Why this Colorado Rockies-Philadelphia Phillies trade proposal is hysterical

On Friday, Sports Illustrated had their baseball writers become an MLB general manager for the trade deadline and make one trade. Matt Martell of SI decided to be Dave Dombrowski, the GM of the Philadelphia Phillies and he wants to acquire multiple pieces from the Colorado Rockies.

The Rockies have multiple players that they should trade but, seemingly, are hesitant to trade so this deal, even before we reveal what the trade looks like, is already on thin ice, from a reality standpoint.

Here is what this flabbergasting trade proposal between the Colorado Rockies and the Philadelphia Phillies would look like.

This trade would immediately be the biggest robbery in Philadelphia Phillies history and the worst trade in Colorado Rockies history.

This is an absolutely ludicrous deal for a number of reasons.

First of all, the Rockies have said that they aren’t trading Germán Márquez. That trade return isn’t even in the conversation for getting Márquez, let alone Story or Bard, regardless of who the player to be named later (PTBNL) is.

Stott, 23, is the Phillies #2 prospect and he is MLB.com’s #100 prospect. Him being the best prospect in this deal tells you something: there’s no way it would ever happen.

Stott was the Phillies first-round pick in 2019 (19th overall) and he participated in the 2021 Futures Game at Coors Field after a phenomenal start at Advanced-A Jersey Shore. That start got him a promotion to Double-A Reading, where he hasn’t hit as well but he has still been pretty good. MLB.com projects that his MLB ETA is 2022.

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Marchan, 22, has already made his MLB debut for the Phillies as he has played in a handful of games in both 2020 and 2021. At Triple-A Lehigh Valley, though, Marchan has really struggled at the plate, hitting .197 with a .499 OPS entering Friday. He has been a good fielder but considering that MLB.com ranks his hit tool as his second-best tool and it has been awful in 2021, that’s a sign for concern. He skipped Double-A entirely and he made his MLB debut before appearing in a Triple-A game so that is likely part of the reason.

This is a start of a trade for Márquez. Throw in Phillies top prospect RHP Mick Abel (#59 overall per MLB.com) and the Phillies are in the ballpark for Márquez. By no means would that be good enough to get Márquez but the Rockies wouldn’t hang up the phone laughing in Dombrowski’s face.

The Rockies would get a compensatory pick for Story so, likely, they are looking for someone that would be in their top 10 (or top five) in their farm system because they would get a pick between the first round and the Competitive Balance Round A. So, the Rockies would be getting a pick in the high 30s in the 2022 draft.

Stott would qualify as better than that. Marchan? Perhaps.

In other words, from a Phillies perspective, this is a slam dunk deal. Sign on the dotted line and off you go. But from a Rockies perspective, there’s no way on this planet that they would do that deal with Márquez in it. They should trade Márquez because he will not be part of the Rockies next winning team but the Rockies should not trade him for that return.

Take out Márquez and the player to be named later and the Rockies would do that (the Phillies probably wouldn’t) but that is a much more reasonable trade proposal than offered by SI.