Why the Colorado Rockies are ruining their chance to keep Nolan Arenado

So when Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic reported that Nolan and the Rockies were $6 million — $6 MILLION (!) — apart in negotiations, where Nolan wanted $30 and the Rockies were offering $24 million.

Then, last week, The Denver Post‘s Patrick Saunders reported that the two sides were likely heading to a hearing, my heart sank. So when the news dropped that Nolan and the Rockies had avoided a hearing, it couldn’t have been better news. I’ve heard stories from athletes about how awful salary arbitration hearings are and how brutal they can be.

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The first one that comes to mine is the one I heard on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast that was about Colorado Avalanche star defenseman, Tyson Barrie. Barrie reportedly had a frayed relationship with former Avs coach Patrick Roy and when Barrie and the Avs went to an arbitration hearing back in 2016 it got hostile, and the team apparently ripped Barrie apart in the hearing, and Roy didn’t even really want him on the team in general.

Well, the Avalanche went against Roy’s wishes and gave Barrie a contract extension, and in turn about two weeks after Barrie signed the extension, Roy resigned. The team obviously thought of Barrie a little different than Roy did, and Roy left for more reasons than just that, but the hearing gave Roy an opportunity to bring to light the flaws of Barrie, almost making him feel unwanted.