It wasn’t that long ago that many thought Jon Gray’s days in Colorado were over. In July. With the team outside the playoff hunt, armchair wisdom suggested trading Gray at the deadline, but all accounts suggest they were more than comfortable keeping the big righty in Denver. He finished the year with a 4.59 ERA/4.22 FIP in 29 starts covering 149 innings. It wasn’t a stellar year, but it might be enough to leave other clubs curious about what he might be capable of outside of Colorado.
Inside Colorado, GM Bill Schmidt is now fully installed in his role, so there’s little reason to think his position has changed. They’d love to have Gray back. Gray, of course, will be a free agent the day after the World Series. The Rockies have no more a hold on Gray than the other 29 teams in the league (assuming they don’t extend a qualifying offer). There are rumblings of a contact extension being on the table, per The Athletic’s Nick Groke. Still, any agreement at this juncture would be surprising.
In terms of the rest of the roster, Schmidt’s recent comments provided by Groke suggest he may turn initially to the trade market, which would be a departure from normal operating procedure under former GM Jeff Bridich. If the Rockies do decide to dangle some of their players, Groke suggests Raimel Tapia, Brendan Rodgers, Colton Welker, Daniel Bard, Ryan Vilade, and Grant Lavigne as affordable assets that might draw attention. Comments from the club last season suggested they plan to build around Tapia and Ryan McMahon, so it would be a little surprising to see one of them move, even if there’s wisdom in exploring the options.
Rodgers, likewise, has hung around for long enough waiting to replace Trevor Story. The 25-year-old managed enough offensively to suggest he might be ready for that role. That said, 100 wRC+ and 1.6 fWAR in 415 plate appearances doesn’t scream superstar. The bigger question with Rodgers might be his position, as he may no longer be ticketed for shortstop. Still, he’s looking like a plus power bat at the keystone, per Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. That’s a fine future for Rodgers, but it does limit his potential future value.
Schmidt, of course, already made his first couple of big moves this winter, signing Antonio Senzatela and C.J. Cron to extensions. Those moves lend credence to Groke’s suggestions above to dangle the organization’s other first baggers like Welker and Lavigne on the trade block, despite their youth. Cron’s deal was just for two years, but it does provide the team with some surplus from which they might be comfortable dealing.
I’m almost certain the Rockies offseason strategy is that they have no strategy.
I thought it was send 50 million plus your best player and see who bites.
Spent the last year, Rocky Mountain way
I couldn’t get much higher. Well, you’re tellin’ me this and you’re tellin’ me that change it up every day, you say it doesn’t matter… Time to change the owner. Ahahahaha!
Bucsfan beat me to it. The blind are leading the blind.
Schmidt has a solid strategy to make sure Rockies win 75 instead of 65, but without a new owner and more spending you can pencil this team into 4th in NL West for next year. I think that they will get a deal done with Gray. I think Tapia and McMahon are solid. I am ok with bringing Cron back. But they will at best make deals that compensate for losing Story, not improvements.
This team is a mess, feel sorry for Rockies fans.
They should hire me to be the GM. I would bring a World Series to Colorado. I have stats stored in my head and all these GMs have no idea what they are doing. I deserve to be hired
Monfort should sell this team because clearly he is not in this to win a World Series or to bring high level baseball to Colorado.
Baseball has been played at the highest level in all of MLB in Colorado. About a mile high…
The Weed is legal in Colorado, so…
Bye bye Trevor, bye bye Jon.
Hello comp picks!!! Wooooohoooo!!!! Because that’s what winning organizations do – let your stars walk into free agency for a couple of lottery tickets. Clearly the mark of excellence
And they might not even QO Gray
Actually that’s what losing organizations do to become winning ones
I know you’re being sarcastic, but that concept is how teams in the NFL like the Ravens and Patriots have managed to stay competitive year in and year out for a long time. (Having Brady helped, but the Patriots were good at finding contributors late in the draft.) The draft is a crapshoot anyway, so you might as well have better odds of picking someone that turns into a good player.
I’m partially playing devil’s advocate, and the Rockies don’t exactly deserve the benefit of the doubt here. But if you aren’t willing or able to bring a guy back at his price, there are worse options than taking the pick and moving on.
Trading them would have been a better option
Not a big. Loss. Wherever Story goes he’ll be a 230 hitter with 20 homers.
Sound like Dan O’Dowd
Is that the guy from MLB network?
Gray and Story….they gone. Only way Gray stays is with an above-market deal which the cheap owner won’t do. I would guess he would want to see how he could pitch a bit closer to sea level.
The strategy is to suck less. Not much hope there, but they need to tell the ticket buying fans something.
I get the business side of it, but what are you telling them? That we are trying our best to be a .450 team?
This team has one goal, to make the owner rich, put butts in the seats and they are happy. Beautiful park, poor leadership.
Still can’t believe they flat out refused to trade any veterans they had that were going to leave this off-season via free agency. Team with no direction
The owner is delusional he made that 100+ win proclamation a year or so ago he seems to think this is a good team. Or maybe he thinks he can will it to be true. As long as the Doyers are in the West there’s little hope for success out there, looks like Arizona figured that out, the Padres are cocky now, the Giants had a cinderella season but the clock struck 12 on that old team. The Rox did go out and extend two of their guys already this off-season which says to me that someone in that org really believes in that team.
A team like the Cubs, who have had a good deal of success over the last 6 years, recognized that the run was over, and sent everyone packing. They will be competitive in as little as two years.
The Rox were in the same position, and held onto almost everyone.
Joe we’ll see about being competitive in two years. I guess it depends on how you define being competitive. But the Cards and Brewers seem like they are light years ahead of the Cubs.
You people need to give Billy Schmidt a chance. This guy has great baseball acumen and has been very successful drafting players. He knows how to lead people and is not afraid to make tough decisions. Let it unfold.
What’s the punchline?
The people of Denver
They have a strategy? Cool!
Can’t believe they would get anything for Bard in a trade. He was a good comeback story last year but was not good this year. A non tender would be the logical move for the Rockies.
“Latest on Rockies offseason strategy”
Throw s*** at wall, see what sticks…
Building around Tapia and McMahon is like building a gourmet burger around the bun’s sesame seeds and lettuce.
They are borderline platoon players on a playoff team. Make Story available first, set a deadline to create competition and see who offers the best package. Don’t like what you see, wait.
It’s a shame. Rockies never seem to really have a plan longer than a month or two.
Too late. Story will be available but the Rockies best get will be a draft pick!
Brendan Rodgers to White Sox might make some sense.
Let’s just bring the Isotopes up from Albuquerque and let all the AAA players have a season before we trade them all away. The Rox seem to always have an above average farm system, so why not let the farm system have a shot at the big league. Hell, they can’t be any worse than the big club anyways and might actually win a few.
Let’s just bring the Isotopes up from Albuquerque and let all the AAA players have a season before we trade them all away. The Rox seem to always have an above average farm system, so why not let the farm system have a shot at the big league. Hell, they can’t be any worse than the big club anyways and might actually win a few.