Colorado Rockies: Three trade package ideas for Nolan Arenado

Trade 1: New York Mets

The Mets seem to pop up every time a big name player hits the block, but it’s because they play in New York and they have too many good players to not be good. Maybe it’s because they keep signing old guys to play for them. Either way, wouldn’t Nolan Arenado be a perfect guy to replace David Wright? I think so, and it puts Arenado in a huge market where he can finally get some realistic recognition for his amazingness.

The Mets are a “Nolan Arenado-type” away from contending and they could get him without crippling the organization. They have so much pitching that they can afford to get rid of some if it, meaning getting someone like Arenado back.

Plus in his career, Arenado has hit against the rest of the National League East pretty darn well. In 142 games, he has hit .287 with 33 doubles, 27 home runs, 89 RBI and 73 runs scored and has gotten on base at about a .350 clip.

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So here’s the trade…

New York Mets receive: 3B Nolan Arenado, C Tony Wolters

Colorado Rockies receive: LHP Steven Matz, 1B Peter Alonso (#58, MLB.com), LHP David Peterson, C Ali Sanchez

Steven Matz would be the biggest name coming back and he’d slot right into the rotation for Colorado. He had a relatively healthy season in 2018 that saw him make 30 starts, going 5-11 with a 3.97 ERA in 154 innings and posting 152 strikeouts. Plus he has pitched to a career 49% ground ball rate, which would play well at Coors Field, so he’d definitely be a welcome addition to the Rockies clubhouse.

Peter Alonso would be the biggest prospect the Rockies would be getting back, and if he plays anything like he did in 2018 in the minors, for the Rockies, it would be a steal. I’m going to project Alonso to be playing first base because I would assume that if Arenado is gone, then Ryan McMahon would take over at third.

Anyway, Alonso had a monster season between Double-A and Triple-A in 2018 and the splits for games in both leagues were down the middle, 67 games in Triple-A, 65 games in Double-A (132 games). The soon-to-be-24-year-old hit a combined .285/.399/.579, with 36 home runs, 119 RBI, 92 runs scored, 31 doubles, and 76 walks. The kid can rake and, on top of it, he’s a good fielder. In almost 2,000 career innings at first base, he has a .985 fielding percentage.

David Peterson is my vanity prospect for the Rockies. He does have an extremely high upside, but he’s also a Colorado kid and I remember watching him play when I was in high school. The Regis Jesuit product was drafted out of high school by the Boston Red Sox in the 28th round, but ultimately chose to attend the University of Oregon where he grew into one of the better arms in all of college baseball.

During the 2017 season, he had games of 17 strikeouts against Mississippi State and 20 strikeouts against perennial Pac-12 power Arizona State. He parlayed his 2017 season into being selected 20th overall in the 2017 MLB Draft and is the No. 6 prospect in the Mets system, according to MLB.com. In 25 career minor league starts in A and high-A, he has a career 3.14 ERA with 121 strikeouts to just 31 walks. The big lefty would be a huge get for Colorado and he would be in the big leagues fast.

Imagine a tandem of Kyle Freeland and David Peterson … Colorado kids pitching for the Rockies. Aren’t hypotheticals fun?

Ali Sanchez is a fielder. He’s a career .989 fielder in about 1,900 innings in the minor leagues behind the plate. He’s 21 years old, soon to be 22, and he projects to probably be a decent Triple-A player and could be a back-up at the Major League level. His career triple slash is .259/.314/.334 and he hasn’t played above high-A. He has some upside, but not every prospect can be Gleyber Torres.