Colorado Rockies: Does a potential Dexter Fowler reunion have any merit?

Could the Colorado Rockies be in line for a reunion with Dexter Fowler? It is an interesting although far-fetched possibility, according to one publication.

Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports said in a Thursday article that the St. Louis Cardinals could be shopping the former Rockies outfielder in the offseason. He cites a precedent St. Louis set by trading off Mike Leake the previous season after he was the big offseason acquisition for the Cardinals.

Fowler signed a five-year, $82.5 million deal with the Cardinals last offseason after he earned a World Championship with the Chicago Cubs. With Fowler through just one season in St. Louis, if the Cardinals were to ship him off to another team, that team would have to presumably eat a lot of that contract. But again remember, we don’t know that the Cardinals are shopping him or that any team would be willing to ingest that much of a contract for his services.

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Bleacher Report proposed in this article that the Rockies could be a team interested in Fowler’s services, given that the Rockies may be looking to replace Carlos Gonzalez in both the outfield and the lineup. However, they are two enormous problems with that proposition.

First, Fowler has played just one inning in his entire Major League career in right field … and that came in his rookie season with the Rockies in 2008. The other 9,240 innings have come in center field. The Rockies already have an All-Star center fielder in Charlie Blackmon and it wouldn’t seem to make sense to move Blackmon to a corner outfield position.

Second, the big contract would come at a time when the Rockies are weighing (at least behind closed doors) what they will do with the futures of Blackmon, DJ LeMahieu and Nolan Arenado, all of whom are expected to draw big contracts before the end of the decade.

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While Fowler did play six seasons with the Rockies, it would seemingly be tough for any kind of reunion to happen. Could he be a fit for Colorado in 2018? If money and playing out of position did not matter, sure. However, they do and that is why Fowler won’t be back in Denver (except in possibly the visitors dugout) next season.