Colorado Rockies: A look at some potential free agent options to DH in the near future

Lucas Duda

Like Bautista, Lucas Duda will not hit for much of an average (he hasn’t hit above .250 since 2014 and has a career average of .242) but in an average of 117 games the past two seasons, he has averaged 22 home runs and 57 RBIs with a 109 OPS+.

He only made $3.5 million last season and, like Bautista, since he hasn’t been signed yet, I’d guess that he will likely sign for less than that so he would be another cheap option.

Derek Dietrich

Derek Dietrich is much more versatile that Duda as he played every position besides pitcher, catcher, shortstop, and center field in 2018 with the Marlins. In the past two seasons, he has averaged 142 games per season with 14 HRs, 49 RBI, a .257/.332/.422 slash line, and an OPS+ of 109.

He was not good defensively in 2018 (-16 DRS, per Baseball Reference) so he might be better as a DH or a bench option to move somebody like Mark Reynolds or Daniel Murphy to the DH spot.

Carlos Gonzalez and Matt Holliday

I’m going to group both of these guys together since they are former Rockies. As you probably know, Carlos Gonzalez has not been himself the past two seasons as his OPS+ has been below league average for both of those seasons (with an improvement to 99 in 2018). But, he might be Rockies fans favorite option as we recently had this poll about the possibility of CarGo returning and the vast majority of fans would like him back.

For Matt Holliday, he only played in 25 games for the Rockies down the stretch last season but he did have an OPS+ of 116 so, perhaps, the Rockies found a diamond in the rough. He could likely be resigned on a minor league deal with an invite to spring training.