Top 5 players to play for the Colorado Rockies and Atlanta Braves

2. Vinny Castilla

Vinny Castilla is a Colorado Rockies legend. He was a two-time All-Star and a three-time winner of the Silver Slugger. He played three different stints with the Colorado Rockies across nine seasons. Castilla hit more than 30 home runs six times and went over 100 RBI on five occasions.

Of course, Castilla was one of the flagship Blake Street Bombers. He was the best player overall in the series against the Atlanta Braves in 1995, accumulating the monster 0.64 WPA to the Rockies ill-fated series.

It was fitting that Castilla was the best player in the series, as it was with the Atlanta Braves he got his start. Castilla was signed out of Mexico to the Atlanta Braves in 1990 and made his debut for the team the next season. Castilla was still developing when he was taken by the Rockies from the Braves in the 1992 Expansion Draft.

Castilla found his way back to the Braves for the 2002 season. Castilla was an important part of Braves’ postseason runs in 2002 and 2003, being the second-best player overall by WPA in the 2002 series despite losing the series against the Giants.

Castilla has remained part of the Colorado Rockies front office since his retirement after the 2006 season. He has remained one of the few universally liked parts of the front office.

Castilla was a legend. Very few Colorado Rockies can rank higher than him, so who is number one?

1. Andres Galarraga

Who else could top this list? Andres Galarraga was one of the most talented players to put on a Colorado Rockies uniform. This is actually the second list that Galarraga has topped, and it won’t be the last one he appears on. However, Atlanta is the non-Rockies team he did the best with. He appeared in two All-Star games for both the Braves and the Rockies, including a homecoming appearance in the 1998 All-Star Game in Denver the year he signed with the Braves, not unlike Nolan Arenado’s emotional homecoming in the 2021 All-Star Game.

Galarraga was a batting champion, two-time RBI champion, home run champion, hits and doubles leader in different seasons in his career. He hit 72 home runs and logged 221 RBI in his two seasons in Atlanta. In 1998, Galarraga recorded the highest OPS+ of his career at 157.

Galarraga was one leader of the Blake Street Bombers and helped launch the Braves into the NLCS in 1998, even being top 5 on the team in WAR for the season. He was one of the Colorado Rockies’ first superstars so, of course, he gets number one.

Note: Data for this article was found using Baseball Reference and Wikipedia