Colorado Rockies: Yonder Alonso makes Daniel Murphy expendable

The Colorado Rockies called up first baseman Yonder Alonso from Triple-A Albuquerque yesterday and with the Rockies current play, it may show what they could do at the trade deadline.

After struggling at the major league level with the Chicago White Sox this season, the Rockies took a flier on Yonder Alonso on a minor-league deal just shy of two weeks ago.

Since then, in nine games in Albuquerque, Alonso hit two home runs, 12 RBI, and hit .419/.500/.774 so the Rockies called him up before Tuesday’s game to help off of the bench.

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In his first game on the Rockies roster, the Rockies dropped their 19th game out of their last 26 to drop to six games under .500.

With the trade deadline one week from today, the Rockies will likely still be under .500 by then and, potentially, sellers at the trade deadline and with Alonso’s success in the minor leagues, all of a sudden, Daniel Murphy is expendable on the trade market.

Murphy has only hit to a 93 OPS+ and played a subpar first base thus far for the Rockies so with that and his contract, the Rockies will likely not be able to get much for him but if they can get themselves out from his contract of roughly $12 million guaranteed for the rest of this year and for next year, they might decide to pull the trigger on a trade.

Also, it could be a position that could be filled internally for next year (e.g. Alonso again or Ryan McMahon) or externally on the trade market or in the free agent market.

Only time will tell if Alonso will be adequate for the Rockies at first base (offensively or defensively) but at their current rate of play, the Rockies will be well out of the Wild Card race in the near future (they are already six games back entering Wednesday).

With the success and calling up of Alonso and the Rockies recent losing skid, they have shown that Murphy is expendable but now, it’s just a matter of what other teams are willing to give for him in return.