Strike 2: The coming and going of the Major League Baseball All-Star break signals the official start of trading season. The question around here is a simple one: Will the Colorado Rockies opt to participate in any sort of meaningful way this year?

When you’re on a crash course with infamy – a real chance to end up with the worst record in modern baseball history – you’ve made yourself into what baseball people term “a seller.” That means you won’t be looking to bolster this year’s team, or even next year’s, by trying to acquire any sort of impactful big league talent before the July 31 trade deadline. Instead, you’ll be one of the teams that the actual contenders are calling on to see if they can make you an offer you can’t refuse in exchange for any of the legit major talent on your roster.

If the Rockies were any other MLB team, then veterans like Ryan McMahon, Kyle Freeland, Jake Bird, German Marquez and Austin Gomber would all be made available for the right return. The fact is, no one on the roster should be untouchable. For example, National League West rival Arizona, also not really in the hunt for the 2025 postseason, is reportedly making stalwarts like Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor available to be traded. Keep in mind that the DBacks are just under .500 and roughly 25 games ahead of the Rockies in the standings, and they’re still sellers.

This is the way all the other teams in MLB operate. But as anyone who follows this organization knows, the Rockies don’t operate the way other clubs do. Their penchant for being resistant to trades, and for hanging on to their own players for way too long has been an organization flaw for a very long time.

And even when they do make a move, trading hasn’t been their best thing.

The Rockies’ way has been to make small, mostly insignificant deals, such as trading over the hill vets like C. J. Cron in exchange for lower rated minor leaguers. Two years ago, they had veteran catcher Elias Diaz who ended up being the All-Star game MVP. For whatever reason, they decided not to trade him at the deadline even though they were on their way to the first 100-loss season. Instead, just over a year later, they ended up releasing him. The same sort of thing happened with Gold Glove winning second baseman Brendon Rodgers. They rejected trade overtures and ended up releasing him, too.

The meaningful trades the Rockies have made can be counted on one hand. Getting DJ LeMahieu from the Cubs back in December of 2011 for highly-touted (at least by the Rockies) third baseman Ian Stewart turned out very well for the guys in purple. Ironically, the best trade the Rockies organization ever made was one they were more or less forced into making. Star outfielder Matt Holiday was playing out his contract back in 2008, and when it became clear that the Rockies were not going to be able to match the contract offers he was about to get in free agency, they had no choice but to trade him. Holiday had scored the biggest run in team history the season before, beating a throw to the plate in the 13th inning against San Diego that sent Colorado to the National League playoffs during their famous “Rocktober” run. Parting with him was unpopular and no one wanted to see it happen. Fortunately, then-general manager Dan O’Dowd was able to pull off a great trade when he sent Holiday to the Oakland A’s in exchange for future Rockies icon Carlos Gonzalez. It was a win-win.

Other than those, almost every single Rockies trade has involved players that were on the downside of their careers. They were able to bring in catcher Jonathan Lucroy and pitcher Pat Neshek in 2017 to help them get to the wild card – and both helped the effort. Still, neither stuck around for another season. And to the team’s credit, they did get relief pitcher Victor Vodnick from Atlanta for Denver’s own Pierce Johnson back in the spring of 2023. Vodnick has had his good and bad moments – both happening this past weekend in fact. Meanwhile, Johnson helped the Braves win the National League East that season. It was a good deal for both teams.

But those have been few and far between.

Mostly, it’s been older vets sent packing in exchange for low-rated minor league prospects that never make an impact.

And we won’t even go into the ill-fated Nolan Arenado trade in 2021. Yuck.

So what should we expect this time around? Will the team’s historically bad season cause the front office to re-evaluate their trading philosophy? Would they actually do something impactful? Would they consider parting with a player they really like, such as McMahon or Marquez, in an effort to get back a young arm or two that might actually be able to help with the rebuilding effort? Or…will they stay the course and dig in their heels as a self-proclaimed “draft and develop” organization, totally enamored with the players they draft and then call their own…while being almost completely unwilling to look outside their own walls?

Only in an alternate universe, where the Rockies front office gets swapped out for the Nuggets new tandem of GM’s, would we see something huge, like the Rockies packaging the hideous contract of Kris Bryant with one of their young stars, Brenton Doyle or Ezequiel Tovar in order to get rid of Bryant’s contract and bring in a highly touted Triple-A hurler.

This kind of thinking really is the definition of Fantasy Baseball.

Here on Earth One, Rockies fans should not hold their breath on the days leading up to July 31. The Rockies are the opposite of trigger happy. History tells us that nothing of note will come from inside the offices at 20th and Blake again this season. Still, maybe they’ll surprise everyone and actually make a legit big league trade?

And maybe Dinger will be mascot of the year.