Colorado Rockies: Jeff Bridich’s penultimate trade may be a huge winner for years to come

The Colorado Rockies may have made a great acquisition in acquiring Robert Stephenson.

Stephenson, 28, was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the first round of the 2011 draft. In fact, Stephenson was drafted 18 spots ahead of the Rockies compensatory draft pick for losing reliever Octavio Dotel in free agency: a shortstop by the name of Trevor Story.

The Reds hoped that Stephenson would become an ace-like starting pitching for them but, due to ineffectiveness and injury, his career didn’t pan out as a starting pitcher and, then, the Reds gave up on Stephenson as a reliever.

His most effective season for the Reds was in 2019, in his first season as a full-time reliever. He appeared in 57 games and had an ERA of 3.76. He struck out more than 11 batters per nine innings and walked about three batters per nine innings.

But he was injured and ineffective in 2020 for the Reds as, in only 10 games, he had an ERA of 9.90.

The Reds and Rockies decided to make a four-player trade that would see the swap of one prospect and one struggling MLB pitcher: Stephenson and minor league outfielder Jameson Hannah to the Rockies for Jeff Hoffman and minor league pitcher Case Williams.

The Rockies reacquired Williams from the Reds in the Mychal Givens trade so the Colorado native is also back in the Rockies farm system.

Hannah and Williams could prove themselves to be good major leaguers but the Rockies have had an excellent season from Stephenson in the bullpen and they still have two more seasons before he hits free agency.

Stephenson has pitched in 43 games for the Rockies and he has an ERA of 3.57 on the season. When he faced Cincinnati at Coors in May, he had a rough two games as in a combined one inning, he allowed four hits, four runs, and walked two. Since then, Stephenson has appeared in 25 games and he has a sparkling ERA of 2.55. He is striking out more than 10.5 batters per nine innings but he walked 5.1 batters per nine innings in that span as well.

Stephenson spent six weeks on the IL due to an upper back strain in late June and July. Since his return on August 6, Stephenson has had an ERA of 2.16 ERA in 16 games. In that span, his strikeout rate has dipped slightly (9.72 K/9) but his walk rate has plummeted. In his last 16 appearances, he has a walk rate of 2.7 batters per nine innings.

Recently, Stephenson exclusively spoke with Rox Pile and one of the things he spoke about was being able to have a clean slate with the Rockies.

“Honestly, It’s been awesome having a new opportunity with the Rockies,” Stephenson said. “Coming to a new organization with a fresh set of eyes (with the coaching staff) and a new opportunity has been awesome.”

Colorado Rockies reliever Robert Stephenson also divulged on what the keys to his recent success have been.

“Honestly, it’s just trusting my stuff,” Stephenson said. “I really don’t think I’ve had that big of struggles this year at all … I had a little stretch there where I was walking guys but I’ve been pretty consistent aside from that this year.”

Stephenson said that his fastball command has been key for him as well

“I think my fastball command lately has been really good,” Stephenson added. “I’m starting to get the command back on my slider and that combination has been helping me a lot lately.”

Stephenson is also one of the veteran relievers in the Rockies bullpen. As of Tuesday, he is only one of four relievers in the Rockies who entered with three or more years of service time while five of the relievers had two or few years of service time entering 2021.

With that, Stephenson and some of the other veteran relievers, like Carlos Estévez and Jhoulys Chacín are like big brothers to some of the younger relievers, like Julian Fernandez, Lucas Gilbreath, and Ben Bowden. When Fernández was called up to pitch in the majors for the first time, Estévez was his translator since the two have known each other for a decade and both are from the Dominican Republic.

Stephenson told us how those bullpen relationships can be different from others on the team.

“We’re in the bullpen all the time,” Stephenson said, “and we probably spend more time together than any other group on the field. Being out (on the field pre-game) throwing and then, going out and spending the whole game together in the bullpen, it’s a pretty tight-knit group. I love all the guys down there. It’s a fun group to be a part of.”

With being an “older brother” down in the bullpen, Stephenson said that he tries to help some of the younger players with the adversity he has to deal with: the mental side of baseball.

“I’m (like) an older brother (to the younger relievers),” Stephenson said. “Something I like to try to help guys with is things I’ve gone through myself, which is the mental part of baseball. I think if I can help someone with that, it’s also a reminder to myself to have those same thought processes. You have a rough (outing), you have to be able to forget about it quickly. If you have a good one, you can’t get too high on it. You have to kind of be even-keeled throughout this game. It’s a long season.”

The Rockies will be ending their long season in a few days, but they may have found themselves a good reliever and veteran presence in Robert Stephenson for part of their bullpen for years to come.