What in the world are the Colorado Rockies doing at second base?
Since releasing DJ LeMahieu, one of the biggest blunders in recent Rockies history – not a short list, mind you – second base has been a bugaboo for the boys in purple.
In their history, outside of LeMahieu and Eric Young Sr. back in the 90’s, they’ve struggled to find consistent production at the keystone and their current situation can best be summed up as, “wait… what?”
In 2015, the club selected Brendan Rodgers with the third overall pick in the draft and after some early elbow issues, he was moved off of shortstop, becoming the heir apparent. His lofty pedigree, raw tools, and fantastic numbers in the minors were a part of the logic behind letting LeMahieu walk and also why the team chose not to shop him during the trade deadlines of 2017 and 2018.
He had a rough first 100 at-bats and continued to experience health issues but in 2021, at age 24, was finally able to break out with a 15 HR campaign in 102 games. He posted an OPS+ of 102 which would turn out to be the only time in his career he was above the league average.
The 2022 season would be his best all around. His OPS+ dropped to 97 but he managed a whopping 4.3 bWAR campaign thanks to Gold-Glove-winning defense. In 2023, the hope was that Rodgers would be able to figure out a way to keep that defense going while taking the next step with the bat but instead, injuries got him again and he managed just 46 games played.
Then came this last season of 2024. Not a bad year in a vacuum. He played 135 games, just two off his career high, and posted 1.1 bWAR with a 94 OPS+.
But, now at 27 years old, Rodgers had a long list of injuries on his resume and had still yet to become an impact player with the bat. Defense at second base is nice but it doesn’t tend to be a major factor for winning seasons, especially when you can’t count on it to be there for long stretches at a time.
This is why there wasn’t much (if any) interest in Rodgers at this deadline and why ultimately Colorado decided to part ways with him rather than pay him.
It’s a highly questionable decision. There is still plenty of time left for him to put together all his tools and finally match it with great health, and getting away from the chaos of altitude and Coors may well help him to achieve that. It’s going to end up being another brutal kick in the teeth to Rockies fans if Rodgers goes elsewhere and excels.
But it also echoes a similar decision made about another first-round draft pick in David Dahl. The consensus after that move was that the Rockies would end up regretting it deeply and that Dahl may even have multiple All-Star Games in his future. You could say the same for Rodgers but it could also be that terrible injury luck just got the best of them both. Time will tell.
So, what do they do now?
Well, in the immortal words of Nate Bargatze’s SNL version of George Washington, ”Everything. All of it.”
They already have on the roster the next heir apparent, Adeal Amador, who was on a meteoric rise coming into last season but caught some snags in the contact department and slowed his timetable.
Amador is still set to be the guy but… eventually.
In the meantime, GM Bill Schmidt signed veterans Kyle Farmer, Keston Hiura, and Thairo Estrada who is the presumed Opening Day starter. Each brings something slightly different to the table but are they all necessary to keep a spot warm for the impending rookie?
Farmer is perhaps the most perplexing acquisition since he is essentially an older and not-as-good version of Brendan Rodgers. He’s never been above average offensively but has a positive fWAR every season of his career thanks to excellent defense. He’s also played over 100 games each of the last four seasons and over 140 twice and can move around the diamond to 3B, SS, 1B, or even into the OF.
He is likely to be competing for the old Alan Trejo role with the likes of Aaron Shunck.
Hiura is the change-of-scenery candidate who has been just as hurt as Rodgers throughout his career. He does have a 138 OPS+ season on his record from back in 2019 and put up a 113 OPS+ in 2022 but didn’t play at all in 2023 and put up -0.6 bWAR last season. He will need to show a strong and healthy Spring Training to make the roster.
Most Rockies fans know Estrada well from his time with San Francisco. He is a decent player who has been above the league average with the bat in three of the last four seasons, though like Hiura he is also coming off a dreadful campaign.
None of these players represent clear or significant upgrades at second base unless they have big rebounds or breakouts. Each is a stopgap and considering where the Rockies are in the rebuilding cycle, that’s probably fine.
They have prioritized stability at second base and also given Amador an interesting trio of veterans to learn from as he hopes to eventually take over.
But unless and until Amador does take over, and take off, this is going to look like a series of lateral moves that amounted to naught more than shuffling the paperwork around.