3 trade targets from the San Diego Padres for the Colorado Rockies

It would have shocked fans of both fanbases this time last year but the Colorado Rockies and San Diego Padres are much more similar that you would think.

The Padres only finished 4.5 games ahead of the Colorado Rockies in 2021 despite being 15 games ahead of them on May 29. That swift downturn in events for the Padres led to the firing of Jayce Tingler and the hiring of Bob Melvin as manager.

Melvin is the first veteran manager that the Padres have hired since Jack McKeon literally hired himself (he was the GM of the Padres too) in 1988. Their last manager with MLB managing experience before him was Hall of Famer Dick Williams, who was hired before the 1982 season.

The Padres, despite having a great core of offensive infielders (like Fernando Tatis, Jr., Manny Machado, and Jake Cronenworth) and a good starting pitching staff, the Padres have don’t have a ton else, especially in the depth department. They had a Triple-A team that was the worst in the Triple-A West and a Double-A team that was below .500.

Does that sound familiar Rockies fans? Because it should.

But the San Diego Padres have one thing that the Colorado Rockies don’t

Despite the two franchises being very similar, the San Diego Padres have a better chance at being a playoff contender in 2022 than the Colorado Rockies. They also are different than the Rockies in one aspect: they have a much better bullpen.

With both teams being in the NL West, they are unlikely to pull off a big trade with each other. So as much as the Rockies would like to add Wil Myers to their team so he can be a right-handed Barry Bonds at Coors Field, it’s highly unlikely to happen and we are dealing with realistic (or semi-realistic) trade targets.

That’s not to say that it won’t happen (the Rockies traded their closer Huston Street to San Diego in December 2011) but that’s their only trade (not including purchases) since 1998.

Here are three bullpen trade targets the Colorado Rockies should have with the San Diego Padres.

San Diego Padres reliever Nabil Crismatt could help the Colorado Rockies bullpen woes

The Colorado Rockies did not have a great bullpen in 2021 and, frankly, it was far from it. It has been far from it for a long time. San Diego Padres reliever Nabil Crismatt could help turn that around for the Rockies.

Crismatt, 27, made his debut with the Cardinals in 2020 and only appeared in six games (3.24 ERA). But the Cardinals let him go and the Padres signed him to a minor league deal with an invite to MLB spring training.

He made the Padres Opening Day roster and he pitched very well in 45 games as a long reliever. He had a 3.76 ERA in 81 1/3 innings with a 103 ERA+ with a 4.20 FIP, a 1.365 WHIP, and an average of 2.7 walks and 7.9 strikeouts per nine innings.

Crismatt is an odd pitcher in today’s era in that he barely tops 90 MPH with his fastball, as he averaged just 90.1 MPH on his fastball in 2021. He also utilized the changeup more than any other pitcher in baseball, as he used it 52.3 percent of the time.

That changeup also induced a lot of groundballs. As Rockies fans know by now, the Rockies starting pitchers have seen good success at Coors Field with high groundball rates but the bullpen doesn’t have anybody with a high groundball rate. In 2021, Crismatt’s was 50.6 percent, which was 33rd-highest among relievers with at 50 innings pitched. The Rockies didn’t even have a reliever among the top 60.

San Diego Padres reliever Tim Hill would be a fit for the Colorado Rockies

San Diego Padres reliever Tim Hill would be a perfect fit for the Colorado Rockies in a few ways.

Hill, who turns 32 next month, would fill the left-handed reliever role well for the Rockies, as they were lacking in that department in 2021. In 2021, the Rockies only used two left-handed relievers (with the exception of four innings from Zac Rosscup): rookies Lucas Gilbreath and Ben Bowden. There were a few weeks during the season that the Rockies even went without a left-handed reliever.

Bowden had his MLB debut delayed due to the pandemic and some injuries in the minors but he did not see much success at the big league level in his first MLB season. Gilbreath, before making his MLB debut in May, had never pitched above Advanced-A ball. He was a starter there in 2019 but after shaky outings in his first half dozen appearances, he was, arguably, the Rockies best reliever in 2021.

In 2021, Hill appeared in 78 games as a left-handed specialist (59 2/3 innings) and he had an ERA of 3.62 (108 ERA+). He had a 1.24 WHIP and he averaged 3.5 walks and 8.4 strikeouts per nine innings. In 2019 and 2020, he averaged good results as well (3.90 ERA, 4.00 FIP, 119 ERA+).

Other than being a lefty, Hill would also be a fit because his groundball rate. Since 2019, it is 58.3 percent, which is 9th-highest among relievers with at least 100 innings since then.

Hill is also from the San Diego area and went to college in Oklahoma. Rockies manager Bud Black is from San Diego and still lives there in the offseason.

The Rockies have signed some players from the San Diego area in recent years due to their connection with Black in San Diego (Connor Joe, Wynton Bernard, etc.). They also have been known for their scouting and connections to Oklahoma (Matt Holliday, Jon Gray, etc.).

Our final installment of our trade targets series for the Colorado Rockies concludes with the San Francisco Giants being the final team.