Colorado Rockies: The biggest trades with their NL West rivals

He struggled in his two years in Arizona as he pitched to a 5.03 ERA in 133 games (73 1/3 innings) before playing four more seasons in the major leagues with the Seattle Mariners, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, and Chicago White Sox. He pitched in 274 games (165 innings) in his final four seasons with a 4.09 ERA (113 ERA+).

On the other side of the trade, Closser was in the minor leagues at the time and Cust had seen a cup of coffee with the Dbacks.

Closser played parts of three seasons from 2004 through 2006 with the Rockies at the major league level, taking part in 160 games and playing to a -0.3 WAR. He bounced in the minor leagues and independent ball until seeing his final action in 2012.

Cust played in three games for the World Champion Dbacks in 2001. He only played in 35 games for the Rockies in 2002 before being traded for Baltimore Orioles outfielder Chris Richard in March 2003.

Cust played a little bit with the Orioles and the Padres before breaking out with the Oakland A’s. He averaged a 125 OPS+ for the A’s from 2007-2009 until fading in 2010 and 2011, his final season in the majors.

Not a big trade between the two but it is still the biggest.

The Rockies and Los Angeles Dodgers

August 19, 1997. The Los Angeles Dodgers traded Pedro Astacio to the Colorado Rockies for Eric Young Sr.

Of the 4 teams NL teams, the Rockies and Dodgers have made the most trades. This trade, though, had the two players who meant the most to the team that acquired them.

Astacio had spent parts of six season with the Dodgers pitching to a 48-47 record with a 3.68 ERA (104 ERA+). After being traded to the Rockies, he spent part of five seasons with the team and he went 53-48 with a 5.43 ERA (102 ERA+). The Rockies traded him to Houston in 2002 for pitcher Scott Elarton. Astacio’s total WAR with the Rockies was 10.8.

For the Dodgers, they acquired Young, who had been the Rockies inaugural second baseman and for the first time, he was an All-Star and a Silver Slugger Award winner in 1996, the year prior to the trade.

The Rockies, ironically, got Young in the expansion draft in 1992 from the Dodgers so five years later, they reacquired him. He played to a 4.6 WAR for the Dodgers through the 1999 when he was traded to the Cubs to play for his old manager with the Rockies, Don Baylor.

Young returned to the Rockies after he retired as he became the club’s first base coach under his former Rockies teammate, Walt Weiss, from 2014 through the 2016 season.

The Rockies and San Diego Padres

Excluding purchases of players, the Rockies and Padres have only had four deals together and two of them were in the Rockies first season as a franchise. For the biggest deal, it is one of those two trades.

July 26, 1993–The Colorado Rockies traded a player to be named later, Brad Ausmus and Doug Bochtler to the San Diego Padres for Greg Harris and Bruce Hurst. The Colorado Rockies sent Andy Ashby (July 27, 1993) to the San Diego Padres to complete the trade.

Brad Ausmus was selected by the Rockies in the expansion draft in 1992 from the New York Yankees but before he reached the major leagues, the Rockies made this deal with the fledgling Padres. He made his debut with the Padres later in 1993 and played for the Padres, posting a 3.7 WAR until he was traded in the middle of 1996 with two others to the Detroit Tigers in exchange for catcher John Flaherty and infielder Chris Gomez.

He ended up becoming an All-Star and a 3-time Gold Glove Award winner in his 18 year career. He hung up the spikes after the 2010 season but he became the manager of the Tigers in 2014 and after one-year hiatus from managing, he is in his inaugural season as the manager of the Los Angeles Angels.

Bochtler, then a minor leaguer, made his MLB debut with the Padres in 1995 before being traded before the 1998 season. In three seasons with the Padres, he pitched to a 3.78 ERA (106 ERA+) in 151 games. He played his last major league game in 2000. Currently, he is the Padres bullpen coach.

The player to be named later that the Rockies sent to the Padres (the next day so why they couldn’t hold up the trade until the following day is a mystery) was Andy Ashby. He was selected by the Rockies in the expansion draft from the Phillies but he was awful with the Rockies to start the ’93 season as he pitched to a 8.50 ERA in 20 games (9 starts).

Once he joined the Padres, he became a key cog in their starting rotation for the rest of the decade as he pitched to a 70-62 record and a 3.60 ERA (112 ERA+) and a 22.8 WAR.

On the other hand, the Rockies did not get much. Pitcher Greg Harris, not the one who is best known for being the first switch pitcher in the modern era in a game in 1995, had been in the major leagues for the Padres since 1988 where he pitched to a 2.95 ERA (128 ERA+) but had started to fade a bit for the Padres in ’92 and early ’93. His tenure with the Rockies was awful as he went 4-20 with an ERA 6.60 in 42 games, 32 of which were starts.

Hurst, a native of Utah, was on the final leg of his career as he was 35 and had been in the majors since 1980. Long gone were the days of nearly winning the World Series MVP (if not for Bill Buckner‘s crucial error at the end of Game 6 in the 1986 World Series). Hurst had been hampered by injuries for a few seasons. He pitched in three games for the Rockies before signing with the Rangers for the 1994 campaign and retiring two months before the player’s strike wiped out the season in August.

It’s safe to say that this was not a good trade for the Rockies. Perhaps it was a good move for Ashby but the Rockies return for him, Bochtler, and Ausmus was not good.

Honorable mention: Rockies trade closer Huston Street to the Padres for minor leaguer Nick Schmidt.

The Colorado Rockies and San Francisco Giants

July 31, 1998–The Colorado Rockies traded Ellis Burks to the San Francisco Giants for a player to be named later, Darryl Hamilton and Jim Stoops. The San Francisco Giants sent Jason Brester (minors) (August 18, 1998) to the Colorado Rockies to complete the trade.

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Brester never made it to the major leagues so not much to say there and Stoops pitched in three games, all for the Rockies in September 1998 before being out of the Rockies organization by the end of the 2000 season so this is, essentially, a two-man trade to talk about.

The Rockies were trading away one of their key players for another outfielder. Burks had hit 72 home runs and 210 RBI with a .322/.389/.611 slash line and a 138 OPS+ in the previous two seasons before the trade.

In parts of five seasons with the Rockies, he posted a WAR of 12.0 and in parts of three seasons with the Giants after the trade, he posted a WAR of 8.8. After that, he played parts of three seasons in Cleveland (7.5 WAR) with his first two seasons there being the best (only 55 games in the third season). He retired after the 2004 season at the age of 39 due to injuries but he was posting a 139 OPS+ in 2002 in 138 games in his age 37 season he played well for a few seasons after he left the Rockies.

Hamilton spent exactly a calendar year in a Rockies uniform as he was traded the next July 31st to the Mets with pitcher Chuck McElroy for outfielder Brian McRae and two others. McRae played in seven games with the Rockies before being traded less than two weeks after his trade to the Rockies for a career minor leaguer so the Rockies didn’t get anything out of the trade of Hamilton. He sadly passed away in 2015 at the age of 50 as a victim of a homicide from his wife, who later killed herself.

Final Thoughts

The Rockies have not traded much in the division in the past 15 years or so that’s part of the reason why the biggest deals are from yesteryear.

Also, you can see by the results, from the Rockies perspective, why they have largely stopped doing it.