The Colorado Rockies have too much young depth

As the Colorado Rockies come off their first postseason appearance in nearly a decade, they have a lot to be optimistic about. That being said, they face one peculiar barrier to their path forward.

They have too much young depth.

Now I know everyone always says that there’s no such thing as too much young depth — but they’re wrong. Baseball is a business and the players that make up a team’s roster don’t just drain the payroll, they fill positions that other players would otherwise occupy. There are only nine positions in the field. There are only five slots in the starting rotation.

Of course any competitive team needs depth. But, especially for a smaller-market team such as Colorado, unstructured, reckless depth can become a liability.

General Manager Jeff Bridich has done an excellent job of putting together a competitive young team, but if the Rockies want to continue to move in the right direction, he has some major decisions to make.

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?

Everyone expects that Los Angeles, the Chicago Cubs, Washington, and Arizona will continue to build on their 2017 success next season. That leaves just one postseason slot open and we haven’t even talked about Milwaukee, St. Louis, or a possible resurgence in San Francisco.

All of this means that in order for the Rockies to make consecutive playoff appearances for the first time in their history, they have to get better.

While assembling a team full of young talent, Bridich has been reluctant to trade away almost any of that talent. To this point in the team’s development, this has been a good principle, however we all knew that at some point decisions would need to be made.

For Jeff Bridich, that time needs to be now.

To demonstrate why the Rockies MUST make some moves this offseason, lets look at two specific areas of surplus where the Rockies have too many options.

Young Arms

The same can be said about Colorado’s starting pitching.

Bridich and his staff have done the impossible. They managed to compile a successful pitching staff in Colorado.

When people talk about Colorado’s bright future, more often than not, they don’t focus on the team’s power bats. Instead, they focus on the team’s stable of young power arms.

Colorado Rockies

Led by budding ace Jon Gray (10-4, 3.67 ERA in 20 2017 starts), the Rockies boast a solid starting rotation that also includes healthy versions of Tyler Anderson and Chad Bettis. Although he struggled to find his command for much of the year, Tyler Chatwood had a decent end to the season and could potentially re-sign with the Rockies this offseason. None of these pitchers have turned 30 yet.

In addition to those four, the Rockies had four rookies (Kyle Freeland, German Marquez, Antonio Senzatela, and Jeff Hoffman) play prominent roles in the rotation in 2017, putting together a collective 38 wins. All four could be expected to feature prominently in the rotation next season.

Behind the four rookies, a plethora of pitching talent abounds in the Rockies minor league system. Arms like Riley Pint, Peter Lambert, Yency Almonte, Ryan Castellani, Harrison Musgrave and several others keep Rockies fans hopeful for the future.

Bridich has worked tirelessly to acquire this talent and therefore he has rightfully been guarded about moving any of it. Of course, not all of these young arms can pitch in the rotation at the same time.

Assuming they don’t sign or trade for a veteran starter, Colorado only really needs to fill two slots in the rotation. The Rockies have more than enough young pitchers in the aforementioned lists to fill the rotation, provide depth in case of injury, place a couple arms in the bullpen and still trade valuable, intriguing prospects in return for more experienced players.

The bottom line is the Rockies have the pieces out of the players listed above to make moves without giving up their top-tier prospects. That is remarkable since I haven’t even mentioned Brendan Rodgers, Ryan McMahon, or Colton Welker yet.

Just like his young players, Jeff Bridich has suddenly been thrust onto the big stage. Now the baseball world is watching to see how he will respond to the heat of the spotlight.

Next: Why first base should be Colorado's focus in free agency

This is the Rockies window to succeed, let’s hope they don’t waste it.

The clock is ticking.