Colorado Rockies: Our staff season projections and bold predictions

Noah Yingling (@NoahYingling)

As you probably know by now, the Colorado Rockies have not done a thing involving Major League free agents this offseason or pulled off a single trade. They finished 71-91 last season and they had just about everything go wrong. Daniel Murphy, Tyler Anderson, Scott Oberg, Jon Gray, David Dahl, German Marquez, and Kyle Freeland all had injuries that sidelined them for a while. Wade Davis, Jake McGee, and Bryan Shaw didn’t pitch well (again, in the case of the latter two). Kyle Freeland also regressed more than anybody could have imagined.

So a lot of things went wrong for them to go 71-91. If they are healthy, they are not going to be a 71-91 team … unless Nolan Arenado is traded during the season.

That’s been the main thing this offseason: If (and/or when) will Nolan Arenado be traded? It obviously wasn’t something that anybody would have thought we’d be talking about when he signed his extension last February but, alas, here we are. I tend to believe the reports from reputable sources (e.g. Ken Rosenthal) that an Arenado trade is “inevitable.” I do know that there is a rift between Arenado and the Rockies front office and if the Rockies are at or below .500 around Memorial Day or so, the Rockies will likely trade him.

I think that, based off of what I’ve seen, the Rockies will need too many people to bounce back and do not have enough pitching to sustain a team that will be in contention. Also, outside of Arenado, Trevor Story, Charlie Blackmon, and (a healthy) David Dahl, the Rockies have a very shaky offense. Again, as I’ve said before and have many others, the Rockies do not have a core problem; their problem is that they don’t have enough secondary talent to assist the core that they have.

Bottom line: Do I think the Colorado Rockies will win 94 games like Dick Monfort had an analytics team “interpolate?” No. Do I think that the Colorado Rockies are as bad as they were in 2019? No. Do I think that they are as good as they were in 2017 or 2018? No. Are they a playoff team as they currently constructed? No.

Record: 77-85, 4th place

Bold Prediction: Nolan Arenado will be traded before July 1st.