What To Make Of Mark Reynolds Signing With The Colorado Rockies

I’m a few days late on this topic, but the Colorado Rockies agreed to terms with veteran first baseman/outfielder Mark Reynolds on a one-year, $2.6 million deal.

I know what you’re thinking — what are the Rockies thinking? On the Rockies’ side of things, the Winter Meetings were pretty boring and lacked any excitement, forcing Rockies’ fans alike to scratch their heads yet again.

Besides the signings of veteran relief help such as Jason Motte and Chad Qualls, Colorado inked the veteran slugger in Reynolds to possibly provide a platoon at first base with Ben Paulsen, who spelled Justin Morneau last season due to another injury-riddled season. The club declined Morneau’s $9 million option, shoring up some cap space nonetheless.

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Rockies’ fans are familiar with the 32-year-old Reynolds, who hits absolute bombs might I add — that’s if he makes contact. Reynolds is a career .230 hitter with some power in his bat, slugging over 237 home runs during nine seasons in the majors. However, if someone hits well-below .250, something has to give.

Reynolds will be a pleasant defensive upgrade over Wilin Rosario, who elected for free agency after splitting time between Colorado’s Triple-A affiliate Albuquerque Isotopes and the Rockies during the 2015 campaign. However, the offensive product might be a bit of the same, with more strikeouts.

Strikeouts have been a problem for Reynolds over his career, tallying roughly 1,519 over 4,178 at-bats — that’s a strikeout 28% of the time.

Reynolds spent the 2015 season with the St. Louis Cardinals, hitting .230 with 21 doubles, 13 home runs and 48 RBI’s. The main problem, as I mentioned above, was his strikeout ratio. In 382 at-bats, Reynolds struck out 121 times, which is good for 32%.

I do see this as a decent addition to the club, only because we don’t expect this team to contend for another year or two. As of right now, we don’t know what is exactly going on with the trade talks surrounding Colorado’s outfield, featuring players such as Carlos Gonzalez, Charlie Blackmon and Corey Dickerson.

Next: Rockies Year in Review: Jorge Rondon

Reynolds will essentially spell Paulsen when the team faces a left-handed pitcher and vice versa for Paulsen regarding right-handers. After all, I expect Reynolds to hit somewhere in-between 17-25 home runs with a little help from Coors Field.