In the wake of a potentially season-ending shoulder injury to second baseman Brendan Rodgers, Rockies general manager Bill Schmidt tells Joel Sherman of the New York Post that his team’s likeliest course of action will be to slide third baseman Ryan McMahon over to second base (Twitter link). The current plan would be to leave Kris Bryant in left field and evaluate both Elehuris Montero and Nolan Jones at third base over the course of spring training, though Sherman notes that Schmidt did not entirely rule out a trade of some degree.
The 28-year-old McMahon is no stranger to second base, having logged more than 1600 big league innings at the position. As recently as 2021, McMahon logged 368 innings there and, despite that small sample, piled up impressive totals in Defensive Runs Saved (9), Ultimate Zone Rating (2.9) and Defensive Runs Saved (2). There’s little doubt that McMahon can handle the position from a defensive standpoint, but he also grades out as one of the sport’s top defenders at third base; moving him off that position comes with a price.
It’s a sub-optimal arrangement all around for the Rox, as is always the case in the wake of a major injury. Rodgers won a Gold Glove for his work at second base in 2022, and McMahon might well have done the same were it not for the perennial excellence of his former teammate, Nolan Arenado. McMahon has been a Gold Glove finalist in each of the past two seasons, logging a hefty 23 DRS and 20 OAA in that time (despite some occasional work at second base along the way). Whatever shape the infield takes, the overall defense is going to be weaker without McMahon at the hot corner and Rodgers at second base.
Montero, 24, got his first big league audition with the Rockies in 2022. The former top prospect — acquired in the trade that sent Arenado to St. Louis — struggled to a .233/.270/.432 slash with a huge 32.4% strikeout rate against a 4.3% walk rate in 185 plate appearances, however. Scouting reports have generally pegged him as a below-average defender at third base with enough power to potentially still carve out a regular role as a corner infielder.
His shaky big league debut notwithstanding, Montero tattooed Triple-A pitching, raking at a .310/.392/.541 clip with vastly superior walk and strikeout rates of 9.1% and 21.2%, respectively. He connected on 21 homers in just 482 plate appearances between Triple-A and the big leagues, demonstrating his power potential.
Jones is also 24 and also a former top-100 prospect. The Rockies acquired him from the Guardians over the winter, likely with the initial expectation that the infielder-turned-outfielder could factor into the corner mix to some extent at Coors Field. The injury to Rodgers and subsequent opening at third base gives Jones a chance to get a look at his natural and most oft-played position, however. He’s logged 3261 professional innings at third base.
Like Montero, Jones made his MLB debut in 2022 but turned in below-average offense: a .244/.309/.372 slash in 94 plate appearances with the Guardians. He didn’t post quite as gaudy numbers as Montero in Triple-A, but Jones’ .276/.368/.463 slash with Cleveland’s top affiliate was impressive nevertheless.
Between the two former top prospects, Montero could have the leg up when it comes to making the Opening Day roster, if only because he cannot be freely sent to Triple-A. Montero is out of minor league options, whereas Jones still has one option year remaining. The two do form a natural platoon. Montero is a right-handed bat, while Jones bats left-handed. As such, there’s potentially room for both on the Opening Day roster if they turn heads in camp — and, crucially, if the Rockies don’t pursue a trade to address either second base or third base.
As far as the potential trade market is concerned, there are any number of speculative alleys the Rockies could explore. Each of the Orioles (Jorge Mateo, Ramon Urias), A’s (Tony Kemp), Red Sox (Bobby Dalbec), Yankees (Isiah Kiner-Falefa) and Royals (Nicky Lopez, Hunter Dozier) have infielders who’ve at least been loosely mentioned on the rumor circuit this offseason.
Of course, it’s not clear that all of those names are definitive upgrades over Colorado’s in-house options, and the stronger likelihood is that the Rox just fill the need from within. Both Montero and Jones are controllable for six more seasons, after all, and while these surely aren’t the circumstances under which the team hoped to be able to evaluate the pair at the MLB level, the newfound opportunity to do so at least offers some potential good to come from an otherwise unfortunate injury to Rodgers.
Rox are going no where but last place this year… Might as well platoon the youngsters and see what you have.
I can’t really name a good team who would weaken themselves at two positions defensively, I don’t think a lot of bad teams would do that either so they Rockies must be worse than bad.
One of the few bright spots and is going to be out with a shoulder injury. There’s barely anything positive going for this team as it is.
Trade w the angels for rengifo
i thought over the angels trading some depth when Lux got hurt across the town, but IMO that would mean minasian is punting on his entire offseason plan, which has been to accumulate depth at the major leagues behind shohei and trout and see how it works out. this is rengifo’s first year without options, so if he struggles he could be dealt as change of scenery or even cut, but he will be a big part of that angels Vel-Cro infield at least to start the year
Keystone or central brick in the baseball team arch. Without 2B man, a baseball team would be nothing.
Apparently replacing What.
No faith in Hittin’ Harold?!?
This increases the chances of an unprecedented season for the Rockies —
their first season with 100 (or more) losses.
How about an over pay for Nick Madrigal? Doubtful since Rockies sleeping comfortably in the basement.
The Rockies have a fetish of playing guys out of their best positions.
Or not trading them at the right time as well.
The Giants would like to have a word with you about that.
Oh my, you’re right about that. Cough Bumgarner cough
McMahon is GG caliber at 2B as well. Bryant is as good in LF as anywhere else. Or maybe you mean Montero, whose best position would be DH but Blackmon will likely be in that role most often.
Rockies trying not to win as usual. Manfort can now continue complaining about the Padres and Mets trying to win, while he’s paying $16MM of Arenado’s salary this year to help the Cardinals win.
The Rockies won that trade. Anytime a last place team gets rid of 100m in payroll commitments they won. You’re just a fan who doesn’t understand the business of baseball or how to build a sustainable winner so you don’t understand it’s ok.
It’s only a “suboptimal arrangement” if neither Montero or Jones take the opportunity and run with it.
Mateo or Urias. Hmm. Both have the D chops at league level for sure and r cheap. Doubt the Os are in it to win it this year. Move one or the other or both to get Westburg, Henderson, Ortiz, Norby, Vavra and the like needed league level reps for that run starting in 24 or 25.
At least colorado has good skiing
Good school systems, according to rumors from the Hampton’s.
Still waiting for him to change his walk up song to “No Chance!…..No Chance In Hell!”
Always rocky for the Rockies. Guess I gotta go to South Park Colorado to collect my comedy award.
Will someone please tell Steve how to use commas with the word and?
“As recently as 2021, McMahon logged 368 innings there and, despite that small sample, piled up…”
No. It should be: “as recently as 2021, McMahon logged 368 innings there, and despite that small sample, piled up…” or even “as recently as 2021, McMahon logged 368 innings there and despite that small sample, piled up…”
Then we have this mess:
“…and, crucially, if the Rockies don’t pursue a trade to address either second base or third base…”
Take it out after “and.” This is just an overuse of punctuation.
Part of my day job is as an editor. In your first example, Steve is right and you are wrong. Second one could go either way.
I’m also an editor for an online publication not unlike this one. I’ve been an editor for ten years professionally. You don’t need the comma in the first one.