Colorado Rockies: Their bullpen is best in the National League

As our very own Noah Yingling highlighted from Colorado Rockies General Manager Jeff Bridich’s radio interview with MLB Network Radio, the Rockies made it clear that they were looking to sign multiple relievers to help in the bullpen this offseason. Little did we know that he was going to go all-out. This aggressive approach by Jeff Bridich and his team may have just propelled the Rockies into having one of the best bullpens in the National League.

Rockies started their hunt during Winter Meetings by agreeing to deals with Bryan Shaw and Jake McGee within 24 hours of each other. Those moves alone put the Rockies in a significantly better position than they ended the season with in terms of bullpen arms, with McGee and Holland testing free agency. However, they needed a big time closer to top this all off…and the Rockies reportedly found that man in Wade Davis.

After spending the last month fielding Greg Holland rumors and reports, the Rockies surprised us all by a agreeing to a deal with Wade Davis. The contract, by the way, is the highest per-year-salary ever for a reliever at a 3-year, $52M deal, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports.

As pointed out via tweet by Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports, factoring in the deals of Wade Davis, Bryan Shawn, Jake McGee this season and Mike Dunn and Adam Ottavino deals already on the books, the Rockies may have put together the most expensive bullpen in baseball history, upwards of $50M this coming season.

So, what does $50M a season get you? The best bullpen in the National League.

The biggest upgrade lies with the presumable new set-up man, Bryan Shaw. Shaw has quietly became the back-of-the-bullpen work horse that every team needs win ball games and to go deep in the playoffs.

According to Baseball-Reference.com, Shaw is sporting a 3.13 ERA, 2.64 K/BB rate and 8.0 K/9 over 446.1 relief innings during his seven seasons between the Diamondbacks and Indians. It’s also worth noting that Shaw is just as reliable health-wise, as he is with his pitching. He has never spent any time on the disabled list and leads all pitchers in appearances since the start of the 2013 season.

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Final Thoughts

While some would argue that the amount of money of Davis’ reported contract doesn’t call for a step up from other back-end relievers on the market, this take often discounts that Davis has post-season pitching experience in the closer role, even up and into the World Series. This can be a vital trait for this caliber of a bullpen.

The Rockies will still add a first basemen at some point. However, it is highly unlikely that it’ll be another mega splash signing, like a Eric Hosmer or Logan Morrison, at this point. There is more a of a chance of this happening with a trade.

With that said, their game plan is clear and simple: live with the same offense in large part, protect their young starters by going to the bullpen early, and locking down one-run leads with elite back-end relievers.

Next: Should the Rockies acquire Christian Yelich from Miami?

With these moves, I think that it will surely be a blast watching the best bullpen in the National League.