Colorado Rockies: A look at the starting pitching options on the trade market

Kevin Gausman

Kevin Gausman would be an interesting starting pitching candidate for the Rockies. If the Rockies were to acquire him, he would be the second local guy in the starting rotation, joining Kyle Freeland, as Gausman is from Centennial and graduated from Grandview High School in Aurora, which is less than 25 miles away from Coors Field.

Considering that the Baltimore Orioles are in dead last at 17-37 and, seemingly, millions of miles away from the Yankees and Red Sox in the standings, the Orioles will be sellers at the trade deadline so one of the pieces that could be moved is Gausman.

Thus far in 2018, he is 3-4 with an ERA of 4.31 and a FIP of 4.44. He has an ERA of 4.06 from 2014 through 2017, which is lighting the world on fire.

Looking at his contract situation, Gausman is still arbitration eligible through the 2020 season. He is making $5.6 million this season so, contractually, he would be fairly inexpensive.

If the Rockies were to acquire him, he would probably slide into the back end of the rotation.

Primarily because of that reason, he’s not a great match for the Rockies.

Dylan Bundy

Dylan Bundy is another Orioles starter that could be shopped on the market.

The Rockies have spoken to the Orioles about both Bundy and Gausman before as we discussed before last year’s trade deadline in early July in this article.

Bundy is 3-7 with a 4.46 ERA and a 4.74 FIP in 2018 thus far. He is striking out more than 11 per nine innings and walking less than three. His main problem is that he is allowing 2.1 home runs per nine innings, which is obviously way to high. For comparison, for the Rockies, Chris Rusin is allowing 2.1 home runs per nine innings and Jake McGee is allowing 1.9 home runs per nine innings.

For the same reasons as Gausman, he’s not a great for the Rockies, at least at this point.