Colorado Rockies: Jay Bruce and Randal Grichuk are not good fits

Our colleagues over at Rising Apple recently published an article saying that the best place to unload outfielder Jay Bruce is in Denver with the Colorado Rockies. Additionally, our colleagues over at Bleacher Report also published an article this week saying that Randal Grichuk would be a good fit for the Rockies. However, neither Bruce nor Grichuk are good fits for the Rockies for multiple reasons.

The Colorado Rockies have needs for multiple different positions this offseason. One of the biggest is their outfield situation. In fact, their depth in the outfield is so low at the current moment is so low that David Dahl is at the top of the depth chart in both left field and right field on MLB.com

They can address it one of two ways: free agency or the trade market.

On the free agent market, quite frankly, outside of Bryce Harper, the list of outfielders on the market is rather disappointing in a few aspects. The list does include some people including A.J. Pollock, Michael Brantley, Andrew McCutchen, Marwin Gonzalez, Nelson Cruz, Nick Markakis, Adam Jones.

All of them are good players but all of them have at least one issue or more.

That would include long injury histories (Pollock and Brantley), bad defensive metrics (Brantley, McCutchen, Jones), they are more of a DH (Cruz), or they aren’t a middle order of the bat like the Rockies need (which is all of them but Cruz).

And that’s also some of the reasons behind why Jay Bruce and Randal Grichuk are not good fits for the Rockies.

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For Bruce, he has all four things against him based on his 2018 season as he was injured for most of the season (he was out with a hip injury for two months), bad defensively (-9 DRS in the past 3 seasons) so he might be better of as a DH in the AL, and he hit .223 with 9 home runs and 37 RBI last season in 94 games. He did average 100 RBI a season for the 2016 and 2017 seasons.

For Grichuk, his main issue is his injury history. He has never played more than 132 games in a season and that’s due to an extensive injury history. In 2018, he spent a month on the DL after a knee injury and in every other year that he has spent in the major leagues, he has spent time on the disabled list. Additionally, in each of the last three seasons he has never had a batting average above .245 or an on-base percentage above .301, which is problematic if you are relying on him for improving your offense, one that was 23rd in baseball last year by OPS+.

If you’re able to get an outfielder with plus defense and plus offense, you’ve most likely got one of the best players in baseball. Even great players like Charlie Blackmon and Bryce Harper (who is on the free agent market but an unrealistic option for the Rockies considering that he turned down a 10 year contract extension for $300 million at the end of the season with the Nationals) were not good defensively at all last season (-28 DRS for Blackmon and -26 DRS for Harper).

There’s virtually no chance that a perfect guy will be acquired or signed by the Rockies (unless they decide to trade everyone and/or everything for Mike Trout). However, there are plenty of more better options than Grichuk and Bruce.

Next. The Rockies “may be long shots” to get JT Realmuto. dark

Now, the Rockies need to find the best option for the team that will help them, and if he can help them both offensively and defensively, that would be the most beneficial.

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