Colorado Rockies: One of their competitors could be rebuilding

After a terrible last half of the season in which they went 35-44 from July 1 on and an even worse 8-19 record in the month of September, the Arizona Diamondbacks have found themselves in a bit of a predicament of what their future is.

The Arizona Diamondbacks, like the Colorado Rockies and many other teams, have a few key players on their team that will soon become free agents.

For the Diamondbacks, those free agents include their ace Patrick Corbin, center fielder A.J. Pollock, third baseman Eduardo Escobar, and (potentially) their star first baseman (and perennial NL MVP candidate) Paul Goldschmidt.

The D’Backs do have a team option for $14.5 million for next season and they will almost certainly exercise it. However, they have to determine on whether or not they will rebuild/retool their team.

The D’Backs finished the season with a record of 82-80, which was 8.5 games back of the Rockies and 9.5 games back of the Dodgers so it’s not like they were close to the Rockies or Dodgers in the standings at the end.

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If they do decide to rebuild/retool, they could, conceivably, look to trade Paul Goldschmidt, who would be a free agent after the 2019 season if the D’Backs exercise their option on him.

As MLB Trade Rumors noted in this article about Goldschmidt a few days ago, he would bring the D’Backs a very good haul in a trade, especially considering that the free agent market for first basemen is fairly barren this offseason, particularly in comparison to the other positions.

It should also be noted that, according to Baseball America, the D’Backs have the 4th worst ranked farm system in all of baseball (subscription required) so, obviously, a trade would help build the D’Backs farm system.

It’s something for the D’Backs to weigh this offseason as it is obvious that the Dodgers and Rockies are much better than the D’Backs. The D’Backs also don’t have much payroll flexibility either (if any at all) as MLB Trade Rumors last week.

The Rockies could also use Goldschmidt at first base but with the Rockies and D’backs being rivals of sorts and in the same division, I would put the chances of that happening as slim to none.

Nonetheless, what the D’Backs do with Goldschmidt this offseason should be something that Rockies fans should keep an eye on in the coming weeks.