The Colorado Rockies inexplicably mishandle Jon Gray yet another time

A few days ago, it was reported that the Colorado Rockies mishandled Jon Gray in two ways towards the end of the season as they offered Gray a) a lowball contract extension offer and b) they made their first offer to him during the final homestand of the season when they could have offered much earlier (and found out that he would balk at that offer earlier).

But the Colorado Rockies continue to mishandle Jon Gray as they, inexplicably, did not offer him a qualifying offer.

There’s no such thing as a bad one-year deal. But the Colorado Rockies didn’t get that memo with Jon Gray.

The Colorado Rockies announced that, at the 3 PM M.T. deadline, they only offered one qualifying offer (a one-year deal for $18.4 million) to shortstop Trevor Story, who will likely turn down the offer. They did not extend that same offer to starting pitcher Jon Gray.

Gray still, reportedly, wants to still re-sign with the Rockies and, per Thomas Harding of MLB.com, the Rockies want to still keep him.

But for the Rockies, they sure aren’t acting as they want him back.

By not offering him a deal, it seems like they were probably concerned that Gray would accept the offer. But that would not have been a bad thing. If he did accept it, the Rockies could right the wrong that they had this July and trade him to a contender. If he didn’t, they’d get something in return for him.

Instead, the Rockies didn’t trade him, dragged their feet on giving him an extension, lowballed him on said extension (and with the timing, made them learn that they were not close on a deal later than they should have), and then didn’t give him a qualifying offer. As a result, they will see nothing in return if Gray leaves the team this offseason.

If the Rockies up their low-ball offer for Gray and they do extend him, then more power to them.

But the optics of the situation are not great when all of that happens and they already have a fanbase that distrusts the front office and how they have handled things and the past (both long ago and recent past) with their best players.