Colorado Rockies: Two trade proposals for Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story that won’t work

Bleacher Report recently published some trade ideas for MLB’s “most desperate buyers and sellers,” including two trade proposals involving Colorado Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado and shortstop Trevor Story.

We haven’t even reached Christmas yet but there have been numerous trade proposals that have been bandied around this offseason for Colorado Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado and shortstop Trevor Story.

Some included a former MLB general manager predicting that Nolan Arenado would be traded to the Dodgers, of all teams, by Christmas (less than 36 hours to go on that one). One of the teams that have been consistently linked to Arenado are the New York Mets. They have a new owner that didn’t lose any money due to the pandemic, a new general manager that was previously an assistant general manager in the NL West, a need at third base, the money to afford Arenado long term, and a familial connection to Arenado (his mother is from Queens, New York).

However, many of the ideas that have been, at least by your reactions on social media, not ones that Colorado Rockies fans would find endearing or helpful for the major league team in 2021 or even in 2022. Case in point, Martin Fenn’s Arenado trade idea on Bleacher Report.

The inclusion of Cano is the biggest issue with this trade. As Fenn notes, the idea of including Cano in a deal was mentioned by Jon Morosi of MLB.com. It would alleviate some of the salary that the Mets would potentially have to take on if Arenado waives his opt-out clause. But Cano was, once again, suspended for PED use so he will be suspended for the entire 2021 campaign. Davis is a major league piece but Szapucki is not major league ready.

Frankly, this proposal looks a lot like the Rockies trade with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2015 that sent Troy Tulowitzki to Toronto and that’s not a good comparison. The return ended up not panning out and the Rockies acquired Jose Reyes to take over for Tulowitzki at shortstop. Reyes’ tenure with the Rockies was tumultuous for several reasons, one of which was the Rockies were assuming his salary to balance Tulowitzki’s. In other words, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. The Rockies shouldn’t trade Arenado if that’s the return.

For Trevor Story, though, the trade idea is a bit more intriguing, mainly because of the team that would be acquiring him: the San Francisco Giants.

Here’s what the proposal looks like:

More from Rox Pile

• A Colorado Rockies Thanksgiving
• Colorado Rockies: What if Todd Helton had played football instead?
• Colorado Rockies: Charlie Blackmon out for the season
• Colorado Rockies: Injuries shift look of roster ahead of Dodgers series
• Colorado Rockies: Has Sean Bouchard earned a second look in 2023?

There are a few issues with this idea and frankly, they are big enough to be deal-breakers. First off, the Rockies would be trading in the division. While it’s not as bad as trading Arenado to the Dodgers, the Rockies would not want to be facing Trevor Story 19 times a season (at least in a regular year) for one or more seasons. Secondly, while the Giants were in the playoff hunt until the last day of the regular season in 2020, that was with a 16-team playoff. Take a look at their roster. Does that look like a team that is one move or even two moves away from being a playoff team? The answer is no.

Thirdly, the Rockies don’t want to acquire Crawford. Why? He will make nearly as much money that Story will in 2021 and isn’t even close to the player that Story is, especially offensively. The Rockies already have an offense that has performed poorly enough. They aren’t looking to get, likely, worse in that department for the same cost.

Bart is the Giants’ top prospect and MLB.com’s 11th overall prospect and the Rockies could use an upgrade behind the plate. He would, obviously, be the key component in the trade. He would be, without a doubt, the Rockies’ best offensive catcher, at least, in some time. He made his MLB debut in 2020 and struggled a bit at the plate (69 OPS+). He hadn’t played above Double-A before 2020 but part of the reason why he made his debut was that Buster Posey opted out in 2020.

Regardless, even if he had those offensive numbers for the Rockies, that would be an improvement for the Rockies offense behind the plate

Canario is likely a few years away from the major leagues himself and currently, he is the Giants’ 9th best prospect.

Overall, Bart would definitely make the Rockies hang up the phone but I think that the Giants would have to sweeten the return even more for them to trade within the division. I’m not sure the Giants would even be willing to part with Bart for, potentially, one season of Story so the likelihood that a deal happens between the two teams for Story is very low.