Colorado Rockies: 5 interesting Winter Meetings quotes from Jeff Bridich

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SAN DIEGO — On Monday night, members of the press covering the Colorado Rockies (including myself) had the opportunity to spend roughly 45 minutes with general manager Jeff Bridich.

The conversation covered a multitude of topics involving the Colorado Rockies, ranging from last season’s “juiced baseballs” to who could be catching or pitching for the Rockies on 2020’s Opening Day just down the street at Petco Park when Colorado visits the San Diego Padres.

During our conversation with Colorado’s GM, I made notes on some of the more interesting quotes I heard as well as some explanation of what they might mean. In this article, I’ll list five of the ones that jumped out at me.

Let’s start with this one…

“We’ve been fairly aggressive in the reliever market over the last few years. So I think we all can agree it’s led to mixed results. So I think we feel like we have at this point a lot of bodies in our bullpen mix and we have a lot of talented people. Some of those talented people need to do their jobs. So that is a stronger case for us than going out and being aggressive on the reliever market, free agent wise.”

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Translation: This isn’t the first time we’ve heard this offseason that some members of the Rockies need to do their jobs better. That includes high-priced relievers such as Wade Davis, Bryan Shaw and Jake McGee. The “super bullpen” that never materialized has to come together in order to give Colorado a chance at the postseason in 2020. Of course, that is assuming none of them are traded in the offseason (knowing their contract situations, that will be tough).

Colorado is going to rely primarily on the bodies they have in house this year in their bullpen. The Rockies may still make some minor pitching moves (as we saw earlier on Monday) but don’t expect a big deviation in the roster before the spring.

DENVER, CO – JULY 15: Nolan Arenado #28 of the Colorado Rockies fields a ground ball at third base in the first inning during game two of a doubleheader against the San Francisco Giants at Coors Field on July 15, 2019 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images) /

“Especially now, November-December-January, there’s a lot of, ‘Hey, look. If you’d ever think about … I don’t know what your goals are. I’m not going to tell you what you should do, but if you guys ever get to a point where you think the right thing is to move a Trevor Story, you think the right thing is to move a Nolan Arenado, you think the right thing is move Charlie Blackmon, you think the right thing is to move [German] Marquez….’ Cherry pick, you know, the best players on the team … ‘Make sure we’re a part of that conversation. Don’t leave us out. Don’t just go do something crazy without us.’ “Typically with those guys, we don’t start those conversations.”

Translation: Teams are always going to ask about players and the direction of a franchise. Does it mean the Rockies are trading any of their core players any time soon? Absolutely not, but you would be naive to think that teams aren’t putting in their feelers for “what ifs” and “what might happens” down the road.

Bridich went on to say that, “I can’t sit here and so, ‘No, never, ever.’ Some of this stuff started back at the Trade Deadline and it’s kind of ongoing.” This is where the rumors are generated. Can he definitely say he would never trade any of his core players? No. Does that mean he is actively shopping them? No.

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 10: Stephen Vogt #21 of the San Francisco Giants hits a two-run single in the bottom of the first inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Oracle Park on September 10, 2019 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images) /

“We are continuing that process. We were involved in the Stephen Vogt operation. It didn’t go our way. So, there are very much present and continuing efforts towards that on both fronts, free agency and trade.”

Translation: Yes, Rockies fans, the team is actively checking out potential options at catcher. We have learned that Vogt was in the mix before being signed by Arizona to a one-year deal.

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What else did we learn about Colorado’s catching pursuit? Bridich confirmed that the team has kept in contact with Drew Butera (as we predicted in this article) but he also said they were not very involved in discussions for Omar Narvaez, who was traded from Seattle to Milwaukee.

So what exactly at the Rockies looking forward in a second catcher? Bridich said…

“We need catchers who are dedicated to the pitch care, care of the pitchers. In tune and willing to devote themselves to that. That’s high on the list. That’s where we try to thread that needle of defensive abilities and interest in a brain that works back there and offensive potential.”

We will see who they land, but it’s once again been made very clear that the team is looking for someone else to pair with Tony Wolters behind the plate.

“That doesn’t mean we ignore Major League free agents and that definitely doesn’t mean we ignore trade possibilities with other teams. Or waiver claim possibilities with other teams. There is no perfect equation or set of variables in an equation that is going to let us know how a pitcher is going to do at Coors Field. A lot of it, I think, is what goes on between the ears.”

Translation: Bridich was asked about the importance of having a pitcher come up through Colorado’s farm system and be prepared for pitching at altitude. His last sentence is very telling. Sometimes it boils down to the mental side of the game as much as the physical side.

Colorado Rockies

Colorado’s GM likes what he has in Kyle Freeland, German Marquez and Jon Gray. He also likes that the group does this…

And you have a young group like that that can literally grow together and challenge each other and make each other better. There’s value in that, too.

Can Peter Lambert and Antonio Senzatela be part of this young group that makes an impact on the mound in a big way? The Rockies are betting on it. And they’re betting on it more than spending money on someone to come in from outside and try to figure out the difference in pitching in Denver versus somewhere much closer to sea level.

“For us, we are at some point going to have to figure out if it’s better for that 13th position player, is it better to go with a younger grouping of guys that we’ll rotate through. Is it better to go with a veteran off the bench who maybe can do a little bit less positionally, or the skill set is different than the outfielders and infielders that we can rotate through depending on what our needs are for an upcoming series, or upcoming week or month or whatever. Those are the sort of questions that we’re talking about now.”

Translation: With the changes in the active roster next season and the Rockies (and other MLB teams) adapting to having 13 position players and 13 pitchers on the roster, what will Colorado do in two regards?

First, the Rockies won’t be allowed to have more than 13 pitchers on the roster. That means Bud Black and his staff may have to think more about bullpen usage in some high-scoring games in order to keep pitchers active for upcoming games. If a position player goes down, the Rockies can’t sneak an extra arm into the mix as they have at previous times.

Second, what purpose will that 13th position player serve? In the past, the Rockies have had a power bench bat (think Matt Holliday in 2018) who had a limited role. But knowing Colorado’s love of “versatility,” does this open the door for players such as Garrett Hampson who can plug in at multiple positions defensively. Will Colorado choose to have a big bat over versatility? It’s a question that will be interesting to see answered in spring training.

Next. Colorado's personal link to a big charity auction. dark

There will be plenty more to come from San Diego and some of the things we discussed with Bridich so stay tuned for more articles coming soon.

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