Colorado Rockies Day 4 Quick Hits: Winter Meetings rumors and news

LAS VEGAS — As the 2018 Winter Meetings come to a close here at Mandalay Bay, the Colorado Rockies will leave Las Vegas without making a free agent acquisition or trade. In all honesty, that’s not a surprise. However, don’t be surprised if the groundwork was laid here in Sin City for a deal that could come before the New Year dawns.

Colorado Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich reminded MLB Network viewers earlier this week that the negotiations that brought closer Wade Davis to Denver were started during last year’s Winter Meetings and finalized just before the end of the calendar year. On Wednesday night, speaking to Rox Pile and other media members, Bridich said about any deal to bring a fresh face into the organization this offseason, “Maybe we’re inches closer.”

The main Rockies rumors swirling in Las Vegas involved an upgrade at first base, with Edwin Encarnacion and Carlos Santana as the two biggest names involved. However, those theories were likely blown up on Thursday morning when the Seattle Mariners and Cleveland Indians reportedly swapped those players in a trade.

With those rumors dying down, new ones sprang up involving the Rockies and the Toronto Blue Jays and a potential trade for Justin Smoak with Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post noting that has been discussed. Thomas Harding of MLB.com also reported the Rockies have “increased their attention” to free agents such as Daniel Murphy, Neil Walker and Logan Morrison.

As expected, the Rockies didn’t make any moves during Thursday morning’s Rule 5 draft. With 39 players currently on the 40-man roster, there was a thought Colorado might do something. However, with the offseason still very fluid, keeping that roster spot open allows the Rockies to sign a free agent when they’re ready.

However, Colorado lost minor league Brandon Brennan to the Mariners in the Major League phase of the Rule 5 draft. Colorado recently signed Brennan and we talked about him in this article.

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During Wednesday night’s media scrum with Bridich, I asked him about Raimel Tapia and if he believes the dynamic young outfielder has a chance to fight for playing time with the Rockies in 2019.

"“I do believe he can certainly impact us,” Bridich responded."

Tapia had just 25 at-bats last season, including none between July 25 and September 7, and just seven after that September debut. He hit just. 200 last season and posted a .259 OBP. All of this after a 2017 where he totaled 160 at-bats and put together a .262/.322/.410 slash line.

We detailed some of the mistakes that derailed Tapia’s 2018 in this article. Bridich hinted that Tapia needed to do a better job of taking advantage of his opportunities when given the chance in order to earn a bigger role.

"“Some of it has to do with opportunity with play,” Bridich said. “Some of it has to do with relaxing with whatever opportunity you have to play at the Major League level and getting the job done.”"

We’ll have more on his thoughts on Tapia, as well as other conversation topics with the Colorado general manager in the coming days here on Rox Pile.