1996 Draft: What if Jimmy Rollins was drafted by the Colorado Rockies?
Our series of looking back on the Colorado Rockies and their past draft classes to see how they ended up. Thus far, we have examined the 1992, 1993, 1994, and 1995 drafts. Overall, the Rockies missed out on some Hall of Famers/future Hall of Famers but in 1995, they did draft Todd Helton, who was arguably the best player in Rockies history, regardless of how the player came to the Rockies.
In 1996, the Colorado Rockies were coming off of a playoff season, despite it only being their third season in franchise history. The 1995 Rockies, led by the Blake Street Bombers, made it to the playoffs as the NL Wild Card team (in the first season of the Wild Card since the 1994 playoffs were canceled).
In 1995, they drafted the aforementioned Todd Helton but in 1996, the Rockies had a lower draft pick due to their successful 1995 season.
So the Rockies did not have access to the top players of the class, quite frankly, it was a class that was, largely, full of duds. The Rockies had the 21st pick of the draft so let’s check out the 20 picks before the Rockies.
- Kris Benson, RHP, Pirates
- Travis Lee, 1B, Twins (didn’t sign)
- Braden Looper, RHP, Cardinals
- Billy Koch, RHP, Blue Jays
- John Patterson, RHP, Expos (didn’t sign)
- Seth Greisinger, RHP, Tigers
- Matt White, RHP, Giants (didn’t sign)
- Chad Green, OF, Brewers
- Mark Kotsay, OF, Marlins
- Eric Chávez, 3B, Oakland
- Adam Eaton, RHP, Phillies
- Bobby Seay, LHP, White Sox (didn’t sign)
- Rob Stratton, OF, Mets
- Dee Brown, OF, Royals
- Matt Halloran, SS, Padres
- Joe Lawrence, SS, Blue Jays (pick from Orioles for the free agent loss of Roberto Alomar)
- Todd Noel, RHP, Cubs
- R.A. Dickey, RHP, Rangers
- Mark Johnson, RHP, Astros
- Eric Milton, LHP, Yankees (pick from the Angels for the free agent loss of Randy Velarde)
Of those 20 picks, only Dickey and Milton were All-Stars and only Kris Benson, Milton, Mark Kotsay, Dickey, and Eric Chávez had a career rWAR above 10.
Dickey had to reinvent himself as a knuckleball pitcher, though, but he ended up being an All-Star (for the only time) and won the NL Cy Young Award in 2012.
But the Colorado Rockies pick was also above that threshold too … but he never played with them in the majors.
With the 21st overall pick of the 1996 Draft, the Colorado Rockies drafted right-handed pitcher Jake Westbrook.
Westbrook was drafted out of high school in Georgia and he signed with the Rockies. He ended up having a successful MLB career as he pitched in parts of 13 seasons from 2000 through 2013.
He accumulated a 13.1 rWAR career and he was even an All-Star in 2004 when he went 14-9 with a 3.38 ERA in 33 games (30 starts) with a league-leading five complete games.
The only problem was that Westbrook never got above Single-A with the Rockies. After the 1997 season, Westbrook was traded along with two career minor leaguers to the Montreal Expos for Mike Lansing.
Lansing was, essentially, the replacement for Eric Young, Sr. at second base for the Rockies and he was a (somewhat) local product as Lansing is from Casper, Wyoming. Later, Casper got a minor league team in 2001 and they became the Rockies Short-Season A affiliate until they relocated to Grand Junction, Colorado after the 2011 season. The stadium that they played at was Mike Lansing Field.
Westbrook was later traded from Montreal to the Yankees for Hideki Irabu and the Yankees traded him to Cleveland less than six months later for David Justice. 10 years later, Cleveland traded him to St. Louis in a three-team deal that got them Corey Kluber. Kluber won two Cy Young Awards with Cleveland so they definitely like the series of events that started with the Rockies drafting Westbrook.
After Westbrook in the first round, the only other player with a career rWAR of 10.0 or higher was Gil Meche, who had a career rWAR of 16.8 and made one All-Star team in 10 MLB seasons.
However, if the Rockies would have gone for someone who eventually went for a high second round pick, perhaps, the Rockies would have kept him.
In the second round of the 1996 Draft, the players that were drafted before the Colorado Rockies picked were outfielder Jacque Jones, outfielder Milton Bradley, and shortstop Jimmy Rollins, who was, by far, the best of three. The Philadelphia Phillies drafted Rollins with the 46th overall pick of the draft.
Rollins was drafted out of high school in the San Francisco Bay Area and he was in the majors by 2000. He spent parts of 17 years in the majors, which was highlighted by three All-Star Game selections, four Gold Glove Awards, and winning the 2007 NL MVP award.
Rollins currently is the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot for the first time this winter.
Throughout most of Rockies history, the Rockies have had decent shortstops. Walt Weiss, Troy Tulowitzki, and Trevor Story are the three best and, in fact, the latter two have been the Rockies only two Opening Day shortstops since 2007. But with Rollins, he could have helped the Rockies through their lean years of shortstop.
From 2001 (Rollins’ rookie year) up until 2007, the Rockies had five Opening Day starters at the position and none were particularly great. They included Neifi Perez (2001), Juan Uribe (2002), José Hernández (2003), Royce Clayton (2004), Clint Barmes (2005-2006).
He would have overlapped with Tulowitzki in his later years, requiring a position change for one of them but it’s something to ponder about what could have been.
In reality, the Rockies took a right-handed pitcher in the second round by the name of John Nicholson. Nicholson was traded along with Westbrook to Montreal for Mike Lansing so, in theory, it was a bit of an overpay for Lansing but Nicholson never made it above Advanced-A ball, last pitching in 1999.
In the third round of the 1996 draft, the Colorado Rockies took right-handed pitcher Shawn Chacon.
Chacon was a local product as the Rockies drafted him out of high school in Greeley, Colorado, which is about 55 miles away from Denver and he did make it to the majors and with the Rockies. He spent part of five seasons with the Rockies and part of eight in the majors. However, he did not pitch particularly well as he went 24-45 with a 5.20 ERA in 150 games (83 starts) and 35 saves.
Chacon amassed a career rWAR of 6.5 but he was the start of a trade chain that was good for the Rockies. The Rockies traded him to the Yankees in 2005 for pitcher Ramón Ramírez. Ramírez, who is best known for being on the Giants 2010 World Series Champion team, was with the Rockies until March 2008. He was traded to the Kansas City Royals for Jorge De La Rosa.
De La Rosa is the Rockies franchise leader in strikeouts (985), first in wins (86), second in games started (200), and third in rWAR for pitchers (15.5).
The only two players with a higher rWAR drafted in the third round after Chacon were infielder and future Red Sox manager Alex Cora and first baseman Nick Johnson (who primarily played with Montreal/Washington and the Yankees).
Some players that were drafted later in the draft and signed to a deal in this draft included:
- One-time All-Star third baseman Joe Crede, 5th round
- Two-time All-Star pitcher Brad Penny, 5th round
- Two-time All-Star infielder Shea Hillenbrand, 10th round
- Three-time All-Star pitcher Roy Oswalt, 23rd round
- Two-time top 10 MVP finisher DH/first baseman Travis Hafner, 31st round
Next up in our series is the 1997 Draft, where the Rockies struck out at first but later picks later bore some fruit. However, they could have had some very good players from that draft.