What if the Colorado Rockies are buyers at the trade deadline?

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ST PETERSBURG, FLORIDA – APRIL 03: Chris Iannetta #22 of the Colorado Rockies touches home plate after hitting a homer off of Chaz Roe #52 of the Tampa Bay Rays in the 11th inning at Tropicana Field on April 03, 2019 in St Petersburg, Florida. The Rockies won 1-0. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images) /

After a rough start to the season and numerous injuries, the Colorado Rockies have played much better of late. If their current play continues, they will definitely be in contention on July 31, the date for the only trade deadline in baseball (after the elimination of the waiver trade deadline period). If they are in contention, there are a few potential areas that they could look to upgrade.

We are a month through the season and the Colorado Rockies are 11-14, which is tied for last with the San Francisco Giants in the NL West.

However, the Rockies have won 8 of their last 10 games so if they keep playing well, the Rockies very well could be buyers at the trade deadline.

Let’s take a look at some positions that they could look to improve at before the trade deadline.

Catcher

It’s no secret that the Rockies are weak at the catching position. In the first month of the season, Chris Iannetta has struggled and is currently on the injured list but Tony Wolters has improved a lot at the plate.

He has still has been below league average at the plate but it has been a vast improvement compared to last season. In fact, it has been a 41 percent improvement by OPS+.

Standard Batting
Year	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
2018	74	216	182	19	31	4	4	3	27	2	26	33	.170	.292	.286	.577	47
2019	17	56	50	3	14	6	0	0	3	0	6	7	.280	.357	.400	.757	88

According to Fangraphs, the Rockies catchers are 24th in WAR so even though Wolters has been better at the plate, they are still in the bottom third in baseball overall.

CHICAGO, IL – OCTOBER 02: Ian Desmond #20 of the Colorado Rockies grounds into fielder’s choice in the eleventh inning against the Chicago Cubs during the National League Wild Card Game at Wrigley Field on October 2, 2018 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) /

The outfield

Charlie Blackmon is finally starting to heat up a bit (.406/.457/.844 slash line in his last eight games) and David Dahl is off the injured list but the Rockies outfield is still not great.

The main guy not pulling his weight is Ian Desmond. This is not news to any Rockies fan with eyes as Ian Desmond hasn’t pulled his weight at all in his tenure with the Rockies.

Just look as his numbers in his tenure with the team.

Standard Batting
Year	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
2017	95	373	339	47	93	11	1	7	40	15	24	87	.274	.326	.375	.701	72
2018	160	619	555	82	131	21	8	22	88	20	53	146	.236	.307	.422	.729	82
2019	23	87	83	4	15	6	0	1	10	0	3	24	.181	.207	.289	.496	21

That’s not numbers that anyone should be championing as good.

None of the other 29 teams will touch his contract with a 39 1/2 foot pole so the Rockies will have to have him on the team or just release him and eat the contract.

You and I both know that will never happen so the Rockies really just need to bench him and use him as a super utility guy.

The Rockies could find plenty of guys on market to play center field (or any outfield position) for the team. After all, they can’t be as bad as Desmond has been and if they are, I doubt that the Rockies will acquire them because no other team wants to take that problem on.

The Rockies outfield as a whole is 26th in WAR in baseball.

MIAMI, FL – MARCH 30: Mike Dunn #38 of the Colorado Rockies pitches in the seventh inning against the Miami Marlins at Marlins Park on March 30, 2019 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images) /

Pitching

The Rockies rotation is probably the strongest facet of the team overall but, personally, I think that they still can use some help.

German Marquez and Jon Gray have been excellent to start the season but Kyle Freeland has regressed this year (whether it’s because his blood blister or not remains to be seen) and Tyler Anderson and Chad Bettis have left the back of the rotation with a lot of question marks. Antonio Senzatela has looked good as well but the back end of the rotation is still a bit iffy for the Rockies.

The main problem is the bullpen. The Rockies bullpen was one of the biggest disappointments in the entire sport last year and it hasn’t been good this year either.

They have been better than last year but there are a lot of guys who have been struggling in the bullpen.

Wade Davis, Bryan Shaw, and Scott Oberg each have ERA’s of 1.32 or less but Carlos Estevez, DJ Johnson, Mike Dunn, and Seunghwan Oh each have ERA’s between 4.50 and 7.11.

You can’t count rely on three guys to get outs of the bullpen all season long so this is one of the biggest areas of concern for the team.

This is part of the reason why the Rockies acquired left-handed reliever James Pazos from the Philadelphia Phillies yesterday.

DENVER, COLORADO – APRIL 19: Garrett Hampson #1 of the Colorado Rockies hits a RBI single in the sixth inning against the Philadelphia Phillies at Coors Field on April 19, 2019 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images) /

Depth

The Rockies biggest area in general is depth. When the Rockies had a decent amount of players on the mend a few weeks ago, they shouldn’t have had to start the major league service time clocks on two players.

The bench for the Rockies is less than desirable at this point as Garrett Hampson, Drew Butera, and Mark Reynolds have not looked good, particularly at the plate. Raimel Tapia has been pretty good lately but the Rockies depth pieces in Albuquerque are, in general, not good.

Pat Valaika hasn’t turned any heads and Noel Cuevas (currently on the MLB injured list after he had to be called up for one game) hasn’t been much better.

If you take a look at the Rockies depth on Roster Resource, you will see what I mean.

These depth pieces are easy to come by as they can be acquired in a trade for not a ton in return. An example of this is the aforementioned trade that the Rockies made yesterday for James Pazos. The Rockies had to trade a 2018 21st round draft pick that was playing in Single-A Asheville for Pazos.

Final Thoughts

The Rockies could easily become a formidable force if they see some improvements from these positions plus some players playing like how they are capable of (e.g. Nolan Arenado, Trevor Story, etc).

Colorado Rockies: Trying to make sense of the first four weeks. dark. Next

However, they will need to make some moves to help them get to the playoffs and advance further into the playoffs than they have recently.

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