Colorado Rockies: 10 Biggest Trades in Franchise History: 7-4

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#7: Mike Hampton, Juan Pierre and cash to the Florida Marlins for Preston Wilson, Charles Johnson, Pablo Ozuna and Vic Darensbourg

Jul 19, 2016; Denver, CO, USA; A general view of Coors Field prior to the game between the Colorado Rockies and the Tampa Bay Rays. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports /

A lot of the fun in analyzing old trades is that, with the benefit of hindsight, it becomes much clearer which team “won” the deal. Take the previous entry in this series, for instance. The Rockies fleeced the Mariners in the Jeff Cirillo trade, but that wasn’t clear until years later when Brian Fuentes emerged.

But there are some trades, where even with the benefit of time and perspective, picking winners and losers is virtually impossible. For a variety of reasons, #7 on our list is one of those deals.

Hampton, for better or worse, has had a lasting effect on the franchise and its fans. The Rockies gave Hampton the largest contract in professional baseball history (at the time) in December of 2000. The investment started out great: Hampton raced out to a 9-2 start, and was named to the 2001 NL All-Star team. But Hampton faded badly down the stretch, and in 2002, he was brutal from start to finish, going 7-15 with an ERA of 6.15.

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Colorado was desperate to get out of their deal with Hampton, but with multiple years and tons of money left on the contract, there wasn’t going to be an easy solution for the Rockies. They eventually found a taker in the Florida Marlins, but even then, the cost of freeing themselves from the albatross of Hampton’s contract was immense.

Colorado, in addition to sending cash to help pay for Hampton’s deal, also surrendered Juan Pierre. Pierre was no mere throw-in. At the time, he was a 25-year old speedster who had already accumulated over 400 hits and 100 stolen bases in two and a half seasons with the Rockies.

At the time the trade went down, most Rockies fans were lamenting the failure of Hampton’s monster contract. But in the years afterwards, it became clear that Pierre was the bigger loss, at least on the field. He would go on to play 11 more big league seasons, including five straight years where he played in all 162 games, and in three years with Florida, he finished in the top 20 of MVP voting twice.

So, the Rockies were forced to cut bait on an expensive free agent bust, and in doing so they lost a player that potentially could have played center field and hit lead-off for the next decade. Obviously, that’s less than ideal. But there’s more to consider before chalking this up as a failure by the Rockies.

First of all, the Rockies didn’t just dodge a season or two of Hampton’s contract. They got out after year two of an eight-year deal. Colorado saved a massive amount of money, and was able to get out of the huge shadow being cast by the contract. It’s hard to quantify how much that’s worth, but it certainly made Pierre’s departure more palatable.

Also, it’s easy to forget now, but Colorado was able to squeeze some value out of the players they received in return. The 2003 Rockies were largely forgettable, but Preston Wilson had a wildly successful campaign, blasting 36 home runs while picking up 141 RBI. Injuries would catch up to Wilson in 2004, and he would be traded again halfway through 2005. But for a season at least, he was the team’s second-best hitter (behind Todd Helton, then in his prime).

The Rockies also got Charles Johnson, albeit an older, slightly broken down version of him. Johnson was best known for his defensive prowess (he once won four consecutive Gold Gloves, and he’s one of only three catchers in MLB history to finish a season with zero errors in at least 100 games behind the plate), but he also popped 33 homers in two seasons with Colorado.

As for Ozuna and Darensbough, neither had much of an impact for Colorado. Ozuna was in the organization for one season (most of which was spent in the minors) before being released, and Darensbough appeared in just three games before getting hurt and being released as well.

And the guy who set all of this in to motion in the first place? Hampton was a Marlin for all of two days before they flipped him to Atlanta for prospects. Hampton had a few fairly productive seasons for the Braves, but also battled injures before he hung up his cleats for good in 2010. He’s now the bullpen coach for the Seattle Mariners.

So, add it all up, and the Rockies missed out on the bulk of Pierre’s career and the possibility that Hampton could have turned it around in Denver (unlikely) in exchange for one great year from Wilson, two decent years from Johnson and freedom from the financial burden of Hampton’s contract.

Is that a win or a loss for Colorado? That’s obviously a matter of interpretation, but almost a decade and a half later, this trade still looks like a stalemate.

#6: Kevin Reimer to the Milwaukee Brewers for Dante Bichette

Aug 6, 2016; Denver, CO, USA; A general view of Coors Field in the sixth inning of the game between the Colorado Rockies and the Miami Marlins. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports /

After the ambiguity of the last trade on the list, we could use a simple “this team won, this team lost” kind of trade, and Reimer for Bichette definitely qualifies.

Reimer was the 9th pick overall, and Colorado’s 5th pick, of the 1992 expansion draft, but later that same day, they traded Reimer to the Milwaukee Brewers (still an American League franchise at the time) for Bichette.

At the time, nothing about the trade seemed odd. Both players were corner outfielders in their late 20s with middling career numbers. Colorado was Bichette’s third organization in four years. After posting a .254 batting average and just 38 home runs in his first five MLB seasons, it wasn’t clear that he would even stick in the majors when Colorado acquired him.

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Well, if you’re familiar with Rockies history, you probably already know what happened next. Bichette became the backbone of one of baseball’s most explosive offenses, putting up a .316/.352/.540 slash line over his seven years with the organization. His best season came in 1995; Bichette hit .340, clubbed 40 home runs, led all of baseball with 128 RBI, and finished a close second behind Barry Larkin for NL MVP.

In addition to his consistent offensive production, Bichette was also remarkably durable during his tenure with Colorado. On average, he played 145 games per season while with Colorado, and that number is even higher if you don’t include the strike-shortened 116-game season in 1994. There may have been better players in the 90s, but few were more reliable.

What did Colorado give up in exchange for seven great years from one of the most popular players in franchise history? Very little, as it turns out. Reimer spent one unremarkable season in Milwaukee before he became a free agent and played two seasons in Japan. When Bichette was establishing himself as a star in his breakout 1995 season, Reimer was with the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks, playing his last season of professional baseball.

This technically wasn’t the first trade in Rockies history (that honor goes to Travis Buckley, acquired from the Montreal Expos eight days earlier), but this was the first big trade “win” for Colorado.

#5: Ian Stewart and Casey Weathers to the Chicago Cubs for DJ LeMahieu and Tyler Colvin

Baseball is a funny game sometimes. When this trade went down, most people weighing in on the trade felt like LeMahieu was the least intriguing player involved. A little more than five years later, he’s the only one still playing for an MLB franchise.

It seems almost hard to believe now, but there was a time where Stewart was widely considered one of the most exciting prospects in the game. Baseball America once ranked him as the 4th-best prospect in the minors, and he was featured on their top 100 list a record-tying five times.

That record, however, is an interesting paradox. On one hand, it indicates that player is highly regarded from a young age. On the other hand, being on the list five times means it’s been at least five years since that player joined the organization, and he still hasn’t become a MLB player.

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Sometimes this is just a case of a player taking a little bit longer to put things together before they reach the big leagues for good: Chipper Jones and Michael Cuddyer both fit into that group.

But sometimes, the “five-timer club” is an indicator that for all the gifts that player may have, there’s something broken with their game that may never be fixed. The list is littered with names like Chad Hermansen, Jim Pittsley or Ryan Anderson (who was featured five times and never even made an MLB roster).

The Cubs made this trade hoping Stewart (and to a lesser extent, Weathers, a highly-drafted reliever who battled numerous injuries) would end up in that first category. Unfortunately for both Stewart and Chicago, it turned out to be the latter.

Stewart barely cracked the Mendoza line in 2012, batting .201 in 55 games for the Cubs. In 2013, he struggled in Triple-A before some ill-advised tweets led to his release. Stewart appears to be retired, as he hasn’t played professionally since being released by the Washington Nationals in June of 2015.

Colvin, widely considered the more valuable half of the Rockies return at the time, had a strong debut season in Colorado. Given a career-high 420 at-bats, Colvin responded by batting .290 with 18 home runs. But in 2013, Colvin slumped horribly and was demoted to Triple-A. By the end of the season, the Rockies, rich with outfielders, no longer had a spot for him.

LeMahieu, meanwhile, continues to defy expectations. Just four years ago, most thought he’d be the backup at second base behind Josh Rutledge, but by the end of the season, he had convincingly established himself as the starter. In 2015, he was named an All-Star, and last season he won the batting title with a .348 average.

This was the first trade Theo Epstein made after being hired as the Cubs general manager, and in a recent interview with the New York Times, Epstein admitted he regretted the decision.

“Sometimes, you show up somewhere and you can make a mistake in your first off-season by not being as familiar as you should be with a player, because you haven’t seen him yourself in person,” Epstein said. “We felt like there were good bat-to-ball skills there, and sound defense. From the reports, we weren’t sold on his bat speed, didn’t think there’d be a lot of power. But he’s certainly proving us wrong. The bat-to-ball is really elite, and he’s made himself into one of the better defensive second basemen in the league.”

Epstein is one of the best GMs in all of sports. The Rockies front office has taken plenty of criticism in recent years, much of it deserved, but the fact that they were able to pull one over on Epstein and his crew should count for something.

#4: Ramon Ramirez to the Kansas City Royals for Jorge De La Rosa

This trade was a bit more difficult to rank, because it depends on how you measure “biggest” trades. If you measure by media and fan attention, it probably doesn’t even belong on the list. But if you’re measuring by overall impact on the organization, you could argue the trade that brought Jorge De La Rosa to Colorado belongs even higher.

There is not a person on earth, including De La Rosa, that could have predicted the left-hander from Mexico would leave nine years after he arrived with the franchise record for wins and strikeouts. Look at this timeline of DLR’s career before the Rockies:

March 1998: Signs with Arizona Diamondbacks
April 2000: Purchased from Arizona by Monterrey (Mexican League)
February 2001: Purchased from Monterrey by Boston Red Sox
November 2003: Traded from Boston to Arizona
December 2003: Traded from Arizona to Milwaukee
July 2006: Traded from Milwaukee to Kansas City

When the Rockies traded Ramirez to Kansas City, they certainly were not expecting to get a guy who would be in their starting rotation for nearly a decade. Colorado agreed to trade Ramirez to the Royals for a player to be named later, and it took over a month for both sides to agree on DLR. At that time, he was 27-year old Triple-A pitcher who had been hit hard in his brief trips to the big leagues.

The Rockies gave DLR a spot in the rotation in 2008, and he responded with a career-high 10 wins. The next year, he had a miserable start to the season, going 0-6 in his first 10 starts. But after entering June winless, DLR was unbelivable for the rest of the season, going 16-3 and helping the Rockies reach the playoffs.

And then, because baseball and life can be cruel, DLR’s body refused to cooperate. He missed half of 2010 after tearing a tendon in his finger. He returned the next season, only to suffer a complete UCL tear that forced him to undergo Tommy John surgery. For a three-year stretch from 2010-2012, he threw just 191.1 innings.

In 2013, after most of the baseball world had assumed he was done, he returned with a vengeance, going 16-6 with a 3.49 ERA in the best individual season of his career. Up until 2016, when DLR was on the bump, the Rockies were probably going to win that day, especially if the game was at Coors Field.

Of course, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the other guy in this trade. Ramirez was a solid reliever in his own right. He posted an ERA under 3.00 in four consecutive seasons after leaving Colorado, and won a World Series with the San Francisco Giants in 2010. But he was effectively finished as a MLB reliever by 2013, while DLR was still going strong.

Let’s not kid ourselves; DLR wasn’t a Cy Young candidate, or even a true ace at the top of a rotation. But he has done more to disprove the “it’s impossible to pitch well at Coors Field” myth than just about anyone. By a number of measures, he’s the most successful pitcher in the history of the franchise, and he was acquired as a PTBNL in a trade for a middle reliever.

Next: Relive the Trades That Started Our List

Dan O’Dowd certainly had his shortcomings as a GM, but give the man some credit: he nailed this trade.

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