Colorado Rockies: Why former Rockies are rejecting offers

Many former Colorado Rockies are just now getting offers from other teams (or the Rockies) … and it’s mid-March. Just like with any offseason and players getting offers, some are worth more than others. When signings happen, we find out some offers that weren’t made so public when they were first offered. That’s been the pattern this offseason and during Spring Training when it comes to former Rockies players. I want to get down to why I believe this is.

As many of you may know, Jonathan Lucroy has agreed to terms with the Oakland A’s. It is rumored to be a one-year, $6.5 million deal. That’s probably not what Lucroy had in mind at all. I mean, here you have a two-time All-Star catcher with plenty of playing time left in him. He most likely didn’t expect to be on a team that probably won’t contend this year. I admit I was happy for him to have finally signed. I had even recently questioned why he hadn’t been signed yet.

However, I feel no sympathy for him after learning that in November he rejected his best offer. From which team you may ask? The Colorado Rockies. That’s right. The Rockies reportedly offered him a three-year, $21 million deal. Some journalists say this happens because of the “cruel” free-agent market (see below). In reality, it’s just players thinking they’re worth more than they are. Then, after Lucroy rejected their offer, the Rockies signed Chris Iannetta. Earlier in the offseason, I talked about how Scott Boras was killing the offseason, but these players thinking they are worth more than they are is also part of the problem.

Lucroy is not the only one to have done this to the Rockies … and eventually regretted it. Greg Holland reportedly did this as well. I even wrote an article about how he made a mistake. Let’s not forget that Scott Boras is also his agent, though I don’t know if it was Boras telling him that he could get more or if it was Holland telling himself that. Maybe it was a mixture of both, which might be the problem. We later learned that Holland reportedly rejected a three-year, $52 million deal with the Rockies.

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If that contract sounds familiar, it’s because, after this happened, the Rockies offered the same exact deal to Wade Davis as well as Bryan Shaw. This has led to the Rockies constructing a “super bullpen.”

Ironically, Holland has not received any known offers as of this writing. So it seems he thought he was worth more than the team that wanted to give him … and a lot of money and the primary closer position wasn’t good enough. It may just be me, but this free agent class just seems to keep over-shooting themselves.

Moving on to the next man, you’ll probably be surprised to hear this one … Carlos Gonzalez. Yes, the only Carlos Gonzalez we talk about on Rox Pile. I’ll go ahead and add Boras is also his agent. It was also reported that Gonzalez actually had received an even larger offer from the Rockies (see below). Once again, he thought he was worth more than the contract (three years at $45 million) he was reportedly offered. Now CarGo has a reported one-year, $8 million deal. In other words, Boras has been killing it this offseason. He always gets the best deals for his players, right?

Final Thoughts

According to reports, the Rockies were an extremely generous team in the offseason, but players from last year’s team didn’t seem to take their very respectable offers seriously. Because of this, they have taken one-year deals for a lot less money or have not been signed at all.

At first, I felt very sad that these players hadn’t gotten offers. Now, seeing these guys passed up on really good offers makes me shake my head. In my opinion, these men weren’t playing smart this offseason. I’m sure they most likely have a deep feeling of regret.

Next: The mixed emotions surrounding the return of CarGo

As for the former Rockies players who haven’t been signed yet, it will be very entertaining to see what happens. It will be even more entertaining to see what happens with the rest of Scott Boras’ clients. In the end, those players made mistakes and now they have to live with the consequences of not being on a team that will contend … and do it for a lot less money. All in all, the Rockies have a good team and made good moves this offseason. That could set up this season to be one for the history books.