Colorado Rockies: An uncertain future lying ahead

Recently, I was sitting in my school’s library in downtown Denver and someone in my class asked me what I thought of the Colorado Rockies losing Adam Ottavino and DJ LeMahieu to the New York Yankees, and what the (you can fill in the blank as your mind wishes) is going on with Nolan?!?!

I didn’t even really think about it until right in that moment, but I said, it’s going to hurt the Colorado Rockies. That’s not a brash statement. It’s not an intelligent one either, but the facts are the facts and the facts are, the Rockies haven’t done enough this offseason (yet) to alleviate the pain that will follow these losses.

Adam Ottavino has been one of the better relievers the team has ever had, he has one of the most devastating pitches, his slider, in all of baseball and there were rumors floating around that he wasn’t even offered a contract by the Rockies. The team spent over $100 million on relief pitching last season, shelling out $54 million to Jake McGee and Bryan Shaw, and both of them signed identical contracts to the one that Ottavino signed in New York.

Yes, I understand Otto is from New York, and probably had a strong desire to return to the northeast, but it’s not like he didn’t enjoy playing here, and while Scott Oberg, who we all expect to replace Otto, had a good year, there’s no track record that says he will be the same guy entering 2019.

It was not a surprise to see DJ LeMahieu leave but he signed a smaller contract compared to what many thought he could command, and again it seemed as though the Rockies had very little interest in retaining his services, even with the rival Dodgers heavily in the mix.

I would be okay with the DJ thing if we knew who the opening day second baseman was going to be. If Brendan Rodgers was the out-and-out favorite, I wouldn’t have thought twice about DJ, but it doesn’t look like that will happen. Is it Garrett Hampson, Ryan McMahon, or maybe someone else, like Rodgers?

We don’t know, and that could be a problem for two reasons. One, defense. DJ is the reigning Gold Glove winner at second base in the National League and two of those other three options are playing out of position at second. McMahon especially. The Rockies are a team that cannot be giving up extra outs in the field, and a regression on defense at the second base position was expected with DJ’s departure, but with uncertainty at the position in general, it could be a big blow to the Rockies infield.

Second is the offense. I trust McMahon’s bat, but only if it’s playing everyday, and if Hampson and McMahon are both on the opening day roster, I don’t at all expect him to get everyday at-bats. And they likely both will be on the roster because they both deserve to be on the roster. Rodgers, I think, will be the only player at second base that will be a 145+ game player if he wins the job out of Spring Training, and that seems unlikely as of today.

The theme of the 2019 Rockies, for me, is uncertainty, and to continue with that theme, let’s see what’s going on with Nolan Arenado.

Well, after him and the Rockies came in with very different views, in terms of value, per Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic on Twitter, they will go to salary arbitration to settle what Arenado will make in 2019.

While $30 million is a pretty steep price to pay for any player, Nolan deserves it, and for the Rockies to offer $24M seemed like a slap in the face to me. Yeah, it’s a lot of money, but my goodness, if you wanna sign the guy he’s going to make $29-30M or more per season, anyways. And what’s the penny pinching all about?

It’s not like you’re trying to save money because you spent it elsewhere. You signed Daniel Murphy. That’s it.

The Rockies believe Nolan is worth $24 million, which is not a dig, but it’s much lower than what Nolan wants and Nolan wants what he would likely have gotten, maybe even less, if he were a free agent.

The Rockies need to get their priorities straight and give Arenado what he wants or darn close to it, because if this relationship, which seems rocky at the moment, gets any worse, it could be all but guaranteed that All-World talent Nolan Arenado is a goner in the next 12 months.

I think the Rockies have a good front office and have a well run organization, but there seems to be a lack of urgency this offseason. Last year, there was a sense of “we’re a good team, but we need to be better.”

And although the moves didn’t all work out, they made a valiant effort to bring guys in who were going to affect the organization in a positive manner, and this offseason I don’t feel that same urgency. This team is not good enough as is, in my opinion.

They don’t/didn’t need Bryce Harper or even A.J. Pollock, who just signed with the Dodgers, but they do need more complimentary pieces in place to round out the squad. There are question marks everywhere, and teams with question marks don’t win.

Like I said earlier, second base, bullpen depth, outfield depth, catcher, these are all things that the team is ‘hoping’ work themselves out in the long run.

They kind of did a catcher by committee last season and besides one at-bat (albeit a big one), I would say it was a failure.

The bullpen, I will say, is only a question because of the problems that presented themselves last year and this year could very well be a bounce back for a slew of arms. Shaw, McGee, Chris Rusin, Mike Dunn and even Wade Davis could be in line for big time years, and that would alleviate a humungous stain on the team if those guys were to get out of their funk.