5 players the Colorado Rockies wish they still had on their roster

Tom Murphy

The Rockies let Tom Murphy go before the start of the 2019 season after Drew Butera made the team as back-up catcher and Murphy had a phenomenal season with the Seattle Mariners while the Rockies catching corps, once again, struggled at the plate and were league average, at best, in pitch framing and other defensive metrics.

In 2019, Murphy posted a 3.2 fWAR season in just 76 games with 7 Defensive Runs Saved and pitch-framing metrics that were above league average. He also hit .273/.324/.535 with 18 home runs and 32 RBI.

He missed all of the 2020 season since he suffered a fractured foot in Summer Training but even with that one season (a half-season, at that), he would be the Rockies best catcher right now.

DJ LeMahieu

This one is obvious. For the same length of contract and amount, which do you want: Daniel Murphy or DJ LeMahieu? The Rockies decided that they wanted to sign someone early and rather than be patient, they got Daniel Murphy who had two of the worst seasons of his MLB career. DJ LeMahieu signed with the Yankees and produced the best two seasons of his career, without question.

He was an All-Star, won a Silver Slugger, and came in 4th in AL MVP voting after hitting 26 home runs and 102 RBI (both career highs) and hitting .327/.375/.518. He also played some third and first base for the Yankees all while playing above-average defense at all three positions.

This season, he led the AL in WAR (Baseball-Reference) at 2.9. He had 10 home runs (equivalent to 32 in a full season), 28 RBI (87 in a regular-season) while leading the AL in batting average (.364), on-base percentage (.421), OPS (1.011), and OPS+ (177).

He’s a free agent once again this offseason but now, he very well could be outside of the Rockies price range.