Rockies designate Jose Reyes for assignment, send important message

Denver — The Colorado Rockies announced Wednesday afternoon that they have designated shortstop Jose Reyes for assignment. This comes the very day he finished serving his 52-game suspension for a domestic assault case reported in November.

Questions had been mounting all season regarding Reyes, especially once Trevor Story emerged as the clear choice to start at short for the Rockies. Now the club has 10 days to try to trade him or hope someone picks him up on waivers. If neither occurs, the team could be left paying approximately $40M just to get Reyes off the team.

The best case scenario from the Rockies perspective is that some team is willing to make a trade for Reyes, but today’s news sends a loud and clear message that the Rockies are willing to bite the financial bullet to keep this guy off the team and away from their (currently) highly cohesive clubhouse.

It is a bold move that absolutely should absolutely not be overlooked. Reyes’ trade value is about as low as one can get and there is certainly a business and competitive argument to be made for allowing him to see some field time in order to regain some of that value and lessen the impact that the Rockies would otherwise have to absorb from letting him walk and being stuck with the bill.

The Rockies have made it clear that they care as much about character as they claim to. They care more about the chemistry of their team and sending a message about what they believe is the proper response to domestic violence than they do about money. It isn’t an absolute condemnation of Reyes and it didn’t need to be. Reyes deserves a second chance, but he deserves it somewhere else if he can earn his way back and not just re-inherit his old spot based on union rules that weren’t really meant to protect guys in these kinds of situations.

The Rockies did a big thing right today. Much more important than any player transaction or any in-game strategy, the Rockies made a decision at a pivotal moment in MLB history that may even set a precedent for future events. It was not easy, but the Rockies did a big thing right today.