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Colorado Rockies rumors: Zach Britton to Denver?

By Noah Yingling |
TORONTO, ON - JULY 21: Zach Britton #53 of the Baltimore Orioles delivers a pitch in the eighth inning during MLB game action against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on July 21, 2018 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - JULY 21: Zach Britton #53 of the Baltimore Orioles delivers a pitch in the eighth inning during MLB game action against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on July 21, 2018 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)

Jon Heyman of Fan Cred Sports and MLB Network tweeted out yesterday that Baltimore Orioles reliever Zach Britton has a plethora of potential suitors for him and one of them is the Colorado Rockies.

When healthy, Zach Britton, of the Baltimore Orioles, is one of the best relievers in all of baseball. From 2014 through 2016, which is when he was fully healthy, he averaged 68 games per season, a 1.38 ERA, a 299 ERA+, a 2.40 FIP, a 0.909 WHIP, and averaging 40 saves per season.

This is the main reason why the Colorado Rockies are interested in acquiring Britton, according to Jon Heyman of Fan Cred Sports and MLB Network on Twitter yesterday.

The Colorado Rockies bullpen struggles have been well documented as they have the worst bullpen ERA in the National League at 5.18. This is all after the much hyped “super bullpen” was compiled this offseason by Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich and company. That included the signings of Bryan Shaw, Jake McGee, and closer Wade Davis.

However, Davis has been the only consistent one for the Rockies as he is the only one of the trio to have an ERA lower than 5.97 (even though Davis himself had a few blips on the radar in June).

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This season, Britton has an ERA of 3.45 in 16 games as he was recovering from right Achilles surgery in the first part of the season (you can check out the complete list of his injury history at the major league level here).

As MLB Trade Rumors noted in their article about the latest on the swirling around Britton, he has gone eight straight appearances (spanning eight innings) without yielding an earned run, but he has seen his velocity climb closer to its past levels in the process as well as as a terrific groundball rate (64.1 percent).

However, he has also walked a batter in three straight outings and has allowed 10 walks compared to 13 strikeouts in 15 2/3 innings this year.

The Orioles are reportedly asking for more than what the Royals received from the National a month ago when they traded away their closer, Kelvin Herrera. Both Herrera and Britton will both be free agents at the end of the season.

Final Thoughts

Even though the Rockies are not the only team in the mix for Britton, it is nice to see that the Rockies are in some trade rumors because the rumors have, essentially, been dormant to this point.

Next: Revisiting Colorado's future at second base

And with the non-waiver trade deadline coming up in just over a week, it will be interesting if the Rockies can get some deals done before then.

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