Colorado Rockies: 10 Biggest Trades in Franchise History: 10-8

As sports fans, we love to analyze trades, but picking winners and losers right after a deal goes down can be tricky, especially in baseball. Luckily, we have the benefit of hindsight as we put together the 10 biggest trades in Colorado Rockies history.

Before we dive into the list, I wanted to mention two moves that didn’t crack the list this year, but could easily end up making it at soon as next year, depending on how things go in 2017.

Chris Iannetta to the Los Angeles Angels for Tyler Chatwood

On one hand, Iannetta never really became the every-day starting catcher that Los Angeles acquired him to be. In four seasons with the Angels, Iannetta never topped 325 at-bats, and he left in free agency after the 2015 season. Iannetta will be back in the National League West this season as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks, where he may eventually face the man he was traded for.

So, chalk this up as a win for the Rockies, right? Sort of. Chatwood has been reasonably effective for Colorado, going 26-20 over the course of four seasons. But just staying on the field has been an issue for the young right-hander. He’s averaged just under 90 innings per year since joining the Rockies. That would be a lot of work for a reliever, but it’s not nearly enough for a starter.

Colorado Rockies

Colorado still stands as “the winner” of this trade, but the gains have been somewhat muted. That being said, Chatwood threw a career-high 158.0 innings last season, so things seem to be trending in the right direction for the Rockies.

Corey Dickerson and Kevin Padlo to the Tampa Bay Rays for Jake McGee and German Marquez

The first year after this trade was largely a wash at the major league level. McGee was disappointing in his first season with Colorado as he battled injuries and ineffectiveness. But while McGee struggled with the Rockies, Dickerson was (somewhat surprisingly) arguably even worse in Tampa, posting a meager .245/.293/.469 slash line.

Of course, trades don’t just last for one year. McGee and Dickerson will both look to bounce back in 2017, and provided they’re healthy, both have the talent to do so. What will eventually swing this trade is the development of the other two players involved.

In that regard, Colorado is ahead at the moment. We’ve written about Marquez a few times on this site already, and he should push Jeff Hoffman for the last spot in the Rockies starting rotation this year. Padlo is a 19-year old who hit .229 in A-ball last year. It’s too soon to say he won’t make it, but certainly given the choice, Marquez is the much more attractive prospect.

Now that we’ve got the honorable mentions out of the way, let’s dive into the list with a move that sent a Rockies legend to another city.

#10: Larry Walker to the St. Louis Cardinals for Jason Burch, Luis Martinez and Chris Narveson

Starting with his MVP season in 1997 through 2001, there were few hitters in the game that inspired more respect than Walker. Over that five-season span, Walker hit a ridiculous .357 with 156 home runs, despite injuries limiting him to just 454 at-bats per season. All of this from a guy that was also one of the game’s premier defenders (as evidenced by his seven Gold Gloves in right field).

In 2004 though, the Rockies were on their way to a 94-loss season and Walker, then 37 years old, had expressed a desire to compete for a title before he was forced to retire. Colorado honored his request, sending him to a loaded St. Louis squad for a trio of prospects.

Ultimately, the Cardinals were probably the “winners” of this deal. Walker helped them reach the 2004 World Series, where they were ultimately defeated by the Boston Red Sox. Walker retired after the 2005 season, and unfortunately never got his World Series ring.

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As for Colorado, the only real win from the trade was the good PR of doing right by one of their aging stars. None of the three prospects they received in the trade ever appeared in an MLB game for the Rockies, and Narveson was the only one to stick in the majors (which happened with Milwaukee).

Ultimately, this trade will be remembered as the unofficial end of the “Blake Street Bombers” era. Lost to time however, is the alternate reality where the Walker trade worked out much differently: The Rockies had originally planned on shipping Walker to Texas, and the Rangers had agreed to the deal, but Walker used his 10-5 rights to veto the trade, ultimately forcing a move to St. Louis instead.

Why is that significant? Because if you believe the reports, the alleged deal would have sent then top prospect and future MLB all-star Ian Kinsler to Colorado.

It’s hard to blame Walker. The Rangers were atrocious at the time and would be for a while longer. But it’s also hard not to wonder what a middle infield of Troy Tulowitzki and Kinsler would have looked like.

#9: Dexter Fowler to the Houston Astros for Brandon Barnes and Jordan Lyles

Some trades look fine at the time, then become brutal to look at years later. Other trades look terrible from the start, and it turns out that’s because it just really was a terrible trade. This trade fits into the second category.

Fowler was drafted and developed by Colorado. In fact, it was the Rockies idea to turn Fowler into a switch-hitter, when he had only hit right-handed as an amateur. Fowler became the Rockies full-time center fielder in 2009, and after a few middling seasons, he seemed to break out in 2012, slashing .300/.389/.474.

Fowler’s defensive work in center field was questionable at times, and he didn’t steal bases the way many thought he would after his rookie year, but he was a solidly above-average outfielder who was still fairly young and inexpensive.

Then the relationship between Fowler and Colorado started going south. In 2013, a variety of sprains and bruises hurt Fowler’s numbers and kept him out of action for over 40 games.

A smartly-run organization would have recognized it as a disappointing down year in the long career of an otherwise valuable asset. Saying that the Rockies chose to go in the opposite direction feels like an understatement.

Then-GM Dan O’Dowd publicly questioned Fowler’s dedication to the team and the game, saying to 850 KOA…

“I think Dexter right now has got a big year in front of him. Whether that’s with us or whether that’s with somebody else at this point in time is too hard to say. I think it’s fair to say we are more willing to listen to calls about Dexter than we might have been in the past. He has a lot to prove this year within the industry. He’s got to show up and he’s got to do that… I think he’s got to get tougher. No doubt. He’s got to show up and play with an edge every day, not just when he thinks he has to.”

It was an insane thing to say, for a number of reasons:

1) Publicly acknowledging that you’ve soured on a player is just about the worst thing you could do for his trade value.

2) Rushing back from an injury to get back on the field for a last-place team (like Colorado was in 2013) isn’t being “tough,” it’s being moronic.

3) For years, O’Dowd and the Rockies had committed a large portion of their payroll to aging and/or injury-prone players, then acted as though the frequent DL trips were an unforeseeable tragedy, and not the obvious outcome. So turning around and specifically calling out Fowler (and only Fowler) for his injuries smacked of hypocrisy and blame-shifting.

Not surprisingly, when the Rockies traded Fowler a few days later, the return they received was uninspiring. Barnes had a few mediocre years as a back-up outfielder before being released last season, and Lyles is just hoping to make the team as a long reliever in 2017. Fowler, on the other hand, spent 2016 going to the All-Star game, winning a World Series, and cashing in with an $82.5M deal from St. Louis.

The good news for Colorado is that this trade allowed Charlie Blackmon to emerge as one of the game’s better center fielders. But that doesn’t make trading an above-average starting outfielder for two fringe roster guys a good idea.

I don’t have any evidence to support this, but I remain convinced that the horrid handling of this trade, and the near-universal criticism Colorado received in response, was one of the driving forces that finally forced the Rockies to take away O’Dowd’s GM powers.