Colorado Rockies news and links for Wednesday, July 3, 2024
Trades are fickle things. In general, it’s tough to predict how they will turn out, especially for a team that is trading away one of their notable star players. As the Rockies designated Elehuris Montero for assignment recently, the prized prospect of the Nolan Arenado trade, practically rendering the maligned trade a wash we are reminded that in their history the Rockies have come up short on almost every deal involving some of their biggest stars
Breaking up the Bombers (Dante Bichette and Vinny Castilla)
When Dan O’Dowd took over as general manager of the Rockies at the start of the 1999 offseason he came in with the intention of breaking down the roster and reconstructing the team with an emphasis on developing homegrown talent and he wanted the Rockies to become “more athletic and more versatile.” His first order of business? Breaking up what was left of the Blake Street Bombers, namely Dante Bichette and Vinny Castilla.
Each had just signed an extension through the 2001 season (Castilla prior to 1998, Bichette after the ‘98 season) for a total of $42 million. He sent Bichette to Cincinnati and Castilla to Tampa Bay a month later and in return acquired:
- RHP Stan Belinda (Reds)
- OF Jeffrey Hammonds (Reds)
- RHP Rolando Arrojo (Rays)
- IF Aaron Ledesma (Rays)
All four players acquired for the two Bombers only played for the Rockies in 2000. Belinda struggled out of the bullpen at age 33 and was released in July. Arrojo, 34, slotted into the rotation and posted a 6.04 ERA in 19 starts and was traded to the Red Sox for a trio of players. Ledesma, 29, excelled in Triple-A but struggled at the big league level and never played in the majors ever again.
Things worked out a little better for Hammonds who turned in a career year in his only season in Colorado by slashing .335/.395/.529 with 20 home runs and 106 RBI in 122 games and was named an All-Star. In total, the Rockies got 0.7 bWAR for the careers of Bichette and Castilla in the 90s.
Larry Walker (2004)
After a couple of previous attempts to trade Walker were vetoed, a trade to appease his desire to play for a contender finally materialized in August as they did right by their franchise player, sending him to St. Louis to effectively get out of his contract where he got to set records in the playoffs and play in the World Series.
Photo by Jon Soohoo/Getty Images
In exchange the Rockies acquired:
- RHP Jason Burch
- LHP Luis Martínez
- LHP Chris Narveson
All three pitchers never stepped foot on a mound for the Rockies in the big leagues, as the move was mainly to dump Walker’s salary. Burch never pitched above Double-A and Martínez went to Japan after the 2004 season. Narveson was traded to the Red Sox in 2005 for Byung-Hyun Kim and ended up with a decent big-league career that lasted until 2016.
Ubaldo Jiménez (2011)
After the 2008 season, the Rockies locked up flamethrower Ubaldo Jiménez to a four-year, $10 million extension through 2012 with a pair of club options through 2014. After a dominant 2010, highlighted by his dominant All-Star first half, rumors swirled about a potential trade of the 27-year-old during the 2011 season and things finally materialized in July when he was traded to the Cleveland Indians.
In exchange the Rockies acquired:
- RHP Alex White
- RHP Joe Gardner
- 1B/OF Matt McBride
- LHP Drew Pomeranz
“Our focus with this deal was to make our team better in the very near future and we feel like we were able to do that in this situation,” said O’Dowd at the time.
Photo by Denis Poroy/Getty Images
At the time of the deal, it looked to be a solid return package. White (2nd), Pomeranz (4th) and Gardner (7th) were three of Cleveland’s top 10 prospects in 2011 and McBride was a solid-hitting second-round pick from 2006. Unfortunately, Gardner never cracked the big leagues and was released in 2014. McBride contributed little in 72 games over three seasons before becoming a free agent after 2015.
White made 30 appearances with the Rockies, posting a 5.51 ERA and issued 67 walks against 88 strikeouts in 134 1⁄3 innings between the two seasons. At the age of 23, the Rockies traded him to Houston after the 2012 season and he never pitched in the majors again.
Pomeranz was rushed to the big leagues in 2011 after the trade just one year removed from getting drafted. They ended up getting 30 starts out of him for a total of 136 2⁄3 innings through the 2013 season which was good for a 5.20 ERA with 114 strikeouts and 70 walks. The team traded the former fifth overall pick to Oakland and Pomeranz has managed to carve out a nice career for himself as a reliever beyond the 0.3 bWAR he posted with the Rockies.
As a group, they posted -2.7 bWAR.
The Jeff Bridich trades (Troy Tulowitzki and Nolan Arenado)
The Jeff Bridich era is most defined by two trades; Troy Tulowitzki to the Toronto Blue Jays in 2015 and Nolan Arenado to the St. Louis Cardinals in 2021. Both players were under large contracts and were unhappy with the direction of the team competitive-wise. Rather than try to build winning teams, they looked to dump the salaries of the generational Hall of Fame caliber players instead. Surely they could get some great value out of these players?
Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images
In return, the Rockies got:
- RHP Miguel Castro (Blue Jays)
- SS José Reyes (Blue Jays)
- RHP Jeff Hoffman (Blue Jays)
- RHP Jesús Tinoco (Blue Jays)
- LHP Austin Gomber (Cardinals)
- 3B Elehuris Montero (Cardinals)
- IF Mateo Gil (Cardinals)
- RHP Jake Sommers (Cardinals)
- RHP Tony Locey
I won’t go into too much detail here (you’re likely quite familiar with how these trades turned out) but suffice to say both became a wash. It’s incredible that of these eight players, only Austin Gomber has contributed any sort of worth to the Rockies. The group accumulated -2.3 bWAR, but if you take away Gomber it’s -5.5 bWAR.
The one that worked
There is one trade of a star that actually turned out pretty well. Figuring they would be unable to re-sign him beyond his final year before free agency, the Rockies decided to send slugging left fielder Matt Holliday to the Oakland A’s after the 2008 season. It was a tough trade for fans to swallow but in return, the Rockies acquired:
- OF Carlos González
- RHP Huston Street
- RHP Greg Smith
Now, Smith appeared in just eight games in 2010, but the other two pieces turned out well. Huston Street was instrumental in the Rockies bullpen as the closer from 2009-2011, including 35 saves in the ‘09 season. CarGo ended up playing 10 years in Colorado, being named an All-Star three times as well as winning two Silver Sluggers and three Gold Gloves. Oh, and he finished third in MVP voting in 2010. His 23.8 bWAR is the sixth-most in franchise history. In total this group accumulated 26.5 bWAR.
Not all trades are created equal and most of the ones mentioned here unfortunately were efforts to dump contracts more than anything and they don’t necessarily put that saved money towards anything worthwhile (see Kris Bryant contract). If they did manage to get prospects, there weren’t exactly the best options or the Rockies just fumbled their development. As it turns out, most of the time, the Rockies aren’t very good at trading their star players away and that has been detrimental to the progression and growth of this organization.
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Chase Dollander selected to represent Rockies at the Futures Game | Purple Row
In case you missed it, the All-Star Futures Game representatives were announced and Rockies’ top pitching prospect Chase Dollander is getting the nod to head to Arlington.
Meet the 10 best high school pitchers in this year’s Draft | MLB.com
The Rockies are likely to take more college arms and bats in the draft, but there are still some high school arms that could find themselves taken in the draft. Jonathan Mayo gives a lowdown on 10 of the best prep arms.
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On the Farm
Triple-A: Albuquerque Isotopes 5, El Paso Chihuahuas 2 (F/7)
The rain called this game early in the seventh, but luckily for the Isotopes they were leading 5-2 and net a victory in the first game of the series. Trevor Boone and Willie MacIver each slugged a solo home run as part of the ‘Topes 10 hits with everyone but Greg Jones recording a hit. On the mound Karl Kauffmann ended up pitching the whole game, giving up two runs in six innings with three strikeouts and two walks.
Double-A: Hartford Yard Goats 8, Binghamton Rumble Ponies 7
Hartford managed to outlast the Rumble Ponies as they pounded out eight runs on 12 hits, narrowly beating their opponent by one on both accounts. Mason Albright started on the hill and gave up four runs in three innings of work while issuing five walks. Adael Amador is back in Double-A and drew a pair of walks along with an RBI single. Everyone but Sterlin Thompson had at least one hit in the game.
High-A: Spokane Indians 6, Tri-City Dust Devils 0
Chase Dollander spun five shutout innings, striking out 10 batters against one walk while scattering six hits. The bullpen then allowed four hits over the final four innings while striking out three. Jean Perez led the offense with three hits while Juan Guerrero had two RBI and a double.
Low-A: Modesto Nuts 7, Fresno Grizzlies 3
Four of Fresno’s five hits came from the bottom three spots in the lineup with Luis Mendez leading the way with two hits and the lone RBI for the team. Bryan Perez turned in a decent outing, allowing two runs in five innings of work but Kannon Handy had a rough night, giving up four runs in two innings to suffer a blown save and the loss.
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