Colorado Rockies: The State of the franchise

The Rockies need their bullpen investments, who the Rockies front office paid over $100 million for on the free agent market last season not to mention past signings, to pull their weight.

Bryan Shaw, who the Rockies spent a minimum of $27 million on (he has a team option for 2021), pitched to an ERA (5.93) nearly double of his career prior to joining the Rockies (3.13). He did pitch much better from August through the end of the season (2.57 ERA) but by then, he had been largely relegated to a mop up role. Overall last season, he allowed three more hits per nine innings, nearly doubled his walk rate, and his home runs allowed rate multiplied by 150 percent.

Fellow free agent signing Jake McGee pitched to a 6.49 ERA in 61 games and allowed three more hits per nine innings in 2018 after he was given a minimum of $27 million for three seasons, like Shaw, along with a team option, again like Shaw.

In addition to Shaw and McGee, Wade Davis did not put numbers as good as previously seen but he fared better than the other two. He pitched to a 4.13 ERA and had 43 saves for the Rockies but from the All-Star break through the end of August, Davis had an atrocious 6.27 ERA.

Left-handed reliever Mike Dunn also signed a 3-year contract but he signed before the 2017 season and he has yet to step up in a Rockies uniform. In an injury plagued 2018 campaign, he pitched to a 9.00 ERA in 25 games. Batters hit .344/.482/.484 off of him in 2018 and he walked more than a batter per inning and allowed nearly 12 hits per nine innings last season. Due to the injuries, he never saw action after July 3.

Although he wasn’t a free agent signing, left-handed reliever Chris Rusin pitched to an ERA (6.09) that was nearly 2.5 times his 2017 ERA (2.65). His walk rate more than doubled in 2018 and he allowed more than a hit per nine innings more last season.

However, the Rockies saw other relievers step up like Scott Oberg and July acquisition Seunghwan Oh picked up a lot of slack but with the loss of reliever Adam Ottavino to the New York Yankees in free agency, the state of the bullpen is a big question mark.