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Colorado Rockies: The 3 scariest things that can’t happen in the offseason

By Noah Yingling

MARTINSVILLE, VIRGINIA - OCTOBER 26: Detail of the helmet of Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M's Halloween Toyota, during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series First Data 500 at Martinsville Speedway on October 26, 2019 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images)
MARTINSVILLE, VIRGINIA - OCTOBER 26: Detail of the helmet of Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M's Halloween Toyota, during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series First Data 500 at Martinsville Speedway on October 26, 2019 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images) /
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Raimel Tapia of the Colorado Rockies
DENVER, COLORADO – MAY 30: Raimel Tapia #15 of the Colorado Rockies runs to second base after hitting a double in the first inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Coors Field on May 30, 2019 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images) /

They won’t acquire some position player depth

The Colorado Rockies problem for much of their franchise’s history has been that while they have major superstar positional players, they do not have any talent behind them.

The Rockies of this era, yet again, falls in this territory.

They have Nolan Arenado, Trevor Story, Charlie Blackmon, and David Dahl (when healthy). Who do they have after that?

Not much.

Offensively, there were only two players on the entire 2019 Rockies who hit better than league average besides those four guys. They were Sam Hilliard (136 OPS+ in 27 games) and Yonder Alonso (101 OPS+ in 54 games). Their next best offensive player was Ian Desmond.

He hit .255/.310/.479 with an OPS+ of 88.

Daniel Murphy and Ryan McMahon were right on his heels as they both had an OPS+ of 87.

Here’s the numbers for the other players.

Team Batting
Rk Pos Name G PA AB R H 2B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+
1 C Tony Wolters* 121 411 359 42 94 17 1 42 36 68 .262 .337 .329 .666 64
6 LF Raimel Tapia* 138 447 426 54 117 23 9 44 21 100 .275 .309 .415 .724 74
Rk Pos Name G PA AB R H 2B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+
10 UT Garrett Hampson 105 327 299 40 74 9 8 27 24 88 .247 .302 .385 .686 66
11 C Chris Iannetta 52 164 144 20 32 10 6 21 18 54 .222 .311 .417 .728 75
12 1B Mark Reynolds 78 162 135 13 23 7 4 20 22 57 .170 .290 .311 .601 47
13 CF Yonathan Daza 44 105 97 7 20 1 0 3 7 21 .206 .257 .237 .494 22
15 IF Pat Valaika 40 86 79 11 15 5 1 4 7 34 .190 .256 .316 .572 38
17 MI Brendan Rodgers 25 81 76 8 17 2 0 7 4 27 .224 .272 .250 .522 29
18 1B Josh Fuentes 24 56 55 8 12 1 3 7 1 20 .218 .232 .400 .632 49
19 C Drew Butera 16 49 43 6 7 3 0 3 4 14 .163 .229 .233 .462 13
20 C Dom Nunez* 16 43 39 4 7 3 2 4 3 17 .179 .233 .410 .643 51
21 LF Noel Cuevas 1 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 -100

Not everybody is going to be a good hitter (e.g. Tony Wolters) but if they are at least good defensively, then they at least bring something to the table. However, Wolters was the only player of this group that had more than one Defensive Run Saved.

With that, as a team, they had an OPS+ of 87. Not everybody can be a perennial MVP candidate, but it is fair to ask for mid-level talent. The Rockies had very little of that. Don’t believe me?

By bWAR, outside of Arenado, Story, and Blackmon, not a single Rockies position player had a bWAR higher than 1.5 (Ryan McMahon). Outside of those three, the rest of the Rockies position players had a bWAR of -2.7.

The World Champion Nationals had five guys with a bWAR between 1-3 (and three players with a 4.0 bWAR or higher). The AL champion Astros had 11 position players with a 1.0 bWAR or higher. Even the 2018 Rockies only had three position players in that category. The 2017 Rockies had four.

It should be obvious now: the Rockies secondary position players need a major upgrade.

And that would partially come if our overarching third topic actually happened.

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