Colorado Rockies: a potential name of interest for the bullpen

Yesterday was the MLB non-tender deadline for offering contracts to players that are not eligible to become free agents on their own yet. There were not a ton of surprises but there was one player that the Milwaukee Brewers non-tendered was a reliever that could help the Colorado Rockies.

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This offseason, the Colorado Rockies lost three relievers (Greg Holland, Jake McGee, and Pat Neshek) to free agency so it will definitely be something that the club will address this offseason. One reliever that could help address that is Jared Hughes, who was just non-tendered by the Milwaukee Brewers. He spent 2017 with the Brewers and he spent the previous six campaigns with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Hughes is a bit of an underrated reliever but in the past four seasons, he has averaged 68 games a season with a 2.55 ERA. He also walks about three per nine innings, strikeouts 5.5 per nine, and he has an ERA+ of 157.

In the past two seasons, he has been pretty consistent as his ERA’s have been 3.03 and 3.02 and he has pitched 67 games and only recorded one more out in 2017 than he did in 2016. However, his walk rate went up a bit (0.3 more walks per nine) but he is averaging two more strikeouts per nine innings as well.

What a contract could look like for him

Hughes should not cost a ton for the Rockies to get him. He would probably only need a one- or two-year contract. Also, he has never made more than $2.175 million in a season and in 2017, he only made $950,000.

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With that, the Rockies should be able to get Hughes with relative ease. Obviously, he would not completely solve the Rockies bullpen issues but he could help make a dent into it and he’ll do it for cheap.