Colorado Rockies: The six players under the most pressure in 2019

Ian Desmond
2018 stats: .236/.307/.422 (555 at-bats, -0.6 WAR)

If there is one player who took more abuse from Rockies fans last season than reliever Bryan Shaw, it’s Ian Desmond. Hey, he no longer even has his Twitter account active.

Desmond is signed through 2021 thanks to a five-year, $70 million deal inked three offseasons ago in a move that surprised many throughout Major League Baseball. Desmond was deemed to be Colorado’s first baseman of the near future. It didn’t exactly work out that way.

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Last season’s .236 average was part of a very weird year for Desmond. He hit 22 home runs (good for fourth on the team) despite having just a 21.5 percent fly ball rate. He led Major League Baseball with a 62 percent ground ball rate while leading the Rockies with 17 GIDP.

He started the season with a modified swing and continued to tinker with his mechanics throughout the year … but the ground balls and inability to hit out of the infield kept happening. He was even tabbed as perhaps the “most unpopular player in Denver” in recent history after being booed following a four-strikeout performance at Coors Field. Ouch.

Can Desmond put together an all-around solid season in 2019? Can he make it over the .200 batting average mark before June 15 this season, breaking last year’s trend? He will earn $15 million this season (one of just four current Rockies making over $10 million in 2019) so let’s hope so.