10 potential trade targets for the Colorado Rockies from the Seattle Mariners

Seattle Mariners starter Justus Sheffield could be a good starter for the Colorado Rockies

Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Justus Sheffield has already bounced around from team to team a few times in his career but, perhaps, a jump to the Colorado Rockies could help him out.

Sheffield, 25, is formerly a top prospect (as high as #43 overall entering 2019 by MLB.com) and has been traded twice in his career. He started off with Cleveland but was traded to the Yankees in 2016 for reliever Andrew Miller. The Yankees traded him to Seattle after the 2018 season for starting pitcher James Paxton.

Sheffield made his MLB debut with the Yankees in 2018 before his older brother, Jordan, who is a reliever for the Rockies but Justus has struggled a lot since making his MLB debut.

He only made three appearances (all in relief) in 2018 for the Yankees but had a 10.13 ERA. For Seattle in 2019, he split the season between Double-A, Triple-A, and the majors. He pitched well in Double-A (2.19 ERA in 12 starts) but pitched poorly at Triple-A (6.87 ERA in 13 appearances, 12 of which were starts) and in the majors (5.50 ERA in eight games, seven of which were starts).

In 2020, he was very good at the MLB level as he made 10 starts and had a 3.58 ERA. He had a 119 ERA+, a 3.17 FIP, a 1.301 WHIP, and a reduced walk rate (down from 4.5 BB/9 to 3.3 BB/9).

But in 2021, he was awful as he had a 6.83 ERA in 21 appearances (15 starts) with a high FIP (5.66), a very high WHIP (1.862), a high hit rate (11.8 H/9), a high homer rate (1.6 HR/9), a high walk rate (4.8 BB/9), and a low strikeout rate (7.1 K/9).

However, given his potential, his connection to the team through his brother, and his high groundball rate (48.9 percent), he could be a good “buy low” candidate for the Rockies.