Colorado Rockies: The biggest trades with their NL West rivals

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.