Could the Rockies be buyers at the Deadline?

With the 16-inning marathon loss to the Cubs on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, the Rockies have fallen to a league-worst record of 43-63 — 14 games out of the Wild Card and 16.5 games out of the NL West lead.

However, it wouldn’t shock me if the Colorado Rockies were buyers by the 4 p.m. (ET) deadline on Thursday.

Being a buyer doesn’t necessarily mean that you are gunning for the postseason this year; however, you can reload your squad for the 2015 campaign and do some minor deals to put your team in a great position moving forward.

Let’s backtrack, shall we? Less than three months ago, the Rockies were leading the Wild Card race and only four games behind the Giants in the division. Eleven starters have since landed on the DL, with the shortest of those stints lasting 30 games (Wilin Rosario). No team has been plagued by injuries more than the Rockies.

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With this in mind, why is it so crazy to think that the team could buy?

The Rockies were in the playoff hunt and had a +50 run differential, second-best in the majors behind Oakland. The lineup consistently put up big numbers, while the pitchers strung together enough quality starts to keep the team in games. The bullpen didn’t have a fallout and held onto small leads when called upon.

Since then, names such as Michael Cuddyer, Tyler Chatwood, and Jordan Lyles have played in as many games as I have — zero.

If the team could’ve dodged the bubonic plague, we might be seeing a completely different situation in the front office. Here are a few names that you could see in the Rockies uniform post-deadline:

Ian Kennedy, SP, San Diego Padres
Andrew Miller, RP, Boston Red Sox
Kurt Suzuki, C, Minnesota Twins
Addison Reed, RP, Arizona Diamondbacks
Robbie Ross, RP, Texas Rangers

All five of these players are quality professionals who can help the Rockies into 2015 and beyond. With the exception of Kennedy, the others are obtainable through small deals that wouldn’t cost the team its top prospects.

Though Colorado is in an unfortunate position in 2014, it is still fine to buy at the deadline without causing turmoil throughout the Rockies fan base. And maybe a positive move or two in the next two days could get a few monkeys off of Dick Monfort’s back.