Colorado Rockies: An update on the Rockies free agents

We are nearly at the second week in February and there are still a lot of free agents on the market and a few of them were with the Colorado Rockies in 2017.

Many of the best free agents are still on the market and we are about a week away from pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training. In fact, only a little over half (28 out of 50) of MLB Trade Rumors top 50 free agents have signed as of February 5th (and that’s including the Mets signing of Todd Frazier yesterday and a few players on that list who never became free agents because their options for 2018 were exercised).

Overall, there are even more free agents on the market. At one point, the Colorado Rockies had ten free agents. Let us recap their offseason thus far.

Tyler Chatwood

He was the first to sign of the Rockies free agents and he signed with the Chicago Cubs. He got a 3-year contract for $38 million, which was nearly double the amount that MLB Trade Rumors predicted for him and, in reality, perhaps even higher than some of the remaining starting pitching free agents will get.

Jake McGee

At the Winter Meetings in December, the Rockies made one of their bullpen splashes by re-signing reliever Jake McGee to a 3-year contract at $27 million. MLBTR predicted that he would get 3 years and $18 million. so he fared better than they thought he would (and I would agree with that).

Pat Neshek

In July, the Philadelphia Phillies traded Pat Neshek to the Rockies and in December, they resigned him to a 2-year contract worth $16.25 million. MLBTR predicted that he would get two years and $12 million.

Alexi Amarista

Rockies fans never really liked Amarista while he was around because his bat was so anemic. The Rockies cut him loose after they declined their option of $2.5 million on him, making him a free agent. The Detroit Tigers, who are arguably the worst team in baseball, decided to take a flier on him as they signed him to a minor league contract with an invite to MLB spring training to prove himself.

The unsigned free agents

The other five of the Rockies ten free agents still remain unsigned. They are Mark Reynolds, Jonathan Lucroy, Greg Holland, Ryan Hanigan, and Carlos Gonzalez.

With Reynolds, Lucroy, and Gonzalez, their markets have been virtually dormant as there have not been many rumors in the mill about them. Really the only rumor with Reynolds and Gonzalez have been that the Rockies are interested in bringing them back, in which we reported on in this article. Gonzalez has also been linked to a few teams, as we discussed in this article.

For Hanigan, there haven’t been any rumors but of all the players in this category, he actually surprises me the most. I would have thought that a team would have signed Hanigan to a minor league deal with an invite to spring training by now but, perhaps, Hanigan is asking for more (he shouldn’t, though).

But, perhaps, the person that should be kicking himself the most is former Rockies closer Greg Holland. In case you missed what the latest news is on him, check out the article below from a few days ago.

Next: An update on Greg Holland

In my mind, at this point in the offseason, I would be shocked if any of them get more than a one-year contract. The only one who may get more is Holland and if he doesn’t, it’s all because of his own doing.

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