Colorado Rockies: an update on former Rockie Carlos Gonzalez

Over the past nine seasons, Carlos Gonzalez has been a fan favorite of Rockies fans, especially in the difficult times from 2011 through 2016 when the team did not have a winning season. However, CarGo became a free agent after the 2017 season. While the Rockies made the playoffs for the first time since 2009 with an 87-75 record, Gonzalez did not have the best of seasons, which makes a potential resigning of him all the more perplexing.

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Carlos Gonzalez has been one of the Rockies franchise players since he came to Denver via trade with the Oakland Athletics prior to the 2009 season. However, in 2017, he had his worst full season in baseball while the Rockies performed well enough to make the playoffs. However, CarGo became a free agent after the 2017. There has been little talks of the two sides coming back together and ESPN Beisbol (the Spanish page for ESPN Baseball) seemed to confirm that as on Thursday, on Twitter, they said that Carlos Gonzalez has three offers for a contract on the table from the Astros, Padres, and Giants.

https://twitter.com/ESPN_Beisbol/status/948972258025967616

Therefore, on our Twitter page, @RoxPileFS, we ran a poll that asked you if you would prefer to see CarGo with the Padres or Giants in 2018 or with the Rockies and you overwhelmingly voted to bring CarGo back.

So, obviously, many of you would prefer to see CarGo in a Rockies uniform than with the Padres or Giants.

However, it doesn’t look that will come to pass. Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich has said that the Rockies are interested in a return, they obviously are not pursuing him aggressively. The Rockies also have a desperate need for a corner outfielder or first baseman, depending on where the team wants to put Ian Desmond at.

Final Thoughts

Personally, I think that it will be tough to determine how long it will take for Gonzalez to sign since this offseason has been so quiet. Also, it will be tough to estimate what kind of contract he will get. He could prove to be a very valuable player once again in 2018 but teams will almost certainly not  lock themselves into a long-term contract with Gonzalez considering his performance and age.

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I would suspect that Gonzalez would only get a one-year contract because of his poor 2017 season, especially if he leaves the Rockies. If the Rockies do happen to resign him, I would put the chances of CarGo getting a multi-year contract at being higher but I would still doubt that he will get that.