How the 2019 offseason killed the Colorado Rockies-Nolan Arenado relationship

The 2020 season for the Rockies seemed to be the straw that broke the camel’s back for Arenado staying with the Rockies.

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When play finally resumes in July, Colorado starts the season 11-3 but unravels to finish with a 26-34 mark. Arenado, suffering through a shoulder injury that severely limited his offensive output, says in mid-September that, “Eight teams (out of 15) make the playoffs, and if we’re not one of those eight teams that’s not a very good sign.” The Rockies don’t make the playoffs and Arenado’s season comes to an early end because of the shoulder.

Four months later, Arenado is traded to St. Louis.

“In 2018, when we lost by a game in the division, it seemed like we were headed down the right path,” Arenado said on Tuesday. “And then the last few years, I didn’t know where it was going.”

And that’s where the Rockies frustrated Arenado enough that he asked for a trade, according to owner Dick Monfort on Tuesday. Bridich said that they “tried to honor that” by trading Arenado to St. Louis, which is a team that is the most winningest in the NL and last had a losing record in back-to-back seasons (like the Rockies did in 2019 and 2020) was in 1994 and 1995, which weren’t even full seasons due to the 1994-95 Player’s Strike.

As former MLB commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti said in 1989 after he banned Pete Rose from baseball, “it’s a sad end of a sorry episode” for Rockies fans that are having to deal with this situation and the Rockies window of contention being slammed shut. And now, the Rockies “must now live with the consequences of those acts” that were brought on by the Rockies themselves by giving Arenado an opt-out clause in his contract that he didn’t ask for or want and by not getting adequate secondary talent and depth to help Arenado and company be a playoff team for years to come. And among those consequences may be a lot of Rockies fans turning to another MLB team to support, at least until the Rockies leadership changes hands.