Let’s be real here: the Colorado Rockies are going nowhere… slowly.
As ESPN.com’s David Schoenfield pointed out, “The Rockies can’t pitch and they can’t hit on the road. I believe we’ve heard this story before.”
Indeed, after four straight seasons of at least 88 losses, the club is on pace for 90 losses yet again. But unlike many previous seasons, the team seems willing to entertain offers for players of value. General manager Jeff Bridich, while still largely an unknown commodity, seems to realize that the next trade he makes will be the one that acknowledges that this is a full-blown rebuild project, not just the “potent lineup but lacks a few key arms” line of thinking that has led to the likes of Kyle Kendrick and Jon Garland coming through town year after year.
Troy Tulowitzki’s name has been making the rounds for months now after a few bizarre statements from his agent to a New York newspaper, and now that Carlos Gonzalez has put together a few good months of baseball, there are murmurs that he could be the first chip to fall.
Yet within this context, there’s still an alarming amount of sentiment that the team should keep 34-year-old ace Jorge De La Rosa. Both media with the team and outside it have decried the idea to any who have pointed out his place as the third-highest player on the team.
The argument for De La Rosa is obvious: He has been the best pitcher for years on a club that has had an abhorrent problem accumulating any sort of consistent starting pitching. Particularly, De La Rosa has been the only Rockies pitcher who has seemed to have solved Coors Field. Over 175 innings from 2012-14, the lefty hurled his way to a 2.98 ERA at the most grueling park for pitchers in all of baseball.
None of that should be discounted.
On the other hand, we’re talking about a 34-year-old pitcher on a team beginning to rebuild. If anyone really believes in Bridich’s ability to turn around the franchise, it likely won’t happen until after De La Rosa’s contract expires in 2017. Again, we’re looking a fifth consecutive 88-plus loss season straight in the eye. It’s not going to be a quick process.
“But,” one might say, “why trade one of the only good pitchers on a team that desperately needs pitching?”
It’s simple: Whether or not they have one pitcher this season is irrelevant. They aren’t going anywhere. In the meantime, they have a pitcher who will be 36 by the time his contract is up and has never been particularly healthy over his 11-plus years in the majors. De La Rosa has only pitched more than 150 innings three times in that span, and never as many as 190. A team on a limited budget like the Rockies can’t afford to have a guy like that on their payroll after his value is gone.
This is simply a case of a year too early being better than a year too late, especially since next season figures to be rough for Colorado as well. The team has all but publicly stated that the club is now being built around 24-year-old Nolan Arenado, and rightfully so; but getting younger is often not an easy process.
Jorge De La Rosa would be of more value to Colorado being packaged for a prospect who, for better or for worse, will be part of the next crop of young Rockies and has a much better chance of being relevant by the time the club can right their ship.
As the Colorado Rockies get ready to press reset, Jorge De La Rosa is another tie back to the Dan O’Dowd era. While his time with the Rockies has been incredible, it’s time that Colorado takes what they’ve learned that’s made Jorge successful and invest that into younger talent.
The sooner the club moves on from its big contracts, including De La Rosa, the sooner they can start to see what the new young core is capable of.