Why aren't the Colorado Rockies getting trade conversations like the Pittsburgh Pirates?

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Apr 30, 2021; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Colorado Rockies shortstop Trevor Story (27) hits a single against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the first inning at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports /

Last weekend, Jake Crouse, who covers the Pittsburgh Pirates of MLB.com, reported that Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Ben Cherington has been peppered with more calls about Pirates players recently.

“It feels like it has picked up a little bit,” said Cherington.

But, seemingly, the Colorado Rockies aren’t getting the same number of calls and traction as the Pirates, both of which are teams that are well out of the playoff picture and have a slew of players that could be traded for players that could help future teams.

The Pirates have players like infielder Adam Frazier (who will likely be an All-Star but is a controllable piece), reliever Richard Rodriguez, reliever Chasen Shreve, and starting pitcher (and former Colorado Rockie) Tyler Anderson that could be traded soon. The Rockies have even more that could (or should) be traded like Trevor Story, C.J. Cron, Jon Gray, Mychal Givens, Daniel Bard, Charlie Blackmon, and Germán Márquez, with Márquez being the guy the Rockies certainly won’t trade but should entertain offers on.

The Rockies need to get some younger MLB-ready or close to MLB-ready players, like the Pirates did with the Josh Bell and Joe Musgrove trades to the Nationals and Padres but, outside of acquiring Austin Gomber in the Nolan Arenado deal, the Rockies have not done that.

Why aren’t we hearing more about Colorado Rockies trade conversations?

There’s a few possible answers for this question.

DENVER, CO – APRIL 2: C.J. Cron #25 of the Colorado Rockies walks off the field after the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Coors Field on April 2, 2021 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images) /

1) The Rockies aren’t having many trade conversations, if any.

Especially with the team’s impending free agents, the Rockies need to be fielding calls or making calls themselves. Are the Rockies going to extend Story, Cron, Givens, or Gray? Likely not but Gray seems to be the most likely to happen. So the Rockies need to get something out of them

The Rockies front office is in shambles after the departures of Jeff Bridich, Jon Weil, and Zach Wilson, if it wasn’t already, with there reportedly being zero communication in the front office and no new people coming in.

If there’s fewer people to talk to and 29 teams think that they are going to be dealing with owner Dick Monfort, teams might just decide not to walk on egg shells and contact another team about a similar player and acquire him instead.

2) The Rockies are having a lot of trade conversations, like the Pittsburgh Pirates but we just aren’t hearing about it.

Many other organizations like leaking things about rumors to drum up interest. “There’s a mystery team that is looking to acquire Player X from Team X” is something that you don’t often see with the Rockies, at least publicly.

Oftentimes, the mystery team is no team at all and teams just outbid themselves.

The Rockies have long known to be secretive with trade rumors and other team news to either try to maintain a competitive advantage or just to be secretive. Sometimes, that is great for teams and sometimes, it’s not.

May 17, 2021; San Diego, California, USA; Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Jon Gray (55) pitches against the San Diego Padres during the first inning at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports /

3) The Rockies have had conversations but there isn’t any traction yet because the asking price is too high.

As mentioned by Crouse regarding the Pirates, the Pirates are just in the “conversation” phase. Most teams have conversations all the time but there’s a huge difference between “conversations” and “traction.”

The traction may not be there because the Rockies asking price for their players is simply too high. The Rockies have long been known as an organization that over-values their players. Whether that’s because loyalty and/or faulty player evaluation is for you to decide but Dick Monfort said that he thought the Rockies were a team that had underperformed in 2019 and 2020 because they are “an exceptionally talented team.”

That is flat out wrong. If a team plays at 71-91 level in 2019, equivalent to a 71-91 level in 2020, and is on pace for a 67-95 pace in 2021, your team is not exceptionally talented.

Maybe the player you aren’t trying to trade isn’t going to get a boatload in return but at some point, for the impending free agents, something is better than a relatively low draft pick.

Next. The Rockies could fill a need for the Red Sox. dark

The Rockies phones should be ringing off the hook for many players and whether it is, we likely won’t know until a trade is imminent, which is unfortunate for the Rockies because, publicly, it looks like they are behind the eight-ball … once again.

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Why aren’t the Colorado Rockies getting trade conversations like the Pittsburgh Pirates?

Why aren’t we hearing more about Colorado Rockies trade conversations?

1) The Rockies aren’t having many trade conversations, if any.

2) The Rockies are having a lot of trade conversations, like the Pittsburgh Pirates but we just aren’t hearing about it.

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3) The Rockies have had conversations but there isn’t any traction yet because the asking price is too high.

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