Colorado Rockies: The Five Worst Players of the 2016 Season

Yesterday I wrote about the five best players for the Colorado Rockies for the 2016 season. Conversely, today’s edition is the five worst players. Despite winning the most games since 2010, the team had several players who qualified in this category. Rox Pile takes a look at the five worst Rockies from 2016.

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You don’t have to be Einstein to know what plagued the Rockies in 2016. Once more it was the pitching.

The starting pitching was OK. It posted a 4.81 ERA (fourth-worst in the National League) but was nearly half a run improvement over 2015 (5.27 ERA).

However, the real culprit was the bullpen. It combined for a 5.05 ERA, which was the worst mark by the pen since 2004 (5.53 ERA). Free agent signings Jake McGee, Chad Qualls and Jason Motte all bombed – they combined for a 5.02 ERA, and allowed 20 home runs combined in 100 1/3 innings, per Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post.

Additionally, the fielding by the pitchers was poor – they combined for 21 fielding errors, which was tied for the second-worst mark in the NL with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Offensively, whilst the majority of them had excellent seasons, players such as Nick Hundley, Ryan Raburn, Cristhian Adames and Gerardo Parra had sub-par performances.

Getting this list down to just five players is no easy task.

Who doesn’t make this list (aka dishonorable mentions) include Hundley (his last six weeks saved him), Adames, Qualls (saved by injury), Justin Miller, Eddie Butler (switched roles) and rookies Matt Carasiti and Carlos Estevez.

Players will be ranked by how poor their season was, how their season was compared to their history and how their season impacted the franchise. Human nature will appear in some cases because, well, we all have players that we find worse and provide less impact than others.

Please feel free to compile your list before starting through our rundown of the five worst players of 2016.  Which players do you think will be on the list?

Enjoy our rankings of the top-five worst players for the Colorado Rockies in 2016!

Next: No. 5: Ryan Raburn

No. 4: Jorge De La Rosa

De La Rosa seemed to hit the wall in 2016. He did start 27 games, but he was effectively shown the door towards the end of September and his Rockies career is all but over.

This season he went 8-9 with a 5.51 ERA, well above his career ERA of 4.64. What was worse was his team-high 23 HRs allowed, 82 earned runs allowed (third-worst on the team), 63 walks (second-highest) against just 108 strikeouts (second-worst among the starters) and a WHIP of 1.64 (worst mark among the starters).

Overall, he has had a great Rockies career. He has 86 wins for the franchise (team record), 1,181 strikeouts (also a team record) and a 53-20 record at Coors Field.

His final start of the season on September 20 against the Cardinals was typical of his year – 4 ⅔ innings, giving up eight runs (seven earned) on seven hits. He also walked three and hit two batters.

The best pitch he had all year was the split-finger changeup, but his fastball and the rest of his command labored, leading to a lot of hits and short outings.

I commend De La Rosa for a terrific Rockies career. His success at home was extraordinary. He was a great servant of the club. But this year was proof his time is up and he was an easy choice for this list.

Next: No. 3: Jason Motte

No. 3: Jason Motte

Motte was another free-agent signing for 2016 which simply did not work out, to put it politely. He made $5,000,000 this season (tied for fifth-highest on the team) and what did he produce?

Because of injury (right rotator cuff strain) he only appeared in 30 games and was the friend of the disabled list. When he was on the mound, he went 0-1 with a 4.94 ERA. In 23 2/3 innings pitched, he gave up 28 hits, 13 earned runs, six HRs and a WHIP of 1.52.

Motte was signed to provide a veteran presence and stability to the bullpen. I’m sure he provided the veteran presence without any issues, but he didn’t provide any stability. He was another issue out of many.

Simply put, the salary and the production did not match up for Motte in 2016. He is scheduled to make another $5 million in 2017. Do the Rockies really want to pay this to an under-performing 35-year-old reliever?

I doubt it.

Next: No. 2: Jake McGee

No. 2: Jake McGee

Oh dear, where do you start with McGee?

The hope when the Rockies traded outfielder Corey Dickerson for McGee and German Marquez was for McGee to lock down the closer role. In his previous two seasons in Tampa, he had combined for 25 saves and a 2.15 ERA.

McGee’s fastball was consistently around the 94-96 MPH mark in Tampa. However, for the Rockies this season his fastball dipped to the 91-93 MPH area and it flattened out alarmingly, making it a fat pitch in the majority of his appearances.

Sure enough, as a result his performance suffered. A 2-3 record, a 4.73 ERA, 56 hits allowed in just 45 2/3 innings, 24 earned runs, nine HRs allowed, a mere 38 strikeouts and a .301 batting average against.

These numbers all make for ugly reading.

McGee was the seventh-highest paid player on the team in 2016 with a $4,800,000 salary. This was a lot of money for a guy who lost his closer’s job and was hobbled by a knee injury.

Very little went right for McGee in 2016 and this trade didn’t work for the Rockies. Yes, Marquez shows a lot of promise and is a contender to start in 2017, which makes this trade not a complete loss.

One positive for McGee was he showed improvement in August, where his strikeouts went back up, his command improved (2.4 BB/9 in 11.1 innings pitched), and he only allowed one home run in that span.

Whether this is enough for the Rockies to bring back McGee in 2017 remains to be seen. Despite the late improvement, his season was disappointing and he was a no-doubter for this list.

Next: No. 1: Gerardo Parra

No. 1: Gerardo Parra

For me, the clear disappointment in 2016 for the team was outfielder-turned-first baseman Gerardo Parra.

Parra was signed to a three-year, $27.5 million free agent contract in the offseason. There was a lot of hope he could bring extra pop to the lineup and improve the outfield defense.

Let’s be honest – his season was ruined by the ankle injury he suffered when he collided with shortstop Trevor Story, forcing him to miss significant time. But when he was on the field, his output was simply not good enough.

His slash line for 2016 was .253/.271/.671. This compares with his career slash line of .274/.321/.724. Last season he hit 14 HRs, this year he hit seven. Additionally, he walked 28 times in 2015, this year he walked only nine times.

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Parra showed poor plate discipline, swinging early in the count and bailing out pitchers who were struggling to throw strikes. He continued to swing early in the count even when the team had runners in scoring position and the situation was begging for pitch selection and working the count in his favor.

In 368 at-bats he struck out 73 times versus in 2015 when he struck out only 92 times in 547 at-bats. He grounded into 16 double plays which was his worst mark since his rookie year in 2009.

Connor Farrell of Purple Row explains his season in a nutshell:

What he brought instead was one of the worst individual seasons in team history. Parra’s -2.8 bWAR was so bad, fans began to practically beg the team to leave him on the bench near the end of the year. Parra’s defense wasn’t abysmal by any means, but his bat and more specifically his eye was among the worst anyone who has even watched an inning of baseball has ever seen.

No matter which way you look at it, his salary didn’t get anywhere near matching his on-field production.

The Rockies need to have a serious think during this offseason and determine whether Parra’s scheduled $8,000,000 2017 salary is worth the investment. Hopefully he can turn things around, but the team can ill-afford another repeat of 2016, especially with the team perhaps on the verge of contending.

Next: Gerardo Parra: Issue for Colorado Rockies Next Manager?

It wouldn’t be a shock to see none of these listed players to be in a Rockies uniform in 2017. On-field production and their salaries are not matching up. No doubt whoever is the next manager will get to have a say in their respective futures.

It’s going to be an interesting, but also important, offseason for the Colorado Rockies.