Colorado Rockies: Chatwood’s market heating, Kintzler to Denver?

According to MLB Network, MLB.com, and FOX Sports’ Jon Morosi on Twitter, he has a few notes about pitchers that involve the Rockies on the free agent market.

Earlier today, Jon Morosi, on Twitter reported that former Rockies pitcher Tyler Chatwood is drawing interest from numerous other teams in baseball.

As Morosi noted, he pitched well outside of Coors Field in 2017 but the main problem that he had was his walk rate. He averaged 4.7 walks per nine innings. Between April and July 15 (when he made his last appearance before having a stint on the disabled list), he averaged 5.07 walks per nine innings. His ERA was 4.74 through this period. After the DL stint, he averaged just 3.7 walks per nine innings and his ERA was 4.57 in that span.

With being moved to the bullpen mid-season by Rockies manager Bud Black and Chatwood not being thrilled with it, I highly doubt that he will return to the team in 2018.

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?

Brandon Kintzler

As Morosi notes in this article on MLB.com, the Rockies have expressed interest in reliever Brandon Kintzler. This may not be a surprise to you considering that we have mentioned Kintzler as a potential Rockies target in these four articles since just before the July 2017 trade deadline (with the most recent article from less than two weeks ago).

Kintzler split the 2017 season as the closer of the Minnesota Twins and a set-up man with the Washington Nationals. He was also an All-Star for the first time in 2017. Overall in 2017, he was 4-3 with a 3.03 ERA (147 ERA+) in 72 games with 71 1/3 innings pitched. He had 29 saves as well.

Next: Could Yankees reliever Dellin Betances a potential target for the Rox?

If Kintzler were to join the Rockies, I would highly doubt that he would be the only reliever that the Rockies acquire, either via free agency or via trade. Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich has talked about how the bullpen is a main concern for the team this offseason.