Improving Colorado's depth during the lockout; December signings for 2022 benefits

Despite spending $80.75 million this offseason, the Colorado Rockies 2022 roster looks exactly like the one from 2021, minus two important cogs.

Free agent SS Trevor Story is favored to sign elsewhere, and RHP Jon Gray signed a four-year, $56 million deal with the Texas Rangers.

Colorado’s expenditures did well to keep some of their top performers in purple pinstripes – RHP Antonio Senzatela, 1B C.J. Cron and C Elias Díaz –  or multiple seasons while also filling a late innings role in the bullpen, courtesy of a one-year deal for RHP Jhoulys Chacín.

The front office has made overtures to add power in a lineup that did not have a single 30-homer player, only the seventh such time in franchise history during a season of at least 100 games.

Until MLB’s lockout comes to an end with the league and the player signing a new collective bargaining agreement benefiting both sides, the Rockies simply can’t pick up the phone and call any player’s agent, let alone another general manager to discuss a trade.

However, there’s a loophole.

The CBA is a document that impacts only players on 40-man rosters. Minor league players are not governed by this. Those considered minor league free agents can still sign with big league clubs, so long as they are not offered certain incentives like a Spring Training invite or promotion to the 40-man roster once the lockout commences.

Several minor league free agents have already been signed, including some who’ve opted for a guaranteed payday overseas in Japan and South Korea.

More than 100 players with big league experience are considered minor league free agents. As Colorado waits to make more impactful splashes on the other side of the work stoppage, some of the players provide the one thing which no club ever has enough: depth. 

The Rockies already swung deals to bring back RHP Logan Cozart and C Max George from their own farm system and reunited with RHP J.D. Hammer, a player drafted in 2016 and dealt in the Pat Neshek trade of 2017. Over 39.0 innings with the Philadelphia Phillies between 2019 and 2021, the Fort Collins product has a 4.35 ERA, equating to a 100 ERA+. 

Last offseason provided shrewd signings of Cron and Chacín, and Colorado would do well to search for more diamonds in the rough while the rest of the league awaits for a happy ending to the CBA negotiations.

Here are 22 names that could become dudes in Denver in 2022…

Starting to Run Out of Options

RHP Drew Hutchison, RHP Nick Tropeano, RHP Asher Wojciechowski 

Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera made 10 starts in his rookie season at age 25. He then went on to rack up 652 saves, most all-time. When considering that relievers are often viewed as failed starters, that isn’t always an insult.

This trio of starting pitchers are on the wrong side of 30 years old, but considering they’ve survived long enough to make the jump (or demotion) to the bullpen suggests they’re doing something right.

The Rockies options for the fifth spot in the rotation may collaborate to fill the Gray-sized void, but it’s unclear if they can do so in the early months of the season. These veterans could provide the bridge, if not more, next season. 

Hutchison made two starts in 2021 with the Detroit Tigers and performed even better in the ‘pen during September, surrendering just three runs over 15.1 innings pitched (1.76 ERA). The 31-year-old started 19 games in Triple-A for the Toledo Mud Hens and pitched to a 3.77 earned run average in his first action since pitching in 2019 for three different organizations. 

Tropeano, 31, has split his time bouncing from the bullpen to the rotation over the past two seasons. Predominantly a starter in Triple-A for three clubs in 2021, he had a 3.69 ERA. Out of the ‘pen, he combined for a 1.52 ERA in 23.2 innings pitched over 15 contests.

Wojciechowski was taken 41st overall in 2010 by the Toronto Blue Jays and was one of several highly-touted prospects to be acquired by the Houston Astros during the early years of their tanking. He wouldn’t catch on until the Baltimore Orioles in 2019, starting 16 games and pitching to a 4.92 in the AL East. His 1.5 wins-above-replacement, according to Baseball Reference, is just about the biggest upside of available minor league options. 

Wojciechowski struggled to gain traction in the O’s rotation in 2020 and bounced between the Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees this season. It could be one last try for the 33-year-old before he’s forced to take the plunge to become a late-inning reliever. 

Veteran Bullpen Presences 

RHP Chase Anderson, RHP Joe Biagini, RHP Chasen Bradford, RHP Carl Edwards Jr., RHP Buck Farmer, RHP Justin Grimm, RHP Zack Godley, RHP Chris Mazza, RHP Matt Shoemaker, RHP Nick Vincent

Recognize any of these names? For every one highlighted here, there are three more that have at least had that proverbial cup of coffee.

Bradford hasn’t seen action in the Majors since 2019 with the Seattle Mariners, but did well for his stock with the Gwinnett Stripers, Atlanta’s Triple-A club, following a lost 2020 season. Outside of a right forearm strain that shortened his 2019, Bradford has been both durable and reliable, keeping his earned run average under 4.00 in every year as a professional. He’s one of the younger vets in this group at 30 years old and is worth at least a flyer to aid the Albuquerque Isotopes bullpen. 

After parts of eight seasons with the Tigers, Farmer benefited from a change of scenery with the Texas Rangers affiliate in Triple-A where he earned eight saves, the first in his career at any level. He struck out 15 in 15 innings and had a 3.60 ERA at this stop and will turn 31 before Opening Day.

Vincent is a veteran of 10 MLB seasons and has a career 3.30 earned run average in 411.2 innings pitched. He’ll be playing in his age-35 season next year and may not get many more opportunities despite his relative success.

LHP Joe Beimel, LHP Ty Blach, LHP Sean Gilmartin, LHP James Pazos, LHP Zac Rosscup, LHP Rob Zastryzny

Both Pazos and Rosscup have a track record with the Rockies already. Pazos had a better-than-respectable 3.72 ERA this past season with the Oklahoma City Dodgers in the league formerly known as the Pacific Coast League, but his WHIP (1.57) suggests there could have been some good luck on his side with all those base-runners. Rosscup finished his fourth stint with Colorado, arguably his best. His 2.48 ERA with the Isotopes in 29.0 frames seems like a record. If not, it’s worthy of being in some sort of pantheon.

Blach should be the name that jumps out from the others merely because of his in-state ties. The Regis Jesuit HS graduate made his mark with the San Francisco Giants in 2017-18 before being released in 2019 and having Tommy John surgery in 2020. The 31-year-old has a ways to return to his form of five years ago despite a successful 22.0 innings last year pitching against 21-year-olds in Low-A as he continued to rehab. 

Work In Progress, With Upside

LHP Juan Hillman, RHP Dany Jiménez

On the other side of the spectrum are those pitchers who have yet to even make their Major League debut. Players who have steadily developed and still have some glimmer of promise. 

Hillman, 24, was selected in the 2nd round by Cleveland in 2015 out of high school. The southpaw picked up where he left off in 2019, tossing 107.1 innings as a starter with a 3.77 ERA in Double-A.

Hillman was a casualty of a roster crunch for Cleveland and should garner a lot of attention from teams in need of rotational depth with both Triple-A and MLB clubs. He may not have overpowering stuff to strike out many hitters, but he’s effective and deserves more opportunities starting games before a move to the bullpen is discussed. 

Jiménez is no spring chicken at 27 years old, but he’s been a hot commodity over the past two years. First he was selected by the Giants in the 2020 Rule 5 draft and later off waivers by the Oakland Athletics before being returned to Toronto both times. 

He had a successful 2021 campaign in Triple-A, pitching to a 2.22 ERA and striking out nearly 40% of hitters, good for 14.7 strikeouts per nine. He did walk hitters at an unsettling rate, but still kept base-runners from reaching with a solid 1.21 WHIP. He’s even considered by some to be a fringy top 30 prospect for many organizations.

And Why Not

Mickey Jannis, RHP (BAL)

No, he isn’t on the list because Colorado has never rostered a player named Mickey. It has to do with someone even more unique than his first name.

Jannis was the only knuckleball pitcher to appear in MLB this past season and only the eighth in the past 20 years. Alas, the science does not support these two wrongs making a right: knuckleballs and altitude.

Knuckleballs react best with humidity and air pressure, two things lacking in Denver. Also, consider the issues pitchers have here with curveball movement; the same can be said of the knuckleball.

Tim Wakefield pitched twice in Denver – at Mile High Stadium – and gave up 10 earned runs in 9.2 innings during his second season with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1993. Charlie Hough fared much better, allowing two earned runs over six frames that same season. The sample size from these two knuckleballers is too small, but the science is enough to convince this wouldn’t work as hoped. 

In the frigid evenings of late autumn as winter rapidly approaches and no Hot Stove to keep us warm, one can hope for the promise of the little things such as a minor league transaction.