Colorado Rockies: Drawing parallels between the Rockies and Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox were the World Champs for 2018. They deserved it. They were the best team in baseball from Spring Training to Game five of the World Series, and it showed.

While the Red Sox did spend some money in free agency over the last few years, they still drafted or signed international and developed or traded for players that performed in the biggest moments. Even though they’re a massive market and have the aura of being “The Boston Red Sox,” them winning tells the little(r) guys that they don’t solely have to spend big money to win championships.

I’ll go through the players on this Red Sox team that were drafted/signed internationally/traded from the 25-man roster for the 2018 World Series.

International: Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers

Trade: Brock Holt, Joe Kelly, Chris Sale, Steve Pearce, Rick Porcello, Nathan Eovaldi, Drew Pomeranz, Eduardo Núñez, Sandy Leon, Craig Kimbrel, Ian Kinsler, Heath Hembree,

Draft: Andrew Benintendi, Jackie Bradley Jr., Christian Vazquez, Blake Swihart, Mookie Betts, Matt Barnes, Eduardo Rodriguez

Free Agents: David Price, J.D. Martinez, Ryan Brasier (minor league free agent), Mitch Moreland

Okay, yes, the Red Sox did spend big money to put this team together, but its not like the Rockies haven’t spent any money. The Red Sox, on outside of the organization free agents, have spent about $335 million (Brasier, Moreland, Martinez, Price), whereas the Rockies have only spent roughly $233 million, and that’s not including Jake McGee or Charlie Blackmon considering that they were re-signed on the free agent market or extended.

The Rockies are deep looking into 2019, and a key should be the bullpen. The team spent over $100 million on the bullpen last offseason and it almost totally flopped. Wade Davis had his ups and downs and had a decent 2018 but could still be better, but where to look in the ‘pen in right at Bryan Shaw and Jake McGee. If those two are healthy and on top of their games, the Colorado bullpen turns into a weapon versus a liability, and the stress can be taken off of the starters more.

Let’s take a look at the projected rosters for the upcoming season. Both are in fact PROJECTIONS, due to the fact that there are still some key free agents on the board.

C – Sandy Leon // Christian Vazquez

1B – Mitch Moreland
2B – Dustin Pedroia
SS – Xander Bogaerts
3B – Rafael Devers

LF – Andrew Benintendi
CF – Jackie Bradley Jr.
RF – Mookie Betts

DH – J.D. Martinez

SP – David Price // Chris Sale // Nathan Eovaldi // Rick Porcello // Eduardo Rodriguez

Bench: Eduardo Nuñez, Brock Holt, Blake Swihart, Vazquez//Leon

Bullpen: Ryan Brasier (CL), Matt Barnes, Heath Hembree, Steven Wright, Tyler Thornburg, Bobby Poyner, Carson Smith

(All Red Sox roster info was garnered from our friends at BoSox Injection and Baseball Reference.)

The Colorado Rockies

C – Chris Iannetta

1B – Daniel Murphy
2B – Brendan Rodgers // Garrett Hampson // Ryan McMahon
SS – Trevor Story
3B – Nolan Arenado

LF – David Dahl
CF – Ian Desmond
RF – Charlie Blackmon

P – Kyle Freeland // Germán Márquez // Jon Gray // Tyler Anderson // Antonio Senzatela

Bench: Ryan McMahon, Garrett Hampson, Tony Wolters, (extra outfield bat)

Bullpen: Wade Davis (CL), Bryan Shaw, Mike Dunn, Jake McGee, Scott Oberg, Chris Rusin, Chad Bettis, Harrison Musgrave

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Full disclosure as well, I expect the Rockies to add another bat before the season, so this lineup can be improved, even though it’s not bad.

The Rockies also added Dave Magadan as hitting coach who was an instrumental part of the Red Sox runs in the mid 2000s.

Basically everyone on the Red Sox had career years last season; they had everybody playing well all at the same time, nobody really seemed to get hurt the whole season, and it culminated in one of the most dominant start to finish teams we’ve seen in a long time.

The Rockies were inconsistent to say the least last season. Ian Desmond never put it all together (and he hasn’t in a Rockies uniform thus far), the expensive bullpen was a mess, the catching was atrocious at times (offensively and defensively, with the exception of Tony Wolters), and the back end of the rotation never seemed to gain their footing.

But if you’re the Rockies, you’ve got to feel good about you’re team going into 2019, and if you use your own assets, which the Rockies have plenty of, to get the players to put you over the edge (i.e. Chris Sale, Steve Pearce and Nathan Eovaldi for the Red Sox in 2018), you could be looking at the Rockies’ best chance to compete for a World Series in their history.