Colorado Rockies: Will they trade David Dahl this offseason?

ESPN predicted some offseason moves for each of the 30 MLB teams and they had some interesting predictions for the Colorado Rockies.

On Friday, David Schoenfield of ESPN offered his opinion on what he thinks each MLB team will do this offseason and what he thinks they should do. For the Colorado Rockies, both of them are some interesting ideas. Let’s go through both of them

“What the Colorado Rockies could do: Sign J.T. Realmuto and a couple of relievers and try to win some baseball games”

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Well, sure, they could sign J.T. Realmuto and try to sign some relievers like Kirby Yates or Blake Treinen as mentioned in the article (or even a back-end starter like Chris Archer or J.A. Happ) but there are numerous problems with it.

1. Rockies owner and CEO Dick Monfort said, essentially, in a letter that the team will not spend much money, if at all, in the offseason.
2. The Rockies love Tony Wolters and Drew Butera as their catching duo. Even if Butera isn’t back (it’s doubtful that he doesn’t return, in my opinion), the Rockies would probably re-sign Elias Diaz or give Dom Nunez a shot. In other words, they aren’t going to sign the best catcher in baseball as a free agent.
3. Kirby Yates had season-ending elbow surgery. While he is likely to return for 2021, he also has had other injury issues. He’s great when he’s on but the Rockies might not want to take on that injury history.
4. While the Rockies starters are their biggest strength, they do need help at the back-end of the rotation. However, Chris Archer (in particular) would not be a great fit because (in the last three seasons), he has been below league average (89 ERA+) and injuries, as he missed the entire 2020 season due to having thoracic outlet syndrome surgery.

In other words, this should be more of what the Colorado Rockies “should” do, not what the Rockies “could” do.

“What ESPN’s predict the Colorado Rockies will do: Trade David Dahl and make a moderate free-agent signing or two.”

This is a particularly interesting part of it. There’s no doubt that David Dahl is one of the best offensive players the Rockies have … when he’s healthy. That’s his problem: he’s not healthy enough.

He has had season-ending injuries in each of the last two seasons as well as an extensive injury history before 2019.

If the Rockies did trade him, that would be the reason why they would trade him. Perhaps, with not consistently going between elevation and little-to-no elevation, he could have fewer injuries. However, personally, I highly doubt that the Rockies will trade him.

The “moderate” signings definitely need to come in the bullpen as it was the weakest part of the team in 2020 and even prior. However, considering how they have played in recent seasons, the Rockies need to make more moves than that to contend. Whether they have the money or the want-to to accomplish that has not been shown yet.