Colorado Rockies: Looking back on the Corey Dickerson trade

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In January of 2016, the Colorado Rockies traded their young slugger Corey Dickerson to the Tampa Bay Rays for Jake McGee, with two minor leaguers trading hands as well. The move at the time was roundly criticized by the Rockies fan base, including one commentator that said it demonstrated how “out of touch the Rockies are with reality.” Looking back as we start the third season after the trade, it’s safe to say that Rox fans may have a slightly different take on the deal now.

The Trade

At the time, the Rockies were coming off a 71-91 season and had just signed outfielder Gerardo Parra – another move that mystified fans at the time. Parra was yet another outfielder – and a lefty hitter at that – when the Rockies already had too many of both of those.

Charlie Blackmon and Carlos Gonzalez had locks on two out of three outfield spots, and there were also top prospects David Dahl and Raimel Tapia ready to fight with Dickerson and Parra for playing time, and Dahl and Tapia are both left-handed hitters. Throw into the mix righties Brandon Barnes and Ryan Raburn and there just weren’t a lot of at bats to go around.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – OCTOBER 4: Corey Dickerson #6 of the Colorado Rockies celebrates a 374-foot home run to tie the game 3-3 against the San Francisco Giants with Daniel Descalso #3 in the ninth inning at AT&T Park on October 4, 2015 in San Francisco, California, during the final day of the regular season. The Rockies won 7-3. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images) /

It was clear that someone had to go, and that someone was Dickerson. He was coming off an injury-riddled 2015 that saw him hit the DL three times with a combination of plantar fascitis and fractured ribs. Despite only getting 234 at bats, Dickerson was still able to be a productive hitter, slashing .304/.333/.536 for an OPS+ of 106. His 2014 had been even better as he worked his way to a .312/.364/.567 line and a 141 OPS+ in 468 at bats.

Dickerson’s hitting was never the question. The real issue was could he handle the spacious outfield in Coors Field defensively. Pitching in Coors is hard enough with competent fielders and Dickerson had just posted a negative fielding WAR for the third year in a row. Parra, by comparison was a former Gold Glover that had posted a defensive WAR of 3.6 as recently as 2013. Though his ’14 and ’15 metrics weren’t as positive (and his ’16 numbers would be abysmal), Parra was still regarded as a significant upgrade in the field.

As much as good defense benefits a pitching staff, actually having good pitchers can help too – however, good pitchers tended to avoid Coors like it was a staph infection. The ghosts of Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle haunted all attempts to sign top pitchers outright, so the Rockies have generally had to trade for any pitching talent that came their way.

In this sense, swapping Dickerson for McGee, a hard throwing strikeout artist that had posted four straight productive seasons, made perfect sense. McGee was coming off an excellent 2015, where he posted a 2.41 ERA and 48 strikeouts in 37.1 innings and an even better 2014 where he struck out 90 in 71.1 innings. The Rockies were trading from a place of depth to shore up one of their main weaknesses in a move that actually precipitated the bullpen revolution of the coming years.

WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 12: Jake McGee and Chris Iannetta. Getty Images. /

The Throw-Ins

And then there’s the matter of those minor leaguers. Colorado sent third base prospect Kevin Padlo to Tampa Bay in exchange for a raw pitcher named German Marquez. In 2017, Padlo posted a .223/.324/.391 slash line for Tampa Bay’s High-A team, while Marquez just finished up a stellar rookie year for the Rockies. While his 4.39 ERA in 162 innings might not leap off the page at you, when put through the Coors filter, it’s actually pretty darn impressive. His ERA+, which takes his demanding home environment into account, was a robust 113 with a very solid 3/1 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Since leaving the Rockies, Dickerson has done what he’s always done: hit. He had a solid 2016 with the bat, hitting 24 homers and posting a 106 OPS+ before busting out in 2017 with 27 homers, an OPS+ of 121, and his first All-Star game invitation. Despite his usual porous defense, Dickerson accumulated 4.2 total WAR with Tampa Bay before being unceremoniously DFA’d this offseason and shipped to Pittsburgh in a cost-saving move for the rebuilding franchise.

Marquez and McGee combined for 5.0 WAR in the two years since the trade, and both of them are still with the team. Marquez won’t be a free agent until 2023 and is only making $550,000 this season, so there’s no telling what his final WAR with the team will be, but it’s sure to be higher than the 3.6 WAR that he’s accumulated so far.

PITTSBURGH, PA – APRIL 17: Wade Davis #71 of the Colorado Rockies pitches in the ninth inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park on April 17, 2018 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images) /

The Result

McGee’s contract finally expired at the end of last season, but then a funny thing happened: he re-signed with the Rockies. McGee saw that the place that no pitcher wants to come is actually not a bad place to stay – and in a sense that may be the real value of this trade.

McGee has helped to conquer some of the Coors demons that have plagued pitchers since baseball came to Colorado and his success has been part of convincing other players, like star relievers Wade Davis and Brian Shaw, to take the Coors Field challenge.

Dickerson is off to an excellent start with his new ballclub as he has a slashline, entering Wednesday, of .303/.333/.461 with one homer and 12 RBI as well as seven doubles and 10 runsand it will be fun getting to see him again now that he’s back in the NL. On the other hand, there is no DH slot with which to hide his defense, so Pittsburgh is going to have to take the good with the bad.

Next: The “inside” on how this tactic is changing the game

Meanwhile in Denver, the Rockies are coming off their first postseason berth in a decade, fueled in large part by the arms brought in by a trade that doesn’t look so out of touch today.

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Colorado Rockies: Looking back on the Corey Dickerson trade

The Trade

The Throw-Ins

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The Result

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