Rockies Trade Corey Dickerson for Bullpen Help

The Colorado Rockies have traded Outfielder Corey Dickerson and minor leaguer 3B Kevin Padlo to the Tampa Bay Rays for relief pitcher Jake McGee and minor league pitching prospect German Marquez according to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports. A trade involving one of the Rockies outfielders seemed inevitable given the recent signing of Gerardo Parra. But will the newly acquired bullpen arm help bolster the Rockies chances of competing in the NL west?

Left handed hitter Corey Dickerson was drafted by the Colorado Rockies in 2010 making his big league debut three years later in June of 2013. A power hitter by trade, Dickerson has managed a .298/.245/.534 over his career with the Rockies. Given his injury history, if Dickerson stays healthy throughout the entire season, the Rays should see those numbers improve.

Jake McGee, the left-handed relief pitcher acquired in return for Dickerson, has spent his entire six-year career with the Tampa Bay Rays who drafted him in 2004. McGee averaged a 2.77 career era in the hitter friendly AL East division, should have few problems transitioning to pitching in the NL at elevated Coors Field. McGee learned how to pitch at altitude in his hometown of Reno, NV; he should have no qualms pitching at Coors or any other park for that matter.

The Rockies continue to add strong bullpen arms via free agency and trade during the offseason. While this seems to be a growing trend in Major League Baseball, the only way I see this being successful is by having starting pitching that can eat up at least six innings per game. You can have one of the best bullpens in the majors on paper, but asking these guys to eat up two-thirds of a baseball game night after night is difficult.

Colorado always performs strong in the beginning of the season; one of the reasons behind this I believe is that the bullpen is fresh. However, after a few months of bailing out guys who served up three or more taters in the 2nd inning, their arms get weak from being over worked. Staying healthy has always been a key to teams playing in October, this is no secret.

But wearing out bullpen arms early in the season basically ushers in a wealth of guys who have little experience at the majors and sets them up for failure by putting them in big innings that injured veterans should be throwing. I like what the Rockies are doing by bolstering the bullpen with hard throwing veteran arms, but without a decent starting five who can eat innings, the chances of this bullpen staying healthy and competing in the loaded NL west seems like a long shot.