The sentence jumped off the page so much that I had to read it three times.
Only [Jose] Reyes and [Carlos] Gonzalez, at a total of $40.4 million for 2017, are signed beyond next season.
Go ahead. Read it two more times like I did and let it sink in.
That sentence is from esteemed MLB.com writer Thomas Harding, in his Hot Stove season preview for the Colorado Rockies. It’s buried near the end, so you’ll have to read quite a bit of other bad news before you get to it.
I’ll admit, I don’t follow transactions and contracts as closely as some. (Baseball’s voluminous rules on signings, arbitration and tenders make following transactions better suited for lawyers than writers.) But even my recent ditties on the future of the Rockies at first base and in the outfield didn’t really turn me on to the clues that the Rockies apparently have a long-term commitment problem.
A pitching problem, sure. But to only have two guys under contract beyond next season? Have the Rockies replaced Derek Jeter as baseball’s most commitment-phobic figure?
Sure, much of this can be ascribed to the relative youth of their core players. Guys like Nolan Arenado, DJ LeMahieu and Charlie Blackmon are all still inside of their arbitration windows. But it sends a resounding message if Colorado isn’t willing to put a stake in the ground with them.
Arenado, LeMahieu and Blackmon are all All-Stars, not to mention fan favorites. All three are also entering their first year of arbitration, per spotrac. One of the best moves the Rockies could make in the offseason to settle a dyspeptic fanbase would be to secure significant long-term deals for each of them. An unwillingness to do so would only reinforce the notion that baseball comes second to the bottom line at Coors Field.
Gonzalez and Reyes are key pieces of trade bait, anyway. So unless Colorado wants to rekindle the reputation they built up in the early 2000s as a Quadruple-A club for the rest of baseball, the Rockies need to show some skin with their young stars.
As Harding points out (and most Rockies fans have known for most of the current decade), the biggest investment and improvement needs to come on the mound. Gonzalez is in the prime of his career, and Arenado and LeMahieu have both posted increasingly productive numbers over each of their last three seasons. Blackmon was down, but consistent, from 2014 to 2015. It would be a shame to continue to waste the most productive years of their careers without some pitching to support them.
But it would be an even bigger shame to string along Arenado, LeMahieu and Blackmon without long-term commitments or at least significant pay raises on shorter-term contracts.
Arenado ($512,500), Blackmon ($517,500) and LeMahieu ($517,500) combined made only $47,500 more than Daniel Descalso ($1.5 million) in 2015.
To that point, there was one other phrase (it wasn’t a complete sentence), that also jumped out from Harding’s Hot Stove preview:
“The payroll-conscious Rockies…”
That’s a, well, diplomatic way to put it.
Harding won’t outright call the Rockies cheap. Nor will I, outright.
But Colorado had the ninth-lowest payroll in baseball and has the eighth-lowest total commitment for 2017, at the present moment. They’ve been in the bottom third of the league for four of the past five years (and just outside it in the fifth year).
Even if the Rockies can’t figure out how to solve the riddle of developing or signing free agent pitchers who can be effective at altitude, they can at least open the wallet a little more and show the fans (and their star position players) some appreciation. An unwillingness to do so will only perpetuate the malaise of a fan base who is quickly adopting a similar non-commital attitude.
If the Rockies want season ticket renewals and even a modicum of trust in the organization from the fan base beyond next year, they’d be wise to start signing some of their star players to bigger deals that extend further out on the calendar as well.
In a very interesting side note, Arenado recently changed agents away from Scott Boras, which could make it much easier to sign him to an extended deal here. Check out the full analysis from our friends at Purple Row.