Colorado Rockies trade deadline: what’s a want and what’s a need?

PHILADELPHIA, PA – MAY 25: Starting pitcher Tyler Anderson of the Colorado Rockies throws a pitch in the first inning during a game against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on May 25, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Hunter Martin/Getty Images)

We have discussed numerous things that the Rockies would be interested in before the trade deadline. However, some of them are wants and some are needs.

With trade rumor and trade deadline season being upon us, there have been a bevy of things that we, here at Rox Pile, have discussed areas that the Rockies may be interested in improving before the trade deadline. However, today, we will go through what things must be improved upon before the trade deadline and what would be nice to improve upon before the deadline.

Starting Pitching

Starting pitching, especially with having four rookies and nobody with more than two full season of service time in the starting rotation (or in options for the starting rotation like Chad Bettis and Tyler Anderson), the Rockies must acquire at least one starter, if not two.

The starter’s ERA this season is 4.79, which is 21st in baseball. This has obviously gotten worse within the past month since the Rockies haven’t played as well but it is something that must be addressed.

The Rockies have been in discussions with the Orioles for starters Kevin Gausman (the native of Centennial, CO) and Dylan Bundy (as we discussed in this article) and we discussed some other options in this article from ten days ago.

Relief Pitching

This is another area where the Rockies have been looking to improve and in this area, they must address it before the trade deadline. They are tied for 23rd in baseball in bullpen ERA at 4.51. As we mentioned in this article on Thursday, in 2016, there were only two teams with regular season bullpen ERA’s above 3.65 in the postseason (the Texas Rangers and Toronto Blue Jays) however, neither of their ERA’s were higher than the Rockies.

No team, in the past ten World Series (going back to 2007, when the Rockies made their first and, thus far, only World Series appearance), no team has made a World Series appearance with an ERA higher than 4.11 and no team has won the World Series with an ERA higher than 3.91. As we have seen with playoff teams of in the past decade and by these stats, having a lock-down bullpen is a must.

Catching

We discussed catching in this article from Tuesday and as we mentioned, there aren’t a ton of catching options on the market. Since then, Rangers have faltered a bit so their catcher, Jonathan Lucroy, could potentially be traded but the market is still very slim.

The Rockies catchers have not done well this season as they are in the bottom half of nearly every important offensive category. They have also not done well defensively either. However, since the market is thin, this is more of a want than a need.

Shortstop

This is another area where the Rockies could look to improve because Trevor Story has had a terrible sophomore season. His numbers have improved a bit since we published this article 16 days ago but he’s still hitting .235 with 110 strikeouts in 82 games. Not exactly stellar play. There are plenty of options on the market but the Rockies are most likely going to stick with Story for this year and the future so this can also be put in the want category.

Outfield

We have discussed this a few times in the past few weeks and it is still something that the Rockies are looking into. Ian Desmond has been injured multiple times and he has barely hit for any extra base hits (13 all season) and Carlos Gonzalez has been injured and been terrible all season (.219 average, .295 OBP, 57 OPS+) so I would say that this is a must for the Rockies. However, I wouldn’t say that this need is as desperate of a need as the starting and relief pitching. The Rockies could even address their outfield issues by recalling Raimel Tapia, Jordan Patterson, or Mike Tauchmann.

However, I believe that the Rockies will address this from outside of the organization but I don’t believe that the player will be a top-flight player. However, some players that come to mind are Jay Bruce, Curtis Granderson, or Melky Cabrera (yes, that Melky Cabrera who broke up Kyle Freeland’s no-hitter on July 9, the Sunday before the All-Star break).

Next: Charlie Blackmon meets two-year old Tommy Carlson

Power Rankings of the areas of improvement

If I had to power rank the five areas of improvement, this is how I would rank them from what needs to be addressed the most to the least:

Bullpen
Starting Pitching
Outfield
Catching
Shortstop