Colorado Rockies Quick Hits: Catcher’s free agent market, Sanders

There are two items of note about the Colorado Rockies that have developed in the past day or so, one of which involves their players and one is coaching staff note.

One of the areas where the Colorado Rockies are going to look for improvement heading into the 2020 season will be at catcher. Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post reported in his most recent mailbag that the Rockies “will look at” some free agent catchers, including Martin Maldonado, Travis d’Arnaud, Yan Gomes, Robinson Chirinos, Jason Castro, and Alex Avila.

Tony Wolters was the Rockies primary catcher in 2019 and he hit .262/.337/.329 with a 64 OPS+. His offense went the way of the Rockies in 2019 as through June 20, the Rockies were 40-34 through June 20 and Wolters was hitting .311/.382/.404 through that span. From June 21, the Rockies lost three in a row en route to finishing the season going 31-57. Wolters hit .222/.300/.268.

Defensively, he did have 8 DRS but his pitch framing metrics were below average. Overall, the Rockies catching squad posted a -1.7 fWAR, which was third worst in all of baseball.

More from Rox Pile

• A Colorado Rockies Thanksgiving
• Colorado Rockies: What if Todd Helton had played football instead?
• Colorado Rockies: Charlie Blackmon out for the season
• Colorado Rockies: Injuries shift look of roster ahead of Dodgers series
• Colorado Rockies: Has Sean Bouchard earned a second look in 2023?

Coaching news

Jon Morosi of MLB.com reported Thursday evening that the Baltimore Orioles are close to hiring Anthony Sanders as their new first base coach. Sanders, 45, played for the Rockies at the Triple-A level in 2004 but after his retirement as a player after the 2006 season, Sanders decided to become a coach and he has been in the Rockies organization as a coach since the 2007 season.

Most recently, he was the Rockies minor league outfield and base running coordinator but previously, he was a hitting coach in the Rockies minor leagues and he also spent three seasons (2013-15) as the manager of the Grand Junction Rockies. Most recently, he was one of the coaches on Team USA, who is trying to qualify for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

Originally, the team was managed by Joe Girardi before he was hired as Phillies manager. One of his coaches and his former teammate, Scott Brosius, is now managing the team.

Besides Sanders, his other coaches include former Mets manager Willie Randolph, former Reds manager Bryan Price, former White Sox, Blue Jays, and Phillies bullpen coach Roly de Armas, former Padres hitting coach Phil Plantier, and former MLB player and minor league coach in the White Sox and Tigers organizations, Ernie Young.

With Sanders likely leaving, it will be another coaching position that the Rockies will have to fill, after the firing of Albuquerque manager Glenallen Hill and Hartford hitting coach Lee Stevens, among others.