Colorado Rockies Quick Hits: Dozier, LeMahieu, Minor League Coaches

It seems as if the market is finally heating up since we are past the holidays so we have some updates on the market as well as a minor league update.

Mercifully, there is roughly one month until pitchers and catchers report to spring training but there are still some players on the free agent market. Let’s rundown a few updates on them

The Washington Nationals, according to Jeff Passan of ESPN, have signed second baseman Brian Dozier to a one-year contract for $9 million. The Rockies expressed interest in Dozier, as we reported in this article earlier this week. Dozier wouldn’t have been an exact fit for the Rockies as he would have put Ryan McMahon, Garrett Hampson, and Brendan Rodgers on the bench or in the minor leagues. If they were truly interested in Dozier, you would think that they would have been able to afford the $9 million that the Nationals gave to him but as our own Kevin Henry said in this article from this morning, the Rockies might be maxed out on payroll due to numerous bad contracts being on the books, including Ian Desmond, Jake McGee, Bryan Shaw. One that he didn’t mention but I would put into that category to (at least thus far based on last season) is Charlie Blackmon.

Speaking of free agent second basemen, the market looks like it is heating up for former Rockies second baseman

DJ LeMahieu

. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic

reported this morning on Twitter

that the San Francisco Giants are interested in LeMahieu. If you take a look at the Giants depth chart on

MLB.com

, it is a bit peculiar to see them interested in LeMahieu considering that one of the only established major leaguers that they have is

Joe Panik

, a second baseman. You would think that their primary concern would be their outfield, considering that their current outfield doesn’t have a player that played more than a quarter of the season in the outfield for the Giants last year (

Steven Duggar

played 41 games in the outfield). However, Jeff Passan of ESPN

reported on Twitter

that the Giants are speaking with other teams on potential trade deals for Panik.

More from Rox Pile

In minor league news,

we reported on Tuesday

that the Rockies Triple-A and Double-A affiliates, the Albuquerque Isotopes and Hartford Yard Goats, released their coaching staffs for the 2019 season recently. Since then, the Rockies Single-A affiliate,

the Asheville Tourists

, and the Rockies Rookie affiliate, the Grand Junction Rockies, have since announced their 2019 coaching staffs. In Asheville, they will have a new “development supervisor” since their 2018 development supervisor,

Marv Foley

, after 40+ years in baseball, including the last 16 in the Rockies organization, retired. Replacing him is South Atlantic League Hall of Famer Randy Ingle, who is new to the Rockies organization. He comes from the Atlanta Braves organization, where he has been since 1978 (as a coach, player, and manager). Ingle has been a manager (between Rookie-ball and Triple-A) in the Braves system in all but 3 seasons since he became a coach in 1988. He was a special assistant in the Braves organization last season. Returning as manager for his second season is former MLB catcher

Robinson Cancel

as well as

Norberto Martin

as hitting coach (for the 3rd straight season). The Tourists will have a new pitching coach in Mark Brewer, who was the pitching coach for Hartford last season. For Grand Junction, they announced their staff in

this tweet

on Wednesday. Their development supervisor will be former MLB player

Andy Gonzalez

, their manager will be Jake Opitz, and their hitting coach will be Zach Osborne. Each of them are returning for their second season in each of those positions. They will have a newcomer at pitching coach and it will be

Blaine Beatty

. He has been a pitching coach in the Orioles organization for the past 12 seasons, with the highest position being at Double-A. He also spent parts of two seasons in the majors. You can read more about their staff

here

The only Rockies minor affiliates who haven’t publicly announced their coaching staffs for 2019 are Single-A Advanced Lancaster, Short Season-A Boise, and their two Dominican League teams. The Rockies have also not released their list of minor league coordinators for the 2019 season.

It seems as if the market is finally heating up since we are past the holidays so we have some updates on the market as well as a minor league update.

More from Rox Pile

Schedule