Colorado Rockies: Charlie Blackmon among MLB Network’s “Top 100 Players Right Now”

After going through their Top 10 Right Now at each position, MLB Network started their Top 100 Players Right Now list this week and the Colorado Rockies had their first player on the list on Wednesday. That player was outfielder Charlie Blackmon, who was ranked 76th on the list.

Blackmon moves up a few spots on the list in comparison to last year as he was 85th on the list before the 2020 season but it is still dozens of spots down from his ranking entering 2019 when he was ranked 38th.

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In 2020, Blackmon, 34, like the Rockies, took the baseball world by storm to start the season as he hit .500/.527/.721 with a wRC+ of 220 (120 percent above league average), three home runs, and 20 RBI in his (and the team’s) first 17 games. The Rockies went 12-5 in those 17 games and they were just half a game back of the Chicago Cubs for the best record in the NL.

After that, Blackmon hit just .216/.283/.327 with a wRC+ of 44 (56 percent below league average). For the Rockies, they went 14-29 in the following 43 games, which was tied for the worst record in baseball in that span. Overall on the season, Blackmon hit .303/.356/.448 with a wRC+ of 97.

From 2015 through 2019, Blackmon was an All-Star three times, won two Silver Slugger Awards, a batting title, and ranked in NL MVP voting twice with a 26th place finish in 2016 and a 5th place finish in 2017, which was, by far, his best MLB season.

In 2017, he led the NL in plate appearances (725), runs (137), hits (213), triples (13), batting average (.331), and total bases (387). His .399 OBP was 10th in the NL and his .601 slugging percentage was 2nd in the NL, putting his 1.000 OPS at 3rd in the league. He was also third in home runs (37) and 8th in RBI (104).

In 2020, the Rockies only had three players on the list and since then, one of them is no longer with the team (Nolan Arenado, who was the highest-ranked Rockies player at number nine on the list in 2020 and number three in 2019). Rockies shortstop Trevor Story was also on the list in 2019 and 2020, ranked 30th and 21st.

Story will almost certainly be higher on the list, which will be revealed further on Thursday at 5 p.m. MT and next week as well.