Colorado Rockies: The top five reasons why they should sign Trevor Bauer

2020 NL Cy Young Award winner Trevor Bauer and his agent were in Denver for a “work trip” a few days ago, which puzzled many Colorado Rockies on social media.

2020 NL Cy Young award winner Trevor Bauer and his agent, Rachel Luba were in Denver recently for a “work trip,” which fueled some speculation on social media on whether or not Bauer and Luba had a meeting with the Colorado Rockies on possibly signing him.

While we don’t officially know if they did meet or not, the Rockies could use Bauer as an integral piece for their starting rotation, as could all of the other 29 teams. As with any player, there would be some pros and cons for signing with an organization from both the player’s and team’s perspective.

While there are more than five reasons that the Rockies should sign Bauer, let’s discuss, in no particular order, the top five reasons why the Rockies should sign him.

Signing Bauer would give them more pitching depth

It’s been the Rockies main problem on the pitching front: depth. With signing him, Ryan Castellani would likely slide to the bullpen or develop more in Albuquerque as would Chi Chi Gonzalez and Antonio Santos, each of which started at least one game for the Rockies in 2020.

The Rockies have already addressed the depth issue some this offseason by acquiring Robert Stephenson for the bullpen from Cincinnati in exchange for Jeff Hoffman. They also signed Dereck Rodriguez (former Giants pitcher and son of Hall of Fame catcher Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez), selected a pitcher from the Dodgers in the Rule V draft, and traded for minor league pitcher Yoan Aybar, who can also play the outfield as well.

They still would want to address their depth more (as they say, “you can never have too much pitching”) but signing Bauer would be a good start to adding more depth.

Their starting pitching staff would be one of the best in the National League

The Colorado Rockies already have one of the better starting pitching staffs in the National League. With the addition of the 2020 Cy Young Award winner, the Rockies starting rotation would become even more of a strength.

Even the Padres, who recently acquired Blake Snell and Yu Darvish via trades in the past week, would arguably, have less of a rotation than the Rockies, partially because Mike Clevinger, who they acquired from Cleveland at the trade deadline last July, will be out for 2021 since he is having Tommy John surgery.

By ERA+ in their best season, here’s what the Rockies rotation would likely be by ERA+ in 2020 followed by their best ERA+ in a regular season.

• Bauer: 276 (his next best was in 2018 at 196)
• German Marquez: 140 (in a full season, his best was in 2018 at 125)
• Kyle Freeland: 122 (166 in 2018 )
• Jon Gray: 79 (His best was 138 in 2017 but 2019 was close behind at 134)
• Antonio Senzatela: 153 (His best in a full season is a tie between 2017 and 2018 at 108).

Just imagine if the Rockies had a rotation with those five pitching at their best. Based on what each of them have shown as their peaks and provided that they are healthy, that rotation could go toe-to-toe with any rotation in the NL and frankly, any in baseball.

It would show Arenado, Story, and the rest of the team that they want to win now

It’s common knowledge among MLB fans that the Rockies and Nolan Arenado have not been on the best of terms lately. It’s also common knowledge among fans that Arenado wants to win. He’d like for it to be in Colorado (after all, he did sign a contract extension with the Rockies) but the Rockies have not been a good team since he signed the deal. With Arenado’s opt-out clause, he and Trevor Story could be free agents at the end of the 2021 season.

With signing Bauer, it will show both Arenado and Story, as well as the rest of the roster, that the Rockies want to win and win now. That alone could be enough to keep one or both of them with the Rockies beyond 2021.

With the other players, it would be a boost for the clubhouse and their psyche as well. “Hey, our front office signed the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner. We could really do well this season.”

Speaking of…

It could make them contenders

If Bauer pitches like he has shown he can (2018 and 2020), he’s one of the best pitchers in baseball. Whether or not the Rockies make any other offseason moves, signing Bauer would automatically make them a better team. If they believe that they are contenders without Bauer, they would definitely be contenders if they did sign him.

Based on their play in last two years, it’s fair to say that they aren’t contenders right now but signing him could make them contenders. For any team to make the playoffs, you have to have all of the roster playing well so it’s not like Bauer would single-handedly get the Rockies to the playoffs but it would get them in the conversation of the Wild Card and depending on what other moves they and other teams in the NL West would make, the Rockies could even find themselves in contention for the division.

Currently, a lot would have to happen for that conversation to even take place (including signing Bauer and making other signings and or trades) but there’s no denying that, at bare minimum, it would make them a better team on paper.