Happy Anniversary, Rockies fans. Sort of.
Excluding the mammoth trade of Troy Tulowitzki in 2015, a deal that saved the franchise $50 million in the process, the last deadline deal Colorado made in a losing season was on this date in 2012.
At 23 games under .500, 16.5 games behind the newly-implemented second Wild Card and three years removed from their last postseason, there was little hope for a grand comeback in the second half. The Rockies were also sandwiched in the bottom of the National League standings between two clubs at that time strategically structured to lose in hopes of better draft picks and a greater window of contention, both of which would go on to win the World Series: the Houston Astros and the Chicago Cubs.
Veteran infielder Marco Scutaro was sent to the San Francisco Giants for utility player Charlie Culberson. Colorado saved $2 million and added a young player to big league roster while San Francisco netted a big piece for what would end a 56-year World Series drought for the franchise and first championship since moving to the Bay Area in 1958.
On the same date in 2014, the Rockies were locked in a battle with those same Cubs for the worst record in the NL. Despite expiring contracts for Michael Cuddyer, Jorge de la Rosa, Matt Belisle and Franklin Morales, not to mention players approaching free agency the next offseason in Drew Stubbs and Jhoulys Chacín, the organization opted to stand pat, failing to get anything for what would eventually be nothing.
That’s not to say then-GM Dan O’Dowd wasn’t trying to improve the fate of his franchise. With a deal in place to trade de la Rosa to Baltimore for prized-prospect Eduardo Rodríguez, owner Dick Monfort interjected to nix the deal, according to Peter Gammons. Rodríguez would be dealt to Boston instead and since then the left-handed starter has won 58 games, pitched to a 4.18 ERA in the AL East and has been worth 14.1 wins above replacement, production on par with Rockies two best starters – Germán Márquez and Jon Gray – during that span.
The loss of Cuddyer in the offseason did not leave Colorado completely empty handed. Rather, it was greeted with a compensation pick in the 2015 MLB Draft when the 36-year-old rejected a qualifying offer. Unfortunately, those plans did not come to fruition as the selection, high school pitcher Mike Nikorak, was plagued by injuries. After 68.1 innings in the minor leagues from 2015-19, the right-hander announced his retirement in April of this year.
Had the approach been somewhat different and some younger players had been brought in for these expiring contracts, those 2017 and 2018 Rocktober runs could have gone a bit farther and lasted a bit longer thanks to the potential of an increased talent pool acquired in 2014.
Nearly a decade ago and despite eight losing seasons amounting to 156 games under .500, the industry standard to trading away players on expiring contracts in hopes of improving future iterations of the club has become somewhat foreign to the Rockies.
Should they change course with one of the top starting pitchers (Gray), position players (Trevor Story) and relief pitchers (Mychal Givens), the Rockies could come away as the biggest winners in the 2021 MLB Trade Deadline.
