Colorado Rockies: Four trade targets from the Tampa Bay Rays

We continue our series of trade targets from each and every MLB team for the Colorado Rockies. We have already covered the Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, and New York Yankees thus far and today, we discuss the Tampa Bay Rays. The Tampa Bay Rays, despite being a small market team, are frequently in the playoff hunt.

In each of the last four seasons, they have won 90+ games (or equivalent to in the shortened 2020 season) and from 2008 through 2013, the Rays had 90+ wins all but one season (2009, when they won 84 games).

However, they are constantly trading their players to other teams because after three seasons or so, the Rays determine that they can’t afford them so they, through trades and excellent drafting, have been able to stay fairly competitive. One of the few times in recent years where they lost a trade was in 2016, when they traded a minor league starting pitcher by the name of Germán Márquez to the Colorado Rockies for outfielder Corey Dickerson.

The two clubs have not had a trade since and from Tampa’s perspective, it’s understandable. Tampa has had some great pitching over the years and but they still would love to have Márquez in their rotation, especially since many of their starters have been injured in recent years.

But in the opposite of what that trade was, we are looking at four trade candidates from the Rays 40-man roster that the Rockies should (or could) look into acquiring from the Rays.

So let’s dive in.

Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Kevin Kiermaier would be great in center field for the Colorado Rockies

Three weeks ago, MLB Trade Rumors was looking to try and find a match for Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Kevin Kiermaier in a trade and they mentioned the Colorado Rockies as a possible fit and we offered our thoughts on the idea in this article.

As we said at the time, Kiermaier, who turns 32 in April, is the most tenured Rays player and he is entering the final season of his seven-year deal with Tampa so they could look to trade him this offseason to a) free up some payroll and b) get something in return for him

He is a fit for the Rockies because the Rockies need an outfielder and he’s one of the best defensive center fielders in baseball. He has had at least 10 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) in each full season he has been in the majors (including 2020). Having him patrol center field at Coors Field would be a Rockies pitcher’s dream.

Those defensive numbers are even more staggering when you consider that Kiermaier has only averaged 98 games per season since 2016. That is problematic as if he is having those issues at sea level every season (he hasn’t played more than 129 games in a season since 2015), how would it be any better going between sea level and altitude?

Additionally, his offense is nothing to write home about. Since the beginning of his extension (start of 2017), Kiermaier has hit .243/.307/.399 with an OPS+ of 94. Part of the reason why his offense isn’t great is that he has an extremely high groundball rate. Since 2019 among batters with at least 1000 plate appearances, Kiermaier has the third-highest groundball percentage at 55.2 percent, per FanGraphs (more on that in a little bit).

On a good team, that means he’s hitting eighth or ninth, not in the middle of the order, which is what the Rockies need, not a bottom of the order bat. They already have plenty of those.

Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Manuel Margot would also be a defensive wizard for the Colorado Rockies.

Manuel Margot has spent the last two seasons with the Tampa Bay Rays but Colorado Rockies fans probably remember him best as a member of the San Diego Padres, which is the team that originally signed him and the team that he made his MLB debut for. He played three-plus years with the San Diego Padres before the Rays acquired him before the 2020 season.

Margot, 27, is, essentially, a younger and healthier version of Kiermaier. In the last three seasons, he has hit .248/.311/.380 with an OPS+ of 91 so he is not the power bat that the Rockies are looking for.

However, like Kiermaier, he is a very good defender. Margot can play all three outfield positions but if he was with the Rockies, he would play center field because of his defense. Since 2017 (his first full season in the majors), he has 37 DRS total and at least 6 DRS in each full season (he had 3 DRS in 46 games in 2020).

Margot, again like Kiermaier, is a free agent after this coming season so the Rays may look to unload him to get some salary relief and something in return for him before free agency.

Tampa Bay Rays infielder Yandy Díaz could be an asset for the Colorado Rockies at the top of the order.

Back in October when we looked at one trade target the Colorado Rockies should look at from each team, we chose Yandy Díaz as the one Tampa Bay Rays player for a few reasons.

Díaz, 30, plays both first and third base and he has played a handful of games at other positions in the majors and minors so he would check off the versatility check box for the Rockies.

In the lineup, he would be good at the top of the lineup because he gets on base at a good clip. In 335 games in the majors between the Rays and Cleveland, Díaz has an on-base percentage of .359. For the 2021 Rockies, that would have been second-highest to C.J. Cron among players with at least 250 plate appearances.

The main two issues with him, though, are his power and defense. As we said in October, Díaz has biceps the size of Popeye, he hasn’t shown power at the MLB level. Part of that is due to his very high groundball percentage. Since 2019, his groundball percentage is 53.4 percent, according to FanGraphs. That is eighth-highest among players with at least 1000 plate appearances since then. The aforementioned Kevin Kiermaier is third and current Colorado Rockies outfielder Raimel Tapia is #1 at 59.7 percent.

Defensively, Díaz is not great, particularly at third base, which is where he would play in the field most of the time if he was with the Rockies. His best defensive spot is at first base but for the Rockies, C.J. Cron is already occupying it. Díaz could switch between first and DH with Cron but the Rockies may not be willing to do that with the DH spot, assuming it comes to the NL in 2022.