Who Might The Rockies Put On The Trade Market?
The playoff picture in both leagues is tight enough that few teams are locked into selling. The Rockies are one of the exceptions. They’re again the worst team in MLB, sitting 18 games under .500 while being outscored by 99 runs. It’s not quite as bleak as last year, when they were arguably the worst team of all time, but they’re likely on the path to a fourth straight 100-plus loss campaign.
That theoretically opens the door for the Rox to get a jump on the trade market. Colorado and the Angels might be the only teams that can’t cling to any hope about a 2026 turnaround. If almost every team remains reluctant to deal from the MLB roster two months out from the deadline, that could create an opportunity for the couple clearly non-competitive teams to move earlier.
It doesn’t seem that’s Colorado’s approach, however. President of baseball operations Paul DePodesta told Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post over the weekend that the team’s trade talks thus far have been preliminary. “We haven’t canvassed the league or anything like that, but we are starting to have some conversations if there is a potential match,” DePodesta said.
Colorado’s baseball operations leader wouldn’t speak in absolutes when asked if anyone on the roster was untouchable, though he implied there are a few core players they’re unlikely to trade. “There would be certain guys that would be really, really hard for us to move. I think that’s probably true of any team,” he told Saunders. “There are guys that we feel are hopefully foundational players for us going forward.”
He followed up by noting that the front office needed to be “opportunistic” if teams called about certain players while saying “there are a lot of guys that we’re not actively shopping.” DePodesta didn’t specifically highlight anyone in that group, though it seems safe to assume they’re not going to trade currently injured starter Chase Dollander.
Power-hitting catcher Hunter Goodman is under club control through 2029 and would be one of their better trade chips. The Rockies have shied away from trading players with that kind of remaining club control at the last handful of deadlines. Those came under previous front offices but the same Monfort ownership group.
24-year-old shortstop Ezequiel Tovar was supposed to be a foundational piece of the rebuild. He’s signed for $51.5MM between 2027-30 and is hitting .209/.259/.323 on the season. Tovar is a gifted defender but hasn’t shown any signs of improving an overaggressive approach in the batter’s box. Even if the Rockies could find a team willing to take the rest of the contract — which seems unlikely given how poorly he’s hit over the past couple seasons — the return would be so diminished that they probably won’t move him.
Which players on the Colorado roster are they likely to shop over the coming weeks?
Reliever Antonio Senzatela is the most obvious candidate. The righty has gone from struggling starter and fringe roster player to quality late-game arm. Senzatela carries a 1.98 earned run average across 36 1/3 innings on the season. His 21.4% strikeout percentage is still a bit below average but easily a personal best. Senzatela’s average fastball has jumped two ticks to 97.3 mph, and he’s getting strong results on a low-90s cutter which he added late last season.
Senzatela is playing on a $12MM salary, around $7MM of which is still owed. That’ll drop to roughly $3.5MM by the August 3 deadline. There’s a $14MM club option for the 2027 season that still seems a little too expensive. Teams will probably view Senzatela as a rental, and while he’ll likely be the third or fourth best arm in a contending bullpen, he should net the Rockies a couple mid-level prospects.
There aren’t many other obvious trade candidates in the bullpen. There’d certainly be teams interested in taking a flier on Seth Halvorsen, who is controllable for five seasons and has a triple digit fastball, but those traits are similarly appealing to Colorado. Jimmy Herget and Brennan Bernardino aren’t going to net more than an organizational depth type.
Colorado made a handful of one-year free agent rotation additions as potential deadline candidates. None of Jose Quintana, Michael Lorenzen or Tomoyuki Sugano has pitched well enough to get much interest from a contender.
Quintana suffered an elbow sprain that’ll likely take him out through the deadline. Lorenzen has an earned run average above 8.00. Sugano’s 3.92 ERA is solid on the surface, especially given the Coors Field effect, but it comes with one of the league’s worst strikeout rates (13.6%) and continued home run concerns. Statcast has Sugano with a 7.52 expected ERA based on the lack of whiffs and amount of hard contact he allows.
Mickey Moniak and Jake McCarthy are each in their arbitration window and could get some interest as complementary outfielders. Moniak, currently out with right ankle tendinitis, has raked at Coors Field over the past season and a half. He doesn’t hit lefties or provide much defensively but could be a strong side corner outfield platoon target. He’s playing on a $4MM salary and could jump into the $7-8MM range next season, assuming he’s tendered a contract for his final arbitration season.
McCarthy is making just $1.525MM and controllable for two years after this one. He can play center field but is probably best suited in left. McCarthy has alternated solid and awful offensive seasons but is back on the upswing, batting .282/.324/.453 in 188 plate appearances. The center field trade market is thin enough that a team like the Rays, Astros or Guardians could view him as a viable regular.
2026-27 Club Options: NL West
MLBTR wraps up our division by division look at the upcoming team/mutual option decisions with the NL West.
Previous: AL East, AL Central, AL West, NL East, NL Central
Arizona Diamondbacks
- Lourdes Gurriel Jr., OF: $14MM club option ($5MM buyout)
This is the final guaranteed season of Gurriel’s three-year, $42MM free agent contract. The veteran outfielder bypassed an opt-out last winter, which gave the Diamondbacks a $14MM club option or $5MM buyout for the 2027 season. The latter looks more likely.
Gurriel had a solid 2024 season. His numbers took a slight step back last year before he tore the ACL in his right knee trying to avoid an outfield collision in early September. He underwent surgery and began this season on the injured list. Gurriel made a quicker than expected recovery to return to the roster by mid-April. He hasn’t looked in full form, however. He managed just one home run while hitting .228/.284/.304 in 102 plate appearances.
One could justifiably write this past month off as him shaking off rust. Gurriel didn’t get any game action during Spring Training. His minor league rehab assignment consisted of exactly two games in Double-A. If Arizona’s outfield were in better shape, they’d probably have given him a few weeks on a rehab stint to get more accustomed to game speed.
All that said, Gurriel’s pre-injury performance probably wouldn’t have merited the extra $9MM to exercise the option. He also went back down last week with a left hamstring strain that’ll again interrupt his attempt to get into a rhythm.
- Carlos Santana, 1B: Mutual option
The details on Santana’s mutual option were never publicly reported. It’s probably a moot point, as mutual options are typically included simply to defer a portion of the guarantee to the end of the season via the payment of a buyout. Signed to platoon with Pavin Smith at first base, Santana has been limited to eight games by an adductor strain and was transferred to the 60-day injured list this afternoon.
- Michael Soroka, RHP: $10MM mutual option ($1MM buyout)
Arizona added Soroka on a $7.5MM free agent deal. He’s playing on a $6.5MM salary and will collect a $1MM buyout at season’s end. Soroka has already added another $500K in incentives by making 10+ starts and could get up to $2MM in bonuses if he reaches 25 starts.
Soroka has been a surprisingly key piece of Torey Lovullo’s rotation. He carries a 3.25 ERA with a 23.5% strikeout rate against a tidy 5.5% walk percentage over 61 innings. Durability is an ever present question with the Canadian-born righty, who hasn’t reached 100 frames in a season since 2019. If Soroka can hold anything close to this level over the full schedule, his side will easily pass on the option. He should command at least two years and would have a case for three if he stays healthy, as he’s one of the youngest pitchers (29 in August) in what looks like a bad free agent class.
Colorado Rockies
- Michael Lorenzen, RHP: $9MM club option ($250K buyout)
Lorenzen’s $8MM free agent deal pays him a $7.75MM salary and at least a $250K buyout on next year’s $9MM team option. The Rockies made a few late-offseason rotation pickups, mostly low-ceiling veterans with deeper arsenals whom they hoped would raise the floor. Tomoyuki Sugano has worked out well enough, but Lorenzen and Jose Quintana have not.
The 34-year-old righty has been blitzed for a 7.22 earned run average across 57 1/3 innings. He has gotten destroyed at Coors Field and hasn’t performed especially well on the road either. Lorenzen’s strikeout rate has dropped from nearly league average to a career-worst 15.4% mark, and he’s only completed six innings one time — a seven-inning start at Citi Field on April 24. This will be an easy buyout if Lorenzen sticks on the roster all season.
- Antonio Senzatela, RHP: $14MM club option (no buyout)
Senzatela is in the final guaranteed season of a five-year, $50.5MM extension signed in October 2021. It was one of the first moves under former GM Bill Schmidt, whose front office continued Colorado’s habit of remaining too committed to their internal development successes. It looked like an unforced error at the time and started disastrously, as Senzatela was injured and/or ineffective from 2022-25.
Colorado moved the righty to the bullpen late in the ’25 season. Senzatela has remained in relief and is thriving this year, seemingly opening a second act as a quality bullpen arm. He has fired 33 innings of 1.36 ERA ball while averaging a career-best 97.1 mph on his four-seam fastball. He’s now using a low-90s cutter — which he picked up last August — as his best secondary offering. Opponents are hitting .143 in 43 plate appearances that end with that pitch.
Senztaela’s 21% strikeout rate and 11.1% swinging strike mark are both easily career highs. They’re still middling for a reliever, but Senzatela has better stuff to go with his longstanding plus control. He’s capable of working multiple innings in leverage spots and has picked up his first three saves. He’s unlikely to close games for a contender, but he has certainly pitched well enough to make himself a deadline trade candidate.
The Paul DePodesta-led front office figures to cash Senzatela in for a couple mid-level prospects this summer. The $14MM option price still seems rich for a reliever without huge strikeout stuff, but Senzatela could command two years at a lower annual range in free agency going into his age-32 season.
Los Angeles Dodgers
- None.
San Diego Padres
- Miguel Andujar, DH: Mutual option ($2.5MM buyout)
The Padres make heavy use of the mutual option, as they’re seemingly always walking a tight rope in trying to add around the margins without taking on short-term commitments. Andujar will be paid a $2.5MM buyout after playing this season on a $1.5MM salary. He’s having an alright but hardly exceptional season, batting .259/.292/.441 with five homers as San Diego’s primary designated hitter.
- Griffin Canning, RHP: Mutual option ($1.5MM buyout)
Canning is pitching on a $1MM salary and will collect a $1.5MM buyout at year’s end. He returned from last year’s Achilles rupture at the beginning of May. Opponents have tagged him for a 7.16 ERA in his first six starts, only one of which has lasted six innings. His stuff looks the same as it did a year ago, but he’s struggling to throw strikes and has already given up six home runs across 27 2/3 frames.
- Lucas Giolito, RHP: $8MM mutual option ($1.5MM buyout)
San Diego finally brought an end to Giolito’s lengthy free agent stay with a $3MM contract in mid-April. He’s making a $1.5MM salary and will earn a matching buyout on an $8MM mutual option. Giolito spent a month in the minors building into game shape and hasn’t looked good in his three MLB starts. He has had at least as many walks as strikeouts in each, and a fastball that averaged 93 mph last season in Boston is sitting 90-91 this year. There’s nothing to suggest Giolito isn’t currently healthy, but it’s not encouraging that he’s working with this kind of stuff after finishing last season on the injured list with flexor irritation.
- Kyle Hart, LHP: $2.5MM club option ($200K buyout)
Hart struggled last year in his first season back in MLB after a strong ’24 campaign in Korea. The Padres nevertheless brought him back for a $1MM salary and at least a $200K buyout on a $2.5MM club option for 2027. Although the 6’5″ lefty didn’t need to show a whole lot to make that a real consideration, this year hasn’t gone smoothly.
San Diego moved Hart to relief. He has worked 16 2/3 innings over 12 big league appearances, allowing 10 runs on 12 hits. Hart has walked six, hit two batters, and recorded 10 strikeouts. The Padres optioned him to Triple-A a month ago, and the minor league results have been even worse. Even with the Pacific Coast League caveats, there’s not much reason for optimism about Hart meriting an offseason 40-man roster spot barring a second half turnaround.
- Germán Márquez, RHP: Mutual option ($750K buyout)
Márquez will take home a $750K buyout after this year’s $1MM salary. This will be another easy one for the team to decline, as the former Colorado righty has given up a 5.76 ERA through 29 2/3 innings. He has missed the past month with nerve irritation in his forearm.
San Francisco Giants
- Rowan Wick, RHP: $800K club option ($100K buyout)
San Francisco signed Wick to a big league deal during Spring Training. The move was always geared toward 2027, as the 33-year-old reliever underwent Tommy John surgery last year and will spend all of this season on the injured list. They’ll evaluate his rehab progress before making the decision on the option.
Wick hasn’t pitched in MLB since 2022 but is coming off a fantastic season in Japan (0.84 ERA across 42 2/3 innings). That the Giants were willing to pay him the MLB minimum salary this year to get him on the roster suggests they’re leaning toward exercising the option as long as his early recovery is smooth.
Padres Interested In Antonio Senzatela
The Padres are known to be looking to bolster what is already a strong relief corps, and USA Today’s Bob Nightengale writes that Rockies right-hander Antonio Senzatela is one of the names on San Diego’s radar. Nightengale also mentions Aroldis Chapman as a Padres target, echoing Dennis Lin of the Athletic’s report from a few days ago about the Padres’ long-standing interest in Chapman.
Senzatela is in the last guaranteed year of a five-year, $50MM extension he signed with Colorado back in October 2021, as the Rockies hold a $14MM club option (with no buyout) on his services for 2027. In this sense Senzatela is basically a rental player for any interested trade suitors, as that club option is unlikely to be exercised regardless of how well the righty pitches over the rest of the 2026 campaign.
Since signing that extension, Senzatela has tossed only 274 1/3 big league innings, as a torn ACL and a Tommy John surgery led to two extended stints on the injured list. Finally fully healthy heading into the 2025 season, Senzatela struggled to a 7.42 ERA over 108 innings and 23 starts before the Rockies moved him to the bullpen in August. The role switch seemed to work immediately, as Senzatela then delivered a 2.86 ERA over his first 22 innings as a reliever.
The improvement has carried over to some extent in 2026, though Senzatela’s sparkling 1.13 ERA carries several red flags. A .195 BABIP is probably the biggest reason why Senzatela’s 3.48 SIERA more than triples his real-world ERA. It isn’t just good luck, however, as Senzatela’s 6.8% walk rate is quite solid and his hard-contact numbers are vastly improved from his career norms. His 22% strikeout is a bit below league average, but also markedly better than the 14.7K% Senzatela posted over his first nine MLB seasons.
As one might expect, Senzatela’s move to relief pitching has bumped his velocity — after averaging 94.2mph on his fastball prior to 2026, Senzatela is now up to 97.1mph. Moreso than just the velo, Senzatela’s decreased usage of his four-seamer has made the pitch much more effective, as Senzatela has now introduced a cutter to his arsenal. The four-seamer has been thrown 35.2% of the time while the cutter isn’t far behind at 30.8%, and Statcast’s Run Value metric gives the cutter an impressive +6.
These results bode well for Senzatela’s chances of landing a decent contract when he hits free agency this winter, as it looks like the move to the pen has resurrected his career. In the shorter term, it makes him an obvious trade chip on a rebuilding Rockies team that is tied with the Angels for the worst record in baseball (20-34). Barring injury, Colorado will surely be moving Senzatela in advance of the trade deadline.
The wrinkle in regards to the Padres is that San Diego is apparently looking to make a move sooner rather than later. San Diego relievers have already logged 213 2/3 innings, the seventh-highest total of any relief corps in baseball. Though this heavy workload hasn’t stopped the Friars’ bullpen from being one of the best in the game, the front office is looking to be proactive in adding a relief arm or two to help keep everyone fresh for what the Padres hope is an even deeper playoff run.
On the flip side, the fact that the Padres’ desire for bullpen help is more of a want than a true need, they may not be operating with much desperation. That reduces what leverage the Rockies may have as one of the few teams in pure seller mode. While the Rox will definitely be selling and the Padres will (barring a total collapse in the next two months) definitely be buying, most prominent trades don’t take place until much closer to the deadline since clubs usually want to take their time in accessing their needs and gauging the market.
Since the Rockies’ priority should be on amassing talent rather than cutting payroll, Colorado could offer to eat virtually everything remaining on Senzatela’s contract (roughly $8MM of a $12MM 2026 salary) in order to maximize the prospect return. Such an offer could be of particular interest to the Padres, who project to be luxury tax-payors for the second straight season and didn’t spend much this past winter. Of course, the incoming new ownership group led by Jose E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones could be willing to stretch the budget in pursuit of the franchise’s elusive first World Series ring.
It is perhaps worth noting that the Padres and Rockies are very infrequent trade partners who haven’t completed a non-cash considerations type of trade since December 2011. This may have less to do with a division rivalry than the fact that the Rockies generally made less trades as an organization than most other clubs, though president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta has already swung several lower-level deals in less than a year on the job.
Rockies Interested In Veteran Rotation Additions
The Rockies are looking for a few veterans to eat innings in their rotation, general manager Josh Byrnes tells Thomas Harding of MLB.com. “We’ve played out scenarios where we would attempt to bring in two guys who can stabilize that area — who can not only pitch well but know how to give us some bulk innings, which any team needs,” Byrnes said. “That’s probably how we’re trying to map it out. There is a lot of unknown with what pops up in trades or free agency, but we need to add in that area.”
It’s a sensible target for the club. The Colorado rotation was historically bad in 2025. The club’s starters had a combined earned run average of 6.65. According to a post from Harding back in October, that was the highest rotation ERA of any club since the stat became official in 1913. Coors Field obviously plays a role in the struggles but the numbers were bad even compared to previous Colorado clubs. The group was further thinned out at season’s end when Germán Márquez became a free agent. In short, there’s nowhere to go but up.
Right now, the club projects to have a couple of experienced arms in the mix. Kyle Freeland is going into his tenth big league season and is still under contract through 2026, with a conditional player option for 2027. Ryan Feltner has 339 2/3 innings under his belt. Those two have experience but don’t provide much in terms of optimism. Feltner has a career 5.19 ERA with average ground ball and walk rates but subpar strikeout numbers. Freeland’s ERA has been around 5.00 for three straight years now.
Antonio Senzatela was moved to the bullpen in August. Manager Warren Schaeffer said in September that the club planned to keep him there going forward, per Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. Senzatela is signed through 2026 with a $14MM club option for 2027. Given his 6.65 ERA last year and the fact that there’s no buyout on that option, it will surely be declined.
Beyond Freeland and Feltner, the other rotation options are lacking in experience. Chase Dollander came into 2025 as one of the top pitching prospects in the league but he posted a 6.52 ERA in 98 innings in his rookie season. The 40-man roster also features Tanner Gordon, McCade Brown, Carson Palmquist, Gabriel Hughes and Bradley Blalock but everyone in that group has fewer than 110 big league innings pitched. Hughes hasn’t yet pitched in the big leagues. The other four names in that cluster have ERAs north of 7.00.
Given that context, adding a few veterans would make plenty of sense. They could stabilize the group and give the decision-makers some freedom in keeping the younger guys in the minors until they’re ready.
Getting those veterans to Colorado has usually been a challenge. Given the hitter-friendly environment up at altitude, free agent pitchers generally don’t want to sign with the Rockies. Looking at MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, which has data going back to 2006, the club has only thrice signed a free agent pitcher to a deal with an eight-figure average annual value in that span. They signed Jorge De La Rosa to a three-year, $32MM deal back in 2010, then a one-year, $15MM deal with Jeff Francis in 2012, followed by a three-year, $52MM deal for Wade Davis in 2017.
Byrnes provided a hint of optimism, for what it’s worth. “There are different tiers of free agency,” the GM said. “It’s kind of interesting, without naming names. But with guys on shorter deals, I think there’s some intrigue. Everyone around the game knows it’s harder to pitch in Colorado, but I think a couple of guys want to take on that challenge, and we’ve brought in a pitching group that will turn over every rock to get at it and solve this thing.”
Without Byrnes providing any details, it can only be guessed what kind of free agents he’s talking about. It would make some sense for a pitcher towards the end of his career to be more game for the experiment, since he wouldn’t have to worry so much about a poor performance tanking his future earning power. That could align with the kind of short-term deal Byrnes alluded to.
Given the state of the club, the Rockies aren’t going to target the top available free agents like Framber Valdez, Ranger Suárez or Zac Gallen. But veterans like Wade Miley, Miles Mikolas, Alex Cobb, Jose Quintana, Patrick Corbin or Martín Pérez make speculative sense. They’re all 35 or older and will be looking at one-year offers in free agency.
The Rockies could also try to bring in starters via trade, though they don’t have a ton to offer other clubs. Any guys on their roster with trade value would ideally be flipped for prospects or controllable players. Perhaps they could take on an undesirable contract from another club, though that path also comes with challenges. The Blue Jays and Mets may be looking to move on from José Berríos and Kodai Senga, respectively, but grabbing someone like that would require the Rockies to take on a notable salary during rebuilding years. Berríos is slated to make $66MM over the next three years and Senga $28MM over the next two. Perhaps those clubs would be willing to eat some money to facilitate a deal but Berríos has an eight-team no-trade clause and Senga can block trades to ten teams. Given the state of the Rockies and the challenges of pitching there, it seems fair to assume that the Rockies would be blocked by both guys.
Photo courtesy of Ron Chenoy, Imagn Images
Rockies Move Antonio Senzatela To Bullpen
The Rockies are moving righty Antonio Senzatela to the bullpen, general manager Bill Schmidt tells reporters (including Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post). Colorado will activate Germán Márquez from the 15-day injured list to start Friday against the Cubs. To make room, Senzatela loses his rotation spot for the final month of a dismal season.
Senzatela has taken the ball 24 times. He has averaged fewer than five innings per start and been tattooed for a 7.15 earned run average. Senzatela has completed six innings just three times and has only two quality starts. His ERA is nearly a full run higher than Jack Kochanowicz’s 6.19 mark (entering play tonight), the second worst for a pitcher with 100+ innings. His 11.3% strikeout rate is also worst among that group of 106 hurlers. Senzatela hasn’t pitched well at any point of games, but he’s been particularly poor out of the gate. His first inning ERA is a staggering 11.51, with opponents hitting .443 against him.
Schmidt was blunt in his summary of Senzatela’s season. “The bottom line is that he was not helping the club. He was hurting the club, especially early in the game,” the GM said. “Same thing with (Austin Gomber). They were putting the team in a hole early, and they were putting our young relievers in a hole, too.”
Colorado released Gomber last week. The southpaw was an impending free agent whom the Rox weren’t going to re-sign coming off a 7.49 ERA showing. Releasing Senzatela would’ve required eating a lot of dead money. He’s signed for another season at $12MM. There’s also a $14MM club option (no buyout) for 2027 that stands virtually no chance of being picked up. Colorado could consider pulling the plug over the offseason but evidently want to first see if he can find some success in relief. Pitching coach Darryl Scott tells Saunders that the Rox aren’t ruling out the possibility of Senzatela returning to the rotation to begin the ’26 season.
Márquez returns after a month-long absence due to biceps tendinitis. He’ll hopefully take five turns through the rotation to close the year. Márquez is an impending free agent who’ll be a rebound target for other clubs this offseason. He has struggled to a 5.67 ERA across 20 starts but has a 95 MPH fastball and still misses bats with his knuckle-curve.
Colorado called up McCade Brown to replace Gomber. He’s their third rookie in the rotation, joining Chase Dollander and Tanner Gordon. Márquez and Kyle Freeland round out the group. None of Colorado’s starters have had sustained success this year. Gordon projects as a depth arm, while Brown might end up in relief. There’s little reason for the Rox to continue trotting Senzatela out as a starter at the expense of reps for their younger arms, though.
Rockies Activate Antonio Senzatela
September 16: The Rockies have made it official, with Senzatela reinstated and right-hander Jake Bird optioned as the corresponding move.
September 14: The Rockies are planning to activate right-hander Antonio Senzatela from the 60-day IL for his season debut on Monday against the Diamondbacks, as noted by Manny Randhawa of MLB.com. The Rockies’ 40-man roster currently stands at 39, meaning a corresponding 40-man move will only be necessary to activate Senzatela if the vacancy is filled before his return.
The 29-year-old righty is poised to suit up for his eighth season in the big leagues, all of which have been spent in the Rockies organization. Senzatela was limited to just two starts in 2023 due to an elbow sprain before ultimately undergoing Tommy John surgery last July. Prior to that, the righty had emerged as one of the club’s better pitchers since a breakout 2020 season where he posted a 3.44 ERA in 12 starts. In 59 starts from 2020 to 2022, Senzatela pitched to a solid 4.38 ERA that’s actually 10% better than league average by ERA+, a stat that adjusts for park factors to account for the inflated offensive environment at Coors Field.
What’s more, the righty actually sported an even stronger 3.96 FIP over that same time frame. While he struck out just 14.4% of batters faced over those three seasons, Senzatela’s ability to limit walks to a clip of just 5.3% and keep the ball on the ground (50.6% grounder rate) to limit home runs allowed him to post solid peripherals that gave the Rockies enough confidence to extend him following the 2021 season on a five-year deal worth $50.5MM that includes a club option for the 2027 season. Unfortunately, the contract hasn’t exactly gone well to this point as Senzatela’s 2022 season was cut short by an ACL tear, and his last two campaigns have been more or less wiped out by Tommy John surgery and the subsequent rehab process.
Despite the right-hander now being set to make less than 25 starts over the first three years of the contract, however, it’s not hard to imagine him being a valuable piece for the Rockies headed into 2025. After all, Senzatela’s grounder-heavy game plays quite well at elevation and it’s not hard to imagine a rotation that pairs him with some combination of German Marquez, Cal Quantrill, Kyle Freeland, Ryan Feltner, and Austin Gomber finding some level of success, at least by the standards of a Rockies franchise that has struggled to find consistent pitching results even in its most competitive years. With a rare rotation surplus in Colorado and other young arms like prospect Carson Palmquist currently at the Triple-A level, it’s even possible to imagine the Rockies having enough arms available for their 2025 rotation that they could listen to trade offers involving a pitcher like Quantrill or Gomber, as they reportedly did prior to this summer’s trade deadline.
As the Rockies head towards the finish line of what could be their second consecutive 100-loss campaign, dealing an arm from the rotation could allow them to address other areas of the roster and supplement the club’s core pieces like Ryan McMahon, Brenton Doyle, and Ezequiel Tovar on the positional side. For now, though, Senzatela and the Rockies figure to focus on getting the right-hander some starts at the big league level down the stretch as he looks to shake off the rust and head into his first healthy offseason since he signed the aforementioned extension.
NL West Notes: Snell, Rushing, Senzatela
Blake Snell‘s free agency was one of the top — and most drawn-out — storylines of the 2023-24 offseason. After lingering on the market well into spring training despite having just won his second Cy Young Award, he inked a two-year, $62MM deal with the Giants that affords him the ability to opt out and return to the open market again this offseason (this time without a qualifying offer). Snell’s decision to eventually settle on a two-year pact with San Francisco came months after a reported overture from the Yankees, who pivoted to sign Marcus Stroman after Snell rejected a longer-term offer.
At the time, MLB.com reported that the Yankees had put forth a six-year, $150MM offer to Snell, which he purportedly spurned in hopes of landing a lengthier deal. Snell himself was asked about the reported terms in a recent appearance with hosts Scott Braun, A.J. Pierzynski and Cameron Maybin on Foul Territory (video link). While the two-time Cy Young winner declined to delve into specifics, he stated in no uncertain terms that the numbers which became public were not accurate.
“The deal that came out — that wasn’t what was offered to me,” said Snell. “I can say that. … What they offered wasn’t close to that.”
Snell understandably wasn’t keen on going into specifics, which is common practice for players and executives alike when discussing free-agent interest. (Although Teoscar Hernandez notably divulged the Red Sox’ offer to him in a recent interview.) At this point, the specifics matter little; Snell seemed like a long-shot to join the Yankees once they added Stroman and pushed themselves into the top tier of luxury-tax penalization, meaning Snell would’ve come with a 110% tax hit (thus making his current $31MM AAV an expenditure north of $65MM). He signed with the Giants, and after a disastrous and injury-marred start to his San Francisco tenure, he looks largely back to Cy Young form.
Snell’s upcoming player option will mark a fascinating decision. If he continues at his current post-IL pace or anywhere near it (33 innings, 0.55 ERA, 36.3 K%, 8.8 BB%), he’ll surely turn down that second year and look for a long-term pact. He’s recently blanked the Rockies while punching out 15 batters over six frames and, of course, threw a no-hitter against the Reds his last time out. However, if he begins to struggle or incurs further injuries, there’ll be more consideration given to the second season of the contract. Few finishes in baseball will be more intriguing to follow than that of Snell.
Some other notes from the National League West division…
- The Dodgers recently promoted catching prospect Dalton Rushing from Double-A to Triple-A and his new team seems to come with a new assignment. Oklahoma City manager Travis Barbary says Rushing will exclusively be playing left field for now, per broadcaster Alex Freedman on X. The move is likely related to the fact that the Dodgers won’t have any playing time available behind the plate for a while. Will Smith recently signed an extension that runs through 2033. He’s essentially locked into the backstop role because Shohei Ohtani will be the designated hitter through 2033 while Freddie Freeman has first base locked up through 2027. Even after trading Thayron Liranzo in the Jack Flaherty deal, the Dodgers have two top 100 catching prospects in Rushing and Diego Cartaya, but Cartaya is considered the better defender with Rushing considered better at the plate. It’s been speculated that the club might deal from this catching surplus but it also seems they’re experimenting with Rushing at other positions to improve his chances of cracking the roster. He has logged some first base time as well as 35 innings in left field in Double-A and he now seems set to add to that total at Triple-A. Before the promotion, he hit 17 home runs in 77 Double-A games and drew walks in 11.4% of his plate appearances, slashing .270/.378/.512 for a wRC+ of 147. If he can generate that kind of offense in the majors or anything close to it, his bat will play at any position.
- Rockies right-hander Antonio Senzatela is going to begin a rehab assignment on Thursday, per Patrick Lyons of Just Baseball on X. The righty underwent Tommy John surgery just over a year ago, in July of 2023. His return won’t have a huge impact on this season as the Rockies are 42-72, ahead of only the lowly White Sox. But getting back on the mound before the offseason would be a nice development as the club looks to have a much stronger rotation in 2025 that could consist of Senzatela, Germán Márquez, Kyle Freeland, Cal Quantrill, Austin Gomber and Ryan Feltner. Senzatela and Márquez both underwent Tommy John surgery last year and have missed most of this season while Freeland also missed a couple of months due to a left elbow strain. Márquez was reinstated last month but went back on the IL due to elbow inflammation.
Rockies Claim Sam Hilliard From Orioles
1:31pm: The teams have now announced the move. Baltimore isn’t making a corresponding transaction at this time. Colorado placed Senzatela on the 60-day injured list.
1:20pm: The Rockies have reacquired outfielder Sam Hilliard, claiming him off waivers from the Orioles, Thomas Harding of MLB.com reports. Neither Colorado nor Baltimore has announced the move yet.
The Rox will need to make 40-man roster move to facilitate the addition, but that can be accomplished by placing either Antonio Senzatela or German Marquez on the 60-day injured list. Both right-handers are recovering from 2023 Tommy John surgery. The claim also opens up a spot on the 40-man roster for the O’s, who had not previously announced that Hilliard was designated for assignment or placed on outright waivers.
It’s a reunion between Hilliard and the team that originally selected him in the 15th round of the 2015 draft. Current Rockies GM Bill Schmidt was the team’s scouting director at the time and held that role throughout the years that saw Hilliard develop and break into the majors in Colorado.
From 2019-22, Hilliard appeared in 214 games as a Rockie, playing all three outfield spots and batting a combined .212/.294/.423 with 29 homers, 15 steals, a 10% walk rate and an ugly 32.7% strikeout rate over a total of 639 plate appearances. Strikeouts have long been an issue for Hilliard, who touts an impressive .265/.346/.570 slash and 62 homers in just 942 Triple-A plate appearances but has punched out at an unsightly 28.5% clip at that level.
With the exception of the 2023 season, Hilliard’s entire career has been spent with the Rockies. The Braves picked him up in a Nov. 2022 trade sending minor league righty Dylan Spain to the Rox in return. Hilliard appeared in 40 games and hit .236/.295/.431 through 78 plate appearances in Atlanta, fanning in an eye-popping 42.3% of his plate appearances. A heel injury ultimately sent Hilliard to the 60-day injured list, however, and the Braves tried to pass him through waivers following the season — at which point the O’s claimed him. His stay with Baltimore will prove fleeting; Hilliard went hitless in five spring plate appearances as an Oriole and is now back with his original organization.
The Rockies were on the lookout for a left-handed-hitting outfielder who could handle center field for much of the offseason. They inked Bradley Zimmer to a minor league deal and invited him to spring training, giving them one such option, but Hilliard provides another candidate for that role — not only one who’s on the 40-man roster but one who’s out of minor league options. Hilliard can’t be sent to Triple-A without first clearing waivers, which puts him in strong position to break camp with the Rox, where he’d be a lefty complement to right-handed-hitting outfielders Brenton Doyle and Sean Bouchard.
Hilliard and the Orioles avoided an arbitration hearing earlier in the offseason by agreeing to an $800K salary for the upcoming season. The Rockies will now be on the hook for the entirety of that sum, which checks in only narrowly above the $740K league minimum. Hilliard has 3.094 years of big league service time, meaning he can be controlled via arbitration through the 2026 season.
As for the Orioles, it’s fairly common for them to agree to modest big league salaries with depth pieces and then attempt to pass them through waivers, hoping a salary north of the league minimum will help that player clear and be retained in the upper minors as depth. They’ve previously done so with names like Anthony Bemboom, Jake Cave and Ryan O’Hearn (the latter of whom eventually emerged as a key contributor in 2023). It’s certainly of note that today’s transaction clears a spot on the 40-man roster, as Baltimore now has additional leeway to make a free-agent signing, trade acquisition or waiver claim of its own.
Rockies Notes: Marquez, Senzatela, Freeland, Bryant
Pitching injuries defined the Rockies’ 103-loss 2023 season, as the team had a seemingly endless string of hurlers missing time with both minor and major ailments. The top of the rotation was hit particularly hard, with German Marquez and Antonio Senzatela both undergoing Tommy John surgeries that will stretch their time on the injured list into 2024.
Rockies GM Bill Schmidt provided some updates (to Patrick Lyons and other reporters) on the two right-handers at the team’s Fan Fest event this weekend. The club is hopeful Marquez can return sometime after the All-Star break, which fits the normal TJ recovery timeline given that Marquez underwent his procedure last May.
Unfortunately, that same timeline puts Senzatela’s entire 2024 season in doubt. Senzatela had his surgery in July, and thus Schmidt doesn’t “anticipate [him] up here” on Colorado’s active roster. If all goes well, Senzatela will be able to pitch for the Rockies’ Triple-A team near the end of the minor league season, with an eye towards the righty banking some innings and gaining some peace of mind ahead of a more normal offseason.
Colorado has invested heavily in both pitchers as part of its eternal search for rotation stability. Marquez signed a five-year, $43MM extension that covered the 2019-23 seasons, and also included a $16MM club option for 2024. Rather than buy out that option for $2.5MM in the wake of Marquez’s TJ surgery, the Rox instead worked out a new two-year extension that will pay Marquez $20MM over the next two seasons, with another $10MM available in bonuses based on roster time and innings pitched.
Senzatela inked a five-year, $50.5MM extension in October 2021 that also included a club option ($14MM in 2027). Senzatela was already under arbitration control through 2023, so had that deal not been signed, the righty might’ve been in free agency right now and facing an uncertain near future as he recovered from his surgery. The Rockies haven’t gotten much return on their investment since Senzatela has thrown only 100 innings over the last two seasons — his 2022 campaign was also cut short by a torn ACL.
Since it remains to be seen how much Marquez or Senzatela will factor into the 2024 season, the Rockies face an even greater pressure to fill innings. The Rox signed Dakota Hudson and acquired Cal Quantrill in a trade with the Guardians, but they’ll also be relying on in-house options to contribute, none moreso than de facto staff ace Kyle Freeland. However, it has been some time since Freeland has looked like a true frontline pitcher — after finishing fourth in NL Cy Young Award voting in 2018, the southpaw has battled injuries while posting a 4.96 ERA over 626 innings from 2019-23.
That includes a 5.03 ERA in 155 2/3 frames last season, as Freeland missed time with a separated shoulder and then an oblique strain that ultimately ended his season. The good news is that Freeland is now feeling recovered from more than just his 2023 injury woes.
“I told [manager Bud Black] and a couple of our other coaches how my arm and my body really hasn’t felt this good since 2021,” Freeland told reporters at Fan Fest, including Luke Zahlmann of the Denver Gazette. “It’s very exciting for me. We discussed my velocity last year, and one thing I really tried to work on this offseason is trying to get that back — doing stuff for my shoulder and stuff like that to make sure that I’m as healthy as possible going into camp.”
Kris Bryant is looking to avoid the injured list and tally his first full season in a Colorado uniform. Since signing his seven-year, $182MM contract during the 2021-22 offseason, Bryant has played in just 122 of 324 games due to plantar fasciitis in his left foot, a bruised left heel, and a fractured finger.
“I feel fortunate that I’m healthy right now and the offseason has been great,” Bryant told the Denver Post’s Patrick Saunders. In terms of his frustration over the last two seasons, Bryant said that “when I’m not performing to my standard it eats at me….When you play this game this long, certain things are going to happen, but I know that there are much better days ahead in my future.”
It remains to be seen if Bryant can ever regain his old MVP form, and while Bryant’s numbers haven’t been good over the last two years, the injuries provide a natural context for his struggles. Bryant hit .306/.376/.475 over 181 plate appearances in 2022, but then only .233/.313/.367 in 335 PA last season. Looking ahead to 2024, the Rockies intend to use Bryant primarily as a first baseman in order to help keep him healthy, but he’ll also get some work as a DH and right fielder. Bryant might possibly also see the odd game in left field when a left-hander is on the mound, but Nolan Jones is slated to take the bulk of work as Colorado’s regular left fielder.
NL Notes: Rockies, Matz, Winker, Brewers, Ziegler
The Rockies‘ injury-plagued season has extended into the club’s farm system, as MLB.com’s Thomas Harding (via Twitter) reports that pitching prospects Gabriel Hughes, Jackson Cox, and Jordy Vargas will all undergo Tommy John surgeries this week. Dr. Keith Meister will perform all of the procedures, as well as the previously reported TJ surgery for veteran righy-hander Antonio Senzatela.
It’s a brutal setback for the three youngsters, all ranked by MLB Pipeline among the Rockies’ top 12 overall prospects, and Pipeline lists the trios as three of Colorado’s top four pitching prospects. Hughes was the 10th overall pick of the 2022 draft, Cox was a second-round pick in that same draft, and the 19-year-old Vargas was an international signing in 2021. Hughes was the furthest along of the trio since he made his Double-A debut this season, but now all three pitchers have been dealt a big setback in their young careers. Given the usual recovery timeline for Tommy John procedures, there’s a chance any of Hughes, Cox, or Vargas might be able to return late in the 2024 campaign, but it is likelier that the right-handers will all be sidelined until 2025.
More from around the National League…
- Most of the trade speculation about Cardinals pitching has focused on Jack Flaherty and Jordan Montgomery, but Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that an unknown American League club has considered acquiring Steven Matz. The mystery team would use Matz as “rotation insurance or bullpen upgrade.” Matz is still owed the remainder of his $10MM salary for 2023 as well as $24MM in 2024-25, and it seems like the Cardinals would have to eat a good chunk of that money to accommodate a deal. Matz has struggled in both years of his original four-year, $44MM contract with St. Louis, but after losing his rotation job earlier this season, he has pitched considerably better since a move to the bullpen and a recent return to the starting five. Matz has a 2.93 ERA over his last 30 2/3 innings and 11 appearances.
- Jesse Winker had a big pinch-hit single in the ninth inning of the Brewers‘ 3-2 win over the Reds tonight. It was a nice moment within what has been a very rough season for Winker, who entered Monday hitting only .194/.316/.242 over 196 plate appearances. These struggles have led to a reduced role, as manager Craig Counsell told reporters (including Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) “to this point [Winker] hasn’t given us production out of that spot….I think he understands it and just tries to be ready for an at-bat later in the day.” The hope is that the move will “let him work on some things and make some adjustments,” with Winker perhaps being able to earn his way back into regular at-bats. Winker was already limited to facing right-handed pitching due to his extreme splits, but he has only a .557 OPS against righties this season.
- Mets pitching prospect Calvin Ziegler isn’t expected to pitch in 2023 after suffering a torn right quad, according to Mike Mayer of Metsmerized (Twitter link). 2023 becomes an entirely lost season for the 20-year-old, who had yet to pitch this year due to an elbow surgery to remove bone spurs. Ziegler was the Mets’ second-round pick (46th overall) in the 2021 draft, with MLB Pipeline ranking him seventh in New York’s farm system and Baseball America ranking him 12th. The right-hander’s 60-grade fastball and curveball has led to a lot of strikeouts, but Ziegler has had a lot of problems in reducing walks. Unfortunately, he’ll now face another long layoff before he can continue his development.