How Nolan Arenado and the Colorado Rockies reached this critical moment

Colorado isn’t able to continue its postseason streak in 2019, falling to 71-91 on the season. Arenado spends the final two days of the season on the bench after pain in his side and back keeps him out of the lineup. He watches as the Rockies finish off a sweep the Brewers to end the season on a high note.

In his final interview of the season after the final Sunday game of the season, Arenado makes his point clear with reporters, including me, about what he has seen during the disappointing 2019 campaign.

"“From the outside looking in, it looks like there’s a lot of things that need changed,” Arenado said. “But in here, we feel like we have good players — but at the same time, we did finish pretty far away [from the playoffs] so I think it shows that we need to get better.”"

Part of “getting better” includes what Saunders says in this article was Arenado’s desire to see the Rockies improve their roster in the offseason. Arenado had reportedly felt like promises had been broken (according to the sources quoted by Saunders) after the third baseman had signed an eight-year, $260 million deal in February. Roster improvement didn’t happen as the biggest signing of the offseason (Daniel Murphy) battled an injury and DJ LeMahieu shined in New York after the Rockies didn’t re-sign him.

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Shortly after Arenado talked with us at the end of September, Rockies owner Dick Monfort said point blank to media members, “I don’t think we have a lot of flexibility next year of making some great big splash.” The rules for the offseason were set and a season of relative inactivity was just beginning. As of this writing, the Rockies were the only MLB team to have not signed a single player in the offseason to a full Major League contract.

When it comes to the offseason, there hasn’t been a big splash or even a splash at all. The water has barely rippled … and Arenado has noticed.