9 trade targets for the Colorado Rockies from the Oakland A’s

Oakland A’s third baseman Matt Chapman is an intriguing fit for the Colorado Rockies

Oakland A’s third baseman Matt Chapman would be a very intriguing fit for the Colorado Rockies. Back in November, we made the case for Chapman joining the Rockies and at the time, part of the reason why we made the case for the Rockies trading for Chapman was so that Chapman could play third base, Ryan McMahon could play second (where he was actually a better defender compared to third base in 2021) and Brendan Rodgers could play shortstop.

However, since then the Rockies said that they are mulling the thought of McMahon playing shortstop and keeping Rodgers at second base. That’s a little bit riskier since McMahon has never played shortstop but considering that second base is not his natural position but he is a defensive wizard there, he should eventually pick it up.

It might be even easier, though, if Chapman was manning third base because he has been so good over there defensively.

In 2021, he had 10 DRS and he had two in 2020 (in 36 games) but he he had 28, 23, and 15 in 2019, ’18, and ’17. In 2018 and 2019, he won the American League Platinum Glove Award. He won the Gold Glove Award in both seasons and won it in 2021 as well.

In a pinch, Chapman can also play shortstop (10 total innings played there in his MLB career but all the innings came in 2020 and 2021).

Offensively, he has regressed in each of the last three seasons, with the biggest dropoff coming in 2021, which is something that an acquiring team has to consider. However, it has still been league average or above, which would still be an upgrade over most of the current Colorado Rockies.

He is going to, roughly, get $9.5 million in arbitration so Oakland could be motivated to move him quickly after the lockout ends.