Colorado Rockies: It’s time to sign a first baseman

3. Lucas Duda

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This one may be a little bit off the beaten path but with baseball, out of the box thinking comes in handy. Lucas Duda is a clutch guy and there’s no way to tout that. Looking at his stats from last year his batting average was low (.217), but he hit 30 home runs.

To me, it sounds like you have a guy that can swing for power but could work on his contact. The 64 RBI isn’t too shabby either, but it’s understandable to want more out of him. Duda’s time was split due to trade between the Mets and Rays, but with both teams he only had 2 errors which lead to a total of 4 in all.

I’d be reaching out to him ASAP.  I wouldn’t say the Rockies should drop a lot of money on him, but he’s worth more than some perceive. Since he’s 32 he probably has 2 good years left, but maybe have a club option in case not everything goes well. Let’s shoot for about $9.5 million for 2 years with a club option.

After all, if he can put up something similar (or better since he’d be playing half of his games at Coors Field) to what he averaged in 2014 and 2015 with the Mets (144 games, 70 runs, 30 doubles, 28 home runs, 82 RBI, a .249/.350/.483 slashline, and an OPS+ of 133, he would be well worth $9.5 million. With the OPS+, the only players on the Rockies last season who were close to that were Nolan Arenado (132 OPS+) and Charlie Blackmon (142).