Colorado Rockies: “What if” and the starting pitcher free agents

Everyone has reported to Spring Training and games are underway … except for a few free agents we’ll get to later. Now teams are being graded on how they did in the offseason. We all know the Colorado Rockies went after guys for the bullpen and it was much-needed. They did, however, leave some questions unanswered … or perhaps they just want to fill those positions internally.

One question in particular that I had was that of starting pitching. As of now, we know that the most experienced guys in the rotation who have a spot are Jon Gray and Chad Bettis. There are still spots to fill … and there is plenty of competition for them.

Now I actually did make a hypothetical starting rotation that you can see here, but I somewhat believe maybe having a veteran arm might help the Rockies playoff push. My only reason because of the slight delay in signings of free agents. The market seemed to be revived after Yu Darvish agreed to terms with the Chicago Cubs. This leads me to analyze the current starting pitchers who are free agents.

There are three in particular I’ll be going over along with what’d it take to get them to come to Coors and how they would impact the team among many other things.

Sure, it may be a stretch to think all three (or even one for that matter) could land at Coors Field … but it’s still fun to think about, isn’t it? Let’s call it a little bit of fantasy baseball.

Jake Arrieta

Why: Jake Arrieta is one of the top free agents this year and many expected him to already be signed. Arrieta had a decent year. It wasn’t his best, but most definitely not his worst either. He had a 3.53 ERA with 163 strikeouts in 168.1 innings.

If you look past the high ERA, you have got a solid veteran pitcher who could lead the rotation. One repetitive notation with Arrieta is his workhorse mentality. That could come in handy for the Rockies. And don’t even get me started on the amount of postseason experience this man has. To be able to have a guy that’s his age (31) and put up100+ innings is something the Rockies could certainly use. The Rockies need veteran stability and perhaps Jake Arrieta is the key to that.

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Spot in the rotation: Ace. It may be an incentive for not fully meeting his asking price.

Price: Let me start by saying Arrieta’s agent is none other than Scott Boras. It’s obvious Boras has probably told Arrieta that he could get a $200 million contract. Obviously the Rockies aren’t going to shell out anything close to that amount with the regular season so close. So how much could they give him and for how many years? Maybe going with a short-term contract with the max price being around $15 million a year for two to three years is good. He’d be there the same amount of time as the relievers the Rockies signed this offseason and it’s not high risk. However, he just reportedly scoffed at a higher offer from Philadelphia.

The best thing is that Arrieta pitched at Wrigley Field, another hitter-friendly park, so he understands the importance of pitching well at home.

Lance Lynn

Why: I’ve actually done an even more in-depth article on Lance Lynn, which is right here. Leading off from that, Lynn had a good year with the Cardinals. He had a 3.43 ERA with 153 strikeouts with 11 wins in just 186.1 innings.

Once again, you have an older guy who could go on for more innings than some of these younger starters. It’s key that the Rockies have starters that are able to throw six-plus innings and hand it off to the new “super bullpen.” Lynn may be that guy.

Lynn, 30, is most likely in need of a team that can get him to the postseason as it’s been a while since the Redbirds have made it. His postseason experience could really these younger guys in the rotation when the Wild Card game rolls around. Having Lynn on this team could help the rest of the rotation and it especially would add depth to it. Due to him being an older guy, I see it as a chance to help pitching coach Steve Foster develop these younger pitchers and learn from a veteran.

Spot in the rotation: 3rd. I don’t really see Lynn as ace material. I’d put him behind Bettis, so essentially moving Bettis up to second or down to fourth and having Lynn as the mainstay third in the rotation.

Price: Lance Lynn is not a Scott Boras client, I repeat not a Boras client. That being said, last year he made $7.5 million. This year, it’s projected he is asking for around $15 million per season.

Projected Rotation Scenarios

Let’s say Arrieta was out of Colorado’s price range but they wanted to splurge on Lynn and Cobb. What would the rotation look like the potential new additions?

1. Jon Gray 

2. German Marquez/or Tyler Anderson

3. Alex Cobb/or Lance Lynn

4. Chad Bettis

5. Kyle Freeland/or Jeff Hoffman 

The spots where there are two guys could be either/or. This is only because as of now we don’t know what the actual rotation will look like for the regular season. This is merely an example of how all of the mainstay guys would fit around a potential free agent signee.

Takeaways

The Rockies spent their offseason bolstering the bullpen, but perhaps adding a veteran arm to the rotation may help. If you want to see what the rotation would look like without a veteran arm, I wrote about that here. It seems as if the baseball gods are being gracious that the top three starting pitcher free agents are still on the market. Making a move like this may solidify Colorado’s Wild Card spot or even push them past the Dodgers.

Sure, this may have been an exercise in what could be if the Rockies had ample money to spend. It could also be an exercise to show what would happen if the team went all in on pitching and didn’t have big contract decisions with DJ LeMahieu, Nolan Arenado and Charlie Blackmon coming in the next few months and offseason.

Next: What should the bullpen look like on Opening Day?

If money were no object, and with the Rockies in an ever-growing competitive division, moves like these could reinforce Colorado’s spot as a division power. Hey, they’ve already made big moves with the bullpen. Why not take the next step with the rotation?