Colorado Rockies Countdown: Top Five Left Fielders

1.  Carlos Gonzalez (2008-2016, fWAR 22.6)

If you’ve been paying attention, Carlos Gonzalez has been playing almost exclusively in right field these days, but CarGo has actually logged the majority of his big league innings in left. In conjunction, CarGo is the only active Rockie on our list, so his legacy in purple is far from over (despite those pesky trade deadline rumors).

As things currently sit, Carlos has his name littered all over the Rockies’ all-time leaderboard, but some of the things that stick out are the fact that he ranks third all-time in stolen bases (110) while also ranking fifth all-time in club home runs (195).

More from Rox Pile

• A Colorado Rockies Thanksgiving
• Colorado Rockies: What if Todd Helton had played football instead?
• Colorado Rockies: Charlie Blackmon out for the season
• Colorado Rockies: Injuries shift look of roster ahead of Dodgers series
• Colorado Rockies: Has Sean Bouchard earned a second look in 2023?

As a highly touted five-tool prospect, Gonzalez made his way to Colorado via Matt Holliday’s exit. Originally signed as an international free agent in 2002 by Arizona, Cargo was traded to Oakland and then eventually to Colorado in 2008 after it became apparent Holliday would not re-sign with Colorado at the end of his contract. Ex-general manager Dan O’Dowd sure didn’t get a lot of things right, but the CarGo trade was one of his best moments.

2010 was CarGo’s best so far in a Rockies’ uniform. In only his second full season in Colorado, Carlos won his lone batting title by leading the National League with 197 hits and 351 total bases. CarGo’s offensive output was good enough to earn him a third-place finish in the MVP voting while also winning his first of three Gold Gloves and his first of two Silver Sluggers.

Largely admired around the league, CarGo has one of the best swings in all of baseball. To relive those moments when the ball exploded off of his bat and gave fans chills click the link below.

Next: The Biggest Hits of Cargo's Career

Injuries have always been a hamper on CarGo in his time with Colorado. Carlos has only played in 130 games or more in a season three times in his nine-year career. The optimism is that Cargo played in a career high 153 games in 2015 and is showing no sign of slowing down in 2016.