Colorado Rockies: 15 players to protect in a hypothetical expansion draft

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You may have thought I forgot about the Rockies’ best player. But I didn’t.

Notable Omissions

The biggest omission here that you’re probably thinking of is Nolan Arenado.

Think about it. How many expansion teams are going to draft a player that is making $35 million for the next two years when they aren’t going to contend anyways?

Sure, there is the possibility that the expansion team could draft him and then flip him to another team. But what if they can’t trade him? They might not get much anyways because he, technically, only has two years of control at this moment. In the event an actual expansion draft happens this year for teams to start in 2021 (highly unlikely), Arenado would have one year of control at $35 million for the season. Also, he has a full no-trade clause so he would have to approve of a trade.

For the Rockies, they would have $35 million a season to sign in free agents or extend Trevor Story (or someone else). It would be risky but, depending on the market of the expansion teams and the owners, it would be something to consider.

Other players with huge contracts wouldn’t be picked up by the teams either, like Wade Davis, Ian Desmond, Bryan Shaw, Jake McGee, or Charlie Blackmon.

Otherwise, the biggest omissions would be a Rockies catcher. However, considering that only player could leave the Rockies via the draft each round, if Tony Wolters and Dom Nunez (I doubt Elias Diaz or Drew Butera would be drafted) were to be taken, the Rockies can use one of their three more protections on the other catcher for the next round.

Most of the other top prospects aren’t close to the MLB level either so they likely wouldn’t be drafted (at least in the MLB portion). The ones that are top prospects would be protected anyway because they wouldn’t meet the MiLB service threshold (e.g. Ryan Rolison).

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