Colorado Rockies: Revisiting a 2018 trade proposal with the Chicago White Sox

A hypothetical trade proposal from two years ago would have been a huge steal for the Colorado Rockies had the trade actually happened.

Two years ago, Jon Heyman of MLB Network floated out some trade proposals before the trade deadline. One involved the Colorado Rockies and Chicago White Sox in a trade proposal and we discussed the trade proposal that Heyman made at the time.

Here’s what it looked like:

In retrospect, this trade would have been a huge win for the Rockies. The White Sox would have received infielder Ryan McMahon and right-handed pitcher Riley Pint.

McMahon, now 25, entered Monday hitting .211/.311/.412 with an OPS+ of 80. In his last eight games before Monday, he was hitting .167/.259/.167 with a wRC+ of 10 and in his last 24 games, he is hitting .190/.289/.405 with a wRC+ of 71.

Going back to last September, he has hit .204/.295/.408 with a wRC+ of 71. In other words, he hasn’t been hitting well for a long time. That’s partially due to his strikeout rate that is nearly 36 percent (which is in the bottom three percent in baseball) and a whiff rate that is 10 percent higher than the league average of 24.5 percent in 2020, according to Statcast.

Riley Pint, now 22, has been one of the biggest draft busts in Rockies history. In his minor league career, the former #51 overall prospect according to MLB.com has a record of 3-20 with an ERA of 5.71 and he has not been above the Single-A level. He was out for much of 2018 and 2019 with oblique and forearm injuries but his stats are some of the worst you will see, particularly with control.

In 2018, he walked 11.9 batters per nine innings and in 2019, he walked 15.8 per nine innings in a combined 26 innings between the two seasons. Previously, he walked nearly six batters per nine innings. That is a big part of why Pint has fallen from that #51 overall prospect ranking to the Rockies #29 prospect.