Tuesday Rockpile: What will the Colorado Rockies do at the trade deadline?

Colorado Rockies news and links for Tuesday, July 30, 2024

I was going to write about Michael Toglia’s quest for the strangest slashline ever, but it will keep until next week given that all anyone will want to talk about today are trades, trades, trades!

So far, business has been brisk.

Take these examples:

• Randy Arozarena, you are a Seattle Mariner!
• Jazz Chisholm, you are a New York Yankee!
• Tommy Pham, you are back with the St. Louis Cardinals!
• Christopher Morel, you are a Tampa Bay Ray, and Isaac Paredes, you are a Chicago Cub!
• Carlos Estévez, you are a Philadelphia Phillie! (Say, “hi!” to Jeff Hoffman.)
• Zac Eflin, you are a Baltimore Oriole!
• Justin Turner, you are a Seattle Mariner!
• Amed Rosario, you are a Los Angeles Dodger (again)!

You get the idea.

We’re just hours away from the trade deadline today at 4:00 pm, and 2024 is clearly a sellers’ market, (Case in point, that Astros-Blue Jays trade for Yusei Kikuchi.)

As Mark Feinsand writes:

If the prices to acquire talent remain high, one AL executive believes this Deadline could be remembered for deals that ultimately lean in the sellers’ favor.

“I expect most buyers to look back with regret at the players they gave away,” the executive said.

With this in mind, the Colorado Rockies are on the clock to make the most of the moment and move some of their current roster as they continue in to rebuild.

So far, they’ve traded reliever Nick Mears to the Milwaukee Brewers, bringing back pitching prospects Bradley Blalock and Yujanjer Herrera. (Read more analysis here.) Plus, last night, they sent reliever Jalen Beeks to the Pittsburgh Pirates. (Read more here.)

On Sunday, Jim Bowden cautioned that the Rockies would probably be late sellers — at least in terms of Cal Quantrill and Austin Gomber. In both cases, the Rockies would need to wait for the pitching market to settle out (e.g., trading pitchers like Jack Flaherty and Eric Fedde) before teams would turn to other sellers.

Still, the Rockies, according to Bowden, “plan to be active at the deadline.”

Who may be moved in addition to Quantrill and Gomber?

• Elias Díaz (though it seems unlikely a contender would want a catcher with a recurrent calf injury)
• Jacob Stallings
• Brendan Rodgers

Then again, who predicted Nick Mears would be moved?

Reporting indicates there was clear interest in Ryan McMahon, who had the potential to be one of the most valuable players on the market, and that the Rockies have declined to entertain any offers.

It will be a fun day to see what kinds of surprises MLB general managers are cooking up for fans everywhere.

Also, I’ve been thinking about this line from Ken Rosenthal’s “The Rays are running a clinic on how to sell at the trade deadline”:

Still, the Rays are doing what they do, leveraging their assets, removing emotion from their decision-making, replacing older, more expensive talent with younger and cheaper. The formula works, as evidenced by their six straight winning seasons and 12 of their last 16. But club officials operate with a freedom their counterparts in larger markets do not. Teams with better attendance and greater media attention would invite major scrutiny if they undertook such a dismantling.

I leave this here in hopes it will spur a conversation in the comments. (I’m still pondering it.)

With that said, let’s all speculate and refresh Twitter together!

(If there are trades before this publishes, apologies, but life does not allow me to sit up all night and track this.)

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This week on the internet

Speaking of Nick Mears, this seems concerning:

Here’s wishing him all the best in Milwaukee.

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The Mayor of Albuquerque (featuring Drew Romo) | Affected by Altitude

This is a biggie: Drew Romo sat down with Evan Lang and Skyler Timmins for a conversation, and it’s very good.

After on-field Red Sox-Rockies scuffle, threat of postgame confrontation avoided | MassLive

Turns out, there was more going on after Wednesday’s, uh, heated discussion than most of us realized. (Seriously, I was in the Rockies clubhouse after the game, and we talked with Quantrill, and there was zero sense this was going on.)

Kicker: On Sunday, the Red Sox DFA’d Reese McGuire.

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