Colorado Rockies are "all in" with Jon Gray

There wasn’t a ton of news made for the Colorado Rockies at the 2018 Winter Meetings.

A bit of an understatement, to be sure.

A few rumors cropped up here and there and they hired a new hitting coach which may actually turn out to be a big deal. But the 40-man roster looks the same as it did meaning that the most interesting tidbits from the week were about players already with the club.

Whatever happens in the rest of the offseason, and signs still point to the Rockies adding a few guys who will impact the immediate MLB team, there isn’t going to be a massive influx of high-end talent. One way or another, the 2019 Rockies, much like the 2017 and 2018 Rockies, will be counting on a fair amount of internal improvement from high-potential young players.

The bad news for them is that each one of these players comes with more than a handful of question marks.

The good news is that they have quite a few of them.

Perhaps no single player, however, represents this dynamic more than starting pitcher Jon Gray.

His 2017 campaign was masterful and arguably the difference that spurred the team into the postseason.

His 2018 campaign saw him struggle so much he was demoted to Triple-A at one point and left off the postseason roster.

He revealed after the NLDS sweep that he had been unable to maintain his ideal weight, telling Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post later that this was due in part to an inability to eat on game days.

“I won’t share any specifics other than that,” said GM Jeff Bridich when asked about that.

But he did want to make it clear that, whatever the issues with Gray, the club is in his corner for this fight.

“We are in constant contact,” he added. “We have met and this is a collaborative effort to make sure he’s in a great place and creates some good habits that fit him and that he can believe in that can put him in a place to be ready for Spring Training and get into the season and go.”

Plenty of careers have shown these ups and down. Oftentimes, with so much raw talent comes a lack of early adversity and there is no way to prepare yourself to experience the kind of pressures that can arise, especially in postseason baseball.

“Each guy has to make adjustments in his career here and there as he gets older and the league adjusts, as his body changes, or his life changes,” said Bridich. “And this is where Jon’s at. I’m proud of him for looking at it honestly. We’re all in with him. Other than that. I’ll leave the detail to him and us.”

The Rockies willingness to invest in and stand by many of their young talents, most notably Trevor Story and Kyle Freeland, has paid off in spades and they already know how good Gray can be when he is at his best.

At this point, the club shows no signs of trading him despite some calls from fans that it may be time to move on. And that can change on a dime depending on who offers what. But, to continue the money metaphors, Colorado will not be trading Jon Gray for pennies on the dollar when he is near his lowest value. It costs them very little to hang onto him and see if at worst he can rebuild some of that value.

At best, if he and the club can come up with the right plan that gets him to his pique physical and mental health more often than not, the dynamic duo atop the Colorado rotation becomes a terrifying trio.