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

An arbitration hearing is something that you never hope to go through as a player, or a front office manager. Why? Because they have to potential to torch relationships. For those of you not aware of how it works, I’ll explain it in the simplest way possible.

When a player and a team cannot come to an agreement on the amount of money a player will receive in the upcoming season, they sometimes go to an arbitration hearing and each side argues what they believe they deserve and why. Well, if the team doesn’t agree with the amount the player thinks they deserve, then the only way to argue that they deserve less is to bring to light the faults of a player. Well, If that player just so happens to be the most talented player to ever wear your uniform and there was already doubt that said player may not re-sign but you want to make the best impression possible on him staying it would probably be wise to give said player what he wants, right?

Yeah, you do. The Colorado Rockies and superstar third baseman Nolan Arenado were heading towards an arbitration hearing and earlier in the offseason they appeared to be discussing, or beginning to discuss, a long-term contract extension that would keep Nolan in Denver for many years to come. And then, once arbitration eligible players started getting their money figured out, there was one player that lagged behind. That player was 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.

Another one would be St. Louis Blues defenseman Joel Edmundson also talking on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast. He went to a hearing this past summer and Blues GM told him before the hearing that everything he said was just about business and that they still wanted him, but they had to do what they had to do, which was criticize a very good player, essentially nit-picking, to win an argument.

In the history of the franchise they have gone to a hearing just four times in their history, first with pitcher Dennys Reyes in 2002, pitcher Sun-Woo Kim in 2006, closer Brian Fuentes in 2008 and catcher Wilin Rosario in 2015. Nolan did not deserve to be int his list of players in the slightest.

I’m glad the front office came to its senses and bumped their offer to Nolan, because it was starting to feel like they were more worried about having control over Nolan versus trying their hardest to let him know how much they want him to be a Rockie for life.

Initially with this all this hullabaloo over the Nolan situation, I didn’t understand what the penny pinching was all about. Because, while I’m very happy they settled with Nolan, this offseason has become a lost cause in a way. Besides adding Daniel Murphy and the recent signing of Mark Reynolds to a minors deal, where did all the money they seemed to have wanted to save go? I understand not signing DJ because the logjam at second this year will be a sight to behold without him, but it doesn’t seem like they made a huge effort on Ottavino, and I think that will hurt the team.

With the Rockies and Nolan settling at $26 million, I put together a list of the players that currently will make over $24 million, the original number the Rockies had offered, and you can see why Nolan asked for $30 in the first place. According to Spotrac.com, these are the players that are set to make equal to or greater than $24M in 2019 in terms of average annual value (AAV).

Zack Greinke SP, $34,416,667
David Price SP, $31,000,000
Miguel Cabrera IF, $31,000,000
Clayton Kershaw SP, $31,000,000
Max Scherzer SP, $30,000,000
Yoenis Cespedes OF, $27,500,000
Jon Lester SP, $25,833,333
Justin Verlander SP, $25,714,286
Felix Hernandez SP, $25,000,000
Stephen Strasburg SP, $25,000,000
Jake Arrieta SP, $25,000,000
Giancarlo Stanton OF/DH, $25,000,000
Mike Trout OF, $24,083,333
Robinson Cano IF, $24,000,000
Albert Pujols IF/DH, $24,000,000

Keep in mind, again, this is based on AAV, so this may not be the player’s exact salary for this upcoming season, but based on the contract that they signed this is the average salary.

First off, I think the biggest thing we can take out of this is that some of these contracts are incredibly bad, wow, but the most important thing is that Nolan Arenado is as valuable or more to a franchise than almost all these players save, Trout, Scherzer, Kershaw, Verlander, and maybe Price. But, besides Mike Trout, all those players on that short list are pitchers and play at most maybe 34 times a season, and Nolan has average 158 games his last four seasons.