Colorado Rockies podcast: Jon Gray leaves for Texas, free agent rumors, and wild cards

There has been a lot of news in the last week for free agent signings and rumors and the Colorado Rockies have not been tied to many of them. However, they have been tied to a few as former Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Jon Gray signed with the Texas Rangers over the weekend and the Rockies have been tied to outfielder Kyle Schwarber.

On this edition of the Rox Pile Rockies Report, Kevin Henry and I discuss all that and we discuss a few others things that have been in the news recently and what we think will happen soon.

Former Colorado Rockies pitcher Jon Gray signed with the Texas Rangers in a move that didn’t surprise many

We each offer our thoughts on how the Colorado Rockies completely misread the Jon Gray situation. It was handled poorly from the word “go” and now, the Colorado Rockies have nothing to show for losing Gray to the Texas Rangers.

Kyle Schwarber has also been linked to the Rockies in recent days and we talk about the Rockies construction both defensively and in the batting order with Schwarber. In 2021, he hit 32 homers with 71 RBI, a .266/.374/.554 slash line, and he had an OPS+ of 148. For a 162-game season, that pace would be 46 homers and 102 RBI.

If he could be at that pace, Schwarber would undoubtedly be the Rockies’ best power hitter … but would the Rockies use him in the middle of the order?

That could hinge on the development of some players. Will the Rockies get the Ryan McMahon of the first part of the season where he looked like he was a Home Run Derby candidate or the Ryan McMahon that (in the last half of the season or so) saw his power numbers plummet but have his on-base percentage increase by 40 points?

McMahon’s bat is one of many Wild Cards that the Rockies have in their lineup and we discuss some of those wild cards plus our thoughts on the looming lockout and how long we think it will last.

You can check out the podcast above or download it wherever you download your podcasts.