Colorado Rockies: Looking back on three trade rumors for Nolan Arenado last offseason

Nolan Arenado to the Mets

One of them involved the Mets. The proposal would have “some combination” of Ronny Mauricio, Francisco Alvarez, Brett Baty, and Matthew Allan. Those four players are the Mets’ top four prospects, according to MLB.com and the former three are on MLB.com’s Top 100 list.

All four of them are very young (Baty is the oldest as he will turn 21 next month) and, according to MLB.com, none of the four are projected to make it to the majors until at least 2022.

Only one of the Mets’ top ten prospects has played above Single-A. For the Rockies, that would be a turn off especially if they want to retool the team quickly and the Rockies’ current regime has that M.O.

They’d love the prospects but at this point, the Rockies would be lucky to get two of those top four players.

Nolan Arenado to the Cubs

This deal is a much more straightforward deal and as a result, this deal probably has the best chance of happening but after all, the chance of any trade happening exactly how hypothetical proposals are drawn up is next to nothing.

This one involved two players: Nolan Arenado and Kris Bryant in a one-for-one swap. Rox Pile’s Kevin Larson offered up his thoughts on the trade rumor back when it was being talked about in late January, including where he would make additions to the proposal.

As the Cubs saw in 2020, they, much like the Rockies, are in desperate need of a boost in the offensive department. That was partially because Kris Bryant, like Arenado, was injured for much of the season. He tried playing through the injuries and his stats suffered because of it. He only hit .206/.293/.351 (73 OPS+) in 34 games in 2020. In the previous three seasons, his OPS+ was 133.

Perhaps, this would be the perfect offseason for both to have a change of scenery.