Colorado Rockies tread water at the MLB trade deadline

The 2019 trading deadline has officially passed and the Colorado Rockies have declined to make any significant moves. There are no longer any August waiver-wire trades so, for all intents and purposes, this is the Rockies team for the rest of the year.

Ultimately, the Colorado Rockies were caught in limbo between buyers and sellers and decided to stay pat rather than make a push for this year or attempt to rebuild for next year. The biggest move that the Rockies did make was the acquisition of right-handed pitcher Joe Harvey from the New York Yankees for Class A lefty Alfredo Garcia. The Rockies also acquired minor league outfielder Jimmy Herron from the Chicago Cubs in exchange for international signing bonus pool allotment.

Harvey, 27, has spent most of the year at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, where he compiled a decent 3.12 ERA with 15 walks and 38 strikeouts in 26 innings. He’s also enjoyed a short cup of coffee with the big club, throwing 10 innings in New York with a 4.50 ERA and 11/7 K/BB ratio.

Garcia, 20, has struggled to a 6.28 ERA at Class-A Asheville so far, though he has managed to strike out 103 batters in 90 innings pitched. As a note, he’s not mentioned among the Rockies top 50 prospects on any significant scouting lists.

More from Colorado Rockies News

• A Colorado Rockies Thanksgiving
• Colorado Rockies: Charlie Blackmon out for the season
• Colorado Rockies: Injuries shift look of roster ahead of Dodgers series
• Colorado Rockies: 3 things we appreciated from Tuesday in San Francisco
• What Bill Schmidt’s comments mean for the Colorado Rockies in 2023

The Rockies may have been too good too recently to justify blowing everything up at the deadline. They’ve made the playoffs in each of the last two seasons and stood as high as six games over .500 as of June 20. Since then, however, they’ve gone 10-25 and have all but doomed their chances of making the playoffs for a third straight season.

The good news is that the main core of those playoff teams will be returning next year. Arenado, Blackmon, Story, Dahl, Gray, Marquez, and most of the other key contributors will be back, and reasons for optimism include a bounce back from Kyle Freeland, full seasons from Brendan Rodgers, Peter Lambert, and Garrett Hampson, and an offseason to address any other holes.

For better or worse, the Rockies are pretty much stuck with what they have for the rest of the season. And, who knows, maybe there’s a magical 2007-style run somewhere in this team. Stranger things have happened.