Colorado Rockies: Will the bullpen be a focus of the offseason again?

Last offseason, the Colorado Rockies and general manager Jeff Bridich primarily focused on the bullpen in free agency as they added Wade Davis and Bryan Shaw to the team as well as resigning left-handed reliever Jake McGee. However, particularly with Shaw and McGee, they had some massive problems in the 2018 season. With Adam Ottavino, who stepped up to be one of the Rockies most reliable bullpen arms this past season becoming a free agent, will the bullpen still be one of the main concerns for the team this offseason?

As we saw this season, the Colorado Rockies have a few areas on the team that are a bit inconsistent in. In fact, both of the main issues were the Rockies two main issues in the playoffs. We talked about the first one a few days ago in this article but the second one is the bullpen.

In the regular season, the Rockies had a bullpen ERA of 4.62, which was 26th in baseball. Free agent signing Bryan Shaw limped to a 5.93 ERA in 61 games and fellow free agent signing Jake McGee had an ERA of 6.49 in 61 games. Both of them were left of the NLDS roster.

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Also, lefty relievers Chris Rusin and Mike Dunn struggled for much of the season both on the mound and with injuries so it is a reasonable assumption that the Rockies will either trade for or sign some free agent bullpen help.

There are plenty of relievers who will be free agents and there are some good ones too. The best of them include Boston Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel, Indians closer Cody Allen, Braves reliever Brad Brach, Nationals reliever Kelvin Herrera, Yankees reliever Zach Britton, and Indians reliever Andrew Miller.

The trade market is already underway as well even though the postseason isn’t done yet. On Wednesday, the Miami Marlins traded their best reliever, Kyle Barraclough, for international slot money.

Once the offseason actually is in full swing for all 30 teams, though, I would expect the Rockies to be active more in the trade market for relievers rather than in free agency considering how they have been burned by the signings of Shaw and McGee (and to a lesser extent, Wade Davis) thus far.