for him.
Why would you expect that when has no track record for it?
Because we all know Arte is calling the shots and he does have a track record for it
He’ll be traded to St. Louis for Justin Williams and -$20m.
Would that be for the Carolina hurricanes retired winger and current assistant gm Justin Williams?
No. That would improve their front office situation lol.
Yankees
That didn’t take long …
The Braves don’t care enough to fix their problems externally unless it’s cheap and does not require their future hall of fame prospects.
Future HOF prospects?
Historically there’s about a 1% chance of that
There have been 20K major league players in the history of baseball. 266 have made it into the HOF. My random fact for the day.
Has it hit 20,000 yet? I know it’s getting close.
Mets-Braves. Top 7:
Runs: 2
Injured Players: 3
Kevin Pillar takes a Jacob Webb fastball in the face. One of the most gruesome injuries I’ve seen in 50-plus years watching MLB. Webb was unable to continue pitching.
Oh no. That sounds horrible. Don’t even want to look for the video. Best wishes to both to get through that…
Don’t watch if you can help it. I felt bad for Webb watching from the dugout while they were cleaning the area around home plate. He was shaken.
The Mets, by the way, started the game with four position players on the bench with a total of less than 10 career MLB at-bats. Strange for mid-May. The injuries are making the season difficult to watch.
This was absolutely horrible to see. I’m glad he was able to walk off on his own. I’d be very surprised if he doesn’t have a broken nose and possibly broken orbital bone.
Most gruesome sports injury I’ve seen is Clint Malarchuk’s throat being slashed as a goalie for the Buffalo Sabres. Dude was lucky to survive. His story after the injury is pretty tragic itself.
I remember the Malarchuk injury and PTSD story. Louisville’s Kevin Ware breaking his leg in the Elite Eight against Duke was hard to watch. Dave Dravecky breaking his arm while pitching is another.
With tonight’s Pillar injury, I was surprised they didn’t get Webb to leave the dugout with some accompaniment. It should be part of the plan when it comes to caring for players.
A few interesting side notes about a couple of those injuries:
Malarchuck returned to the ice 10 days later. The man nearly died and he was back in less than two weeks.
Dravecky was a cancer survivor but when doctors were examining his broken arm, they had found that the cancer had returned. Dave wrote a book and said he never would have gotten it checked if it hadn’t been for his injury and that his broken arm probably saved his life.
They’re going to make the Braves pay in their next game. I hope when they take revenge that it’s on a bench player and not somebody like Freddie Freeman.
Doubt it. It isn’t like the Harper situation. For one, Pillar is a role player. Cabrera plunked 2 of their best hitters on 3 pitches. Braves also took Webb out immediately, as he was an emotional wreck after hitting him. Mets also won the game. Teams tend be a lot less petty when they win.
Nah. That nonsense doesn’t happen anymore.
They’re not going to take revenge. Everybody watching that game, including the Mets, knows that was unintentional and that Webb was deeply regretful.
Pillar has got to be the luckiest guy right now. He took that fastball straight to the face it seemed like it could have been worse than what he suffered. Still horrific to see but man seeing him taking it straight I definitely feel like it could have been way worse.
Some teams might not be able to wait until the deadline to acquire a starting pitcher. Atlanta, for instance. Max Fried was at 90 pitches tonight when he went out to pitch the seventh. He faced one batter and then left with some kind of injury.
And Soroka won’t be back soon. And Ynoa fractured his hand. And Morton is struggling. And they might still win the NL East but they need starting pitching, no doubt.
Package him and Story to the A’s for a Puk package.
To the Braves for Jared Shuster and a low-level OF prospect.
That’s an offer Colorado would have to consider. Young lefties with good control are hard to come by.
I would say Yankees but it’s actually the Yankees hitting that has failed them. Pitching has been decent for the Yanks
His sabermetrics and algorithms look good, from what all the stat websites are telling me to believe, so that’s good for him this offseason.
He’s also Native American and big into those issues, so I don’t think he would be a “big city” pitcher. Does anybody know which state has the largest percentage of Native American population? That could be a sleeper pick.
I willing to bet the Jays are kicking the tires, seeing what the Rox might want. With 8 guys now in the Top 100 (BA ) a prospect in the 10-15 range from the Jays would be a good return for a rental.
Rox need young controllable pitching. They never draft enough pitching so trading Gray, Story and a few others they can get pitching and some catching. Can’t remember when they had a good catcher.
Shows ,.the game is run by unimaginative clods……who just play follow the leader because all of them are fakes who don’t know what they’re doing.
WHY WAIT????!
The moment you identify a weak spot on the team, discover how to fix it and fix it..
The seller should be on the phone selling after he sees what he has to sell, studies the market of other teams.needs, what he is targeting in return and MAKE A MOVE….
Pardon.me, of I sound disgusted….. I’ve been watching biG Al ruin the Tiger for 5 years wandering around… wondering what happened to the peach ice cream in the officers tent….
But hey, who needs peach ice cream when you get to travel around the country with an expense accout……
I wouldn’t mind the Mets going after him if he doesn’t cost soo much
He didn’t help the Rockies tonight giving up 5 ER in 5.1 IP with only 1K.
7 ER
No, 5 ER. The other 2 were unearned. Either way, not very impressive for pitching at Petco.
Technically 5 ER but the 2 other runs that scored were the result of Gray’s own error and he made 2 last night.
Always seems weird to me when a pitcher’s own error ends up benefiting their ERA.
Too bad it’s the Rockies or they could get a good return. Gray has done well to increase his value while at the same time- pitchers are dropping like flies. Any contender could use him. Yet After the arenado trade- wouldn’t be surprised if the traded him, paid the rest of his salary and still gave up a prospect or 2!!
The way things are going,a trade wouldn’t help any of these teams as whoever they traded for would probably get injured right away.