Colorado Rockies: Looking at the Nolan Arenado trade 6 months later

No matter what happens by the trade deadline for the Colorado Rockies, they’ve already made their biggest move of the season.

That, of course, happened on February 1 to be exact. Yes, Rockies fans are still not over trading Nolan Arenado with $50 million on top to rub a bathtub of salt in the wound. Fans will get over it one day but until then, in the spirit of the deadline, let’s take some stock on what the Rockies received in return for trading their once-in-a-generation third baseman. This is all with the grain of salt that almost nothing in return would have make it sting any less. Okay, enough about salt.

Let’s look at the Nolan Arenado trade from the Colorado Rockies point of view.

In the cinematography masterpiece Semi-Pro, Will Ferrell’s character Jackie Moon trades for Woody Harrelson to join the Flint Tropics from the Kentucky Colonels for the team’s washing machine. In February, it felt like the Rockies were the Colonels and the washing machine was looking pretty good compared to what the Colorado front office got in return. The sting was real, but the criticism was harsh. There was no way these prospects could ever live up to the hype.

However, now that we are more than halfway through the season, some of those prospects are really giving slivers of optimism.

The biggest source of that optimism right now is Austin Gomber. The burden of that trade will forever rest on Gomber’s shoulders and, to start this season, it looked like it was getting the best of him. By the time he faced his old team in St. Louis at the beginning of May, he had a 6.35 ERA with a 2-4 record. He finished the first month with a 6.65 ERA and seemingly could not find himself. His last start of April against the Giants seemed to sum up the entire first month of the season. Jeff Bridich resigned earlier that day and then the Rox lost 12-0. The cherry on top was that Arenado’s cousin, Joshua Fuentes, pitched in in mop-up duty for Gomber, who started that game. You really can’t make this up.

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Sorry, that was no glimmer of optimism. However, really everything that Gomber has done since though has. From that difficult opening month, Gomber had a 3.15 ERA in May and an astounding 1.29 ERA in June. He’s only pitched twice in July going on the IL on June 19 but he had two very solid starts pitching in a tidy 2 hours and 35 minutes Rockies win against the Mariners at Coors Field no less. He pitched well again on Wednesday against the Angels as he only gave up two runs in six innings. He’s giving this team a chance to win and that’s absolutely all you can ask from any pitcher. Gomber is proving to be dependable third arm in the rotation behind Germán Márquez and Jon Gray for however long the Rockies keep the Gray Wolf. That’s something that definitely couldn’t be said about Gomber just a few months ago.

Another source of optimism is the noise that Elehuris Montero is making for the Hartford Yard Goats. He is a third baseman, but what has been really putting Montero on the map is his bat, especially the power he possesses. He’s hitting .284 with 18 homers in 250 at-bats. Hopefully he will be promoted to Albuquerque at least by next season and we can see what he is really made of.

Next. 3 things the Colorado Rockies need to get done before the trade deadline. dark

The other names involved in the trade are SS Mateo Gil, RHP Tony Locey, and RHP Jake Sommers. The first two suit up for the Low-A affiliate Fresno Grizzlies. Sommers is in High-A with Spokane. Let’s just say all those players have a lot to work out in Single-A. But hey we’ve listed two Rockies who are doing well by the trade deadline. That’s two more than we anticipated to start the season. Maybe we can’t label it a silver lining of the Arenado trade quite yet but we’ll go with titanium or aluminum lining for now.

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