Strike 3: There are some interesting, even intriguing names on the long list of Major League Baseball free agents available this offseason. Should the Colorado Rockies be interested in trying to sign any of them?
No.
Sure, it’d be nice to be able to bring in an arm like Corbin Burnes, or Andrew Heaney or Shane Bieber. But given the way free agent signings have gone over the last decade for the Rockies, you know that anyone that Colorado a) can afford (which would be none of the above) or b) can convince to come to play in Denver would inevitably a) get injured or b) flat flat on his face.
Wade Davis. Ian Desmond. Jake McGee. Daniel Murphy. Kris Bryant. And there have been more.
When you’re not good at something, it’s best to just stop doing it.
So even though the loudest voices out there are clamouring for the Rockies to try to get markedly better quicker by going the free agent route, that’s simply not how the Colorado Rockies are going to improve.
This isn’t the most popular take, but what the Colorado Rockies are doing – trying to develop young players they’ve drafted, trying to find bargins in the pool of available “non-tenders” (major and minor league players who were not offered new contracts and thus become free agents) or making off the radar trades – is what they should continue to do.
It’s slow. There’s no instant reward. It’s most likely to result in their 8th losing season in a row, but in the end, it’s the only way they are going to ever get – and stay – any better.
This needs to be repeated fairly often for Rockies followers (some remain fans, others not so much) that have short memories: The best Rockies teams ever assembled (and there have been a few) were constructed via the farm system, minor trades and “scrap heap” free agent signings.
Look at the only Rockies team ever to reach the World Series in 2007: Lynchpins Todd Helton, Troy Tulowitzki, Matt Holiday, Garrett Atkins, Brad Hawpe, Jeff Francis, Aaron Cook and Ubaldo Jimenez, along with numerous other “Gen R” notables like Ryan Spilborghs, Cory Sullivan, Chris Iannetta and Clint Barmes were all products of the Rockies farm system. The Rockies were Yorvit Torrealba’s third team. Centerfielder Willie Tavaras came over with pitcher Jason Hirsh in a trade with Houston. Postseason hero Jamey Carroll was purchased from the Washington Nationals for just $300,000.
Not a “big name” free agent signing in the group.
A decade later when they returned to the postseason, the Rockies featured farm system products like Nolan Arenado, Ryan McMahon, Charlie Blackmon, Kyle Freeland, Jon Gray, Trevor Story and Scott Oberg. They had acquired franchise icon Carlos Gonzalez in a trade for Holiday. They’d signed journeyman Gerardo Parra from Milwaukee via Baltimore and Arizona. Same with first baseman Mark Reynolds, who’d been with Arizona and Baltimore. German Marquez and Adam Ottovino were acquired in trades you didn’t hear about. Key reliever Pat Neshek arrived at the trade deadline in a deal with the Phillies. Same thing with catcher Jonathon Lucroy, who arrived from Milwaukee at the deadline.
The big name free agents on that team were Desmond (bust) and the exception that proves the rule, closer Greg Holland (the only Rockies FA signing to end up with a positive WAR.)
The point is, electing to sign guys like Bryant – with an injury history to go along with a enormous price tag – makes no sense. None. What does make sense is acquiring all the young pitchers you possibly can, tossing them into the mix and seeing who emerges as a legit big leaguer.
The Rockies are doing just that. We’ll see if/when it pays off.
The Rockies core of young postion players – which includes Gold Glovers Brenton Doyle and Ezequiel Tovar – is solid enough. The entire roster of position players need to learn to stop striking out, but otherwise has nice potential. The young arms in the system – Chase Dollander, Brody Brecht, Gabriel Hughes and others – remain the key to reversing the losing trend.
There are no free agents out their to sign that are going to magically turn the Rockies into a winning team.
Better for the Rockies to do what they do best, and stay out of the deep end of the free agent pool.
