Colorado Rockies: 3 biggest questions ownership, front office must answer this offseason

Do the Rockies have the money (and the willingness) to trade for or sign secondary talent around their core?

It’s the age-old question that an objective observer can see: The Rockies, throughout their entire franchise’s history, have had a secondary talent/depth problem.

Sometimes, it has been on the pitching front. Sometimes, it has been offensively. Sometimes, it’s both. Honestly, the Rockies have the latter situation right now.

Have they suffered some injuries to key players? Sure. But good teams have enough depth to be able to survive it and if they don’t have that depth, they make sure that they can get some at the trade deadline.

But you still have to have secondary talent. As much as fans like to rag on Rockies GM Jeff Bridich (and for just cause, I might add), he has pulled the trigger on trades at the trade deadline in recent years. Some have worked (e.g. Kevin Pillar) and some have not (e.g. Mychal Givens, at least thus far) but if you are a true contender, you can’t address 20 roster spots at a trade deadline.

The Rockies have not seen their secondary talent, much of which is homegrown, develop. Ryan McMahon has struck out 226 times, or nearly 35 percent of his at-bats in the last two seasons. The stats say that Tony Wolters is not as good as a defender as his pitchers think he is and he’s obviously not a good offensive catcher.

David Dahl and Brendan Rodgers have had a hard time staying on the field due to injuries in the last two seasons. The Rockies have had a hard time finding a left-fielder and the advanced numbers (BABIP, OPS+, exit velocity) suggest that Raimel Tapia won’t be able to keep up his stats that he posted in the last 45 games of 2020.

The Rockies, as everyone knows, have had a hard time with their bullpen. The Rockies also have had problems with the back-end of their rotation and a problem with Jon Gray‘s injury history and consistency (he’s a free agent after 2021, too).