Rockies Trade For Mitchell Boggs

Let’s say you have an old iPod or golf club or something else that has value lying around your house. Let’s say that, at one point you thought you would get really good use out of it. Now you realize you don’t need it or want it, so it just sits around.

Then your buddy says he wants that iPod or golf club. You could just give it to him, or you could try to get something from him in exchange for it. “Buy me a 12 pack of Diet Coke Lime, and I’ll give it to you.” He does, and you gain something, essentially for nothing. You were content with that cracked iPod or old Rawlings sand wedge sitting around unused, but if you can get something for it, why wouldn’t you?

Boggs. Image: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

That’s kind of what the Colorado Rockies did with the international signing bonus slot that they traded to the St. Louis Cardinals yesterday. They weren’t going to use it anyway, and now they add a relief pitcher in Mitchell Boggs who is not far removed from being elite.

It is almost literally a no-risk move by the Rockies.

The 6’4″, 235 pound Boggs was the primary set-up man for the Cardinals in 2012. He posted a 2.21 ERA and struck out 58 hitters in 73.1 innings of work. As a reward for that performance, he was given a shot to be the closer for the Cardinals this season in the absence of Jason Motte. That’s when things went terribly wrong, and now Boggs finds himself in Triple-A thanks to an 11.05 ERA in 18 games in 2013.

The Rockies will initially send Boggs to Double-A Tulsa, with the intention of eventually having him available with the Triple-A Sky Sox. If he regains anything close to his form from last year, the Rockies can take some of the pressure off of the disastrous Wilton Lopez and the exhausted Matt Belisle, among others. And if Boggs still stinks…well…

Whatever, right? They seriously gave up nothing for him.