Colorado Rockies 2003 Draft: Trading their 1st round pick a few years later pays off

We continue our series looking back on the Colorado Rockies and their draft picks. Today, we look at the 2003 Draft.

The Colorado Rockies were coming off of a dreadful 2002 season, in which their manager, Buddy Bell, was fired within the first month of the season. Hitting coach Clint Hurdle took over after the Rockies started with a 6-16 record and while they improved under Hurdle, they still went 73-89.

The Colorado Rockies of 2002 and 2003 were very similar to the 2020 and 2021 Rockies.

Much like the current era of the Colorado Rockies, the Rockies had an awful offense. Of the 22 position players that had a plate appearance with the Rockies in 2002, only four had an OPS+ above 100. Only two of those four (Todd Helton and Larry Walker) played in more than 100 games.

The pitching wasn’t any better as their ERA was dead last in the NL and they had an ERA+ of 92. However, during the 2002-2003 offseason, they were able to unload the behemoth of a contract that Mike Hampton had to the Marlins. The Marlins, in turn, traded Hampton to the Braves … where he pitched a lot better after getting out of altitude.

In return, the Rockies got catcher Charles Johnson and center fielder Preston Wilson, both of whom helped their offense. But the Rockies were still far from a contender.

As a result of their 2002 season, the Rockies got the 9th overall pick in the 2003 Draft. Ahead of their pick, there were a few good picks (Baltimore selecting Nick Markakis, Rangers selecting John Danks) but most were duds (Tampa Bay selecting Delmon Young 1st overall and the Tigers’, Royals’, and Cubs’ picks didn’t even make it to the majors).

For the Rockies, they fared better than the latter three teams with their first-round pick … but not after that.

In the first round of the 2003 Draft, the Colorado Rockies selected third baseman Ian Stewart out of high school in Westminster, California.

Stewart was up with the Rockies by the 2007 season. He became a bigger contributor to the team in 2009 and 2010, combining to play in 268 games and a 2.8 rWAR.

However, by 2011, he had fallen out of favor in Colorado as he spent the season between Triple-A and the majors. After the 2011 season, the Rockies traded Stewart and a minor leaguer to the Chicago Cubs. In return, the Rockies got outfielder Tyler Colvin … and infielder DJ LeMahieu.

Stewart floundered as he played fewer than 80 games in the rest of his MLB career but LeMahieu flourished. While with the Rockies, LeMahieu won three Gold Glove awards, was a two-time All-Star, won the 2016 NL batting title. He became a free agent after the 2018 season and joined the Yankees where he came in 4th and 3rd in AL MVP voting in 2019 and 2020.

After the pick of Stewart, the Rockies did not have a single one of their picks make it to the majors until the 19th round.

In the rest of the draft, the Rockies draft picks that signed and later made it to the majors were Ryan Mattheus (19th round) and Eric Young, Jr. (30th round). That’s it. Mattheus never even played for the Rockies. They traded him to the Nationals for reliever Joe Beimel in 2009.

Eric Young, Jr. played in parts of five seasons with the Rockies and parts of 10 in the majors, playing 651 games and 1.4 rWAR in his career.