@MarkKnudson41
The past year that was – and wasn’t – provided a roller coaster ride for fans of all kinds of sports all over the world. The Colorado Rockies were certainly not immune. While the on field results were actually a little better than expected the year as a whole was not one any Rockies fan will ever look back on fondly. There was some good, some bad…and some really ugly.
Three Good things: 1) The best moment of the 2021 season involved Coors Field, but not necessarily the Rockies themselves. Major League Baseball decided to remove the All-Star Game from Atlanta in response to that state’s passage of new restrictive voter laws. That left hosting duties up for grabs, and the non-controversial state of Colorado won out. Given relatively short notice from an event-planning perspective, the Rockies pulled it off flawlessly. Shortstop Trevor Story, smack dab in the midst of a subpar season, took advantage of the opportunity to participate in the Home Run Derby and did himself and the franchise proud. Rockies pitcher German Marquez tossed a one-two-three inning as well.
2) Another plus during the season was the play of new first baseman C J Cron, the lone free agent signee to make an impact for Colorado this season. Cron led the team with 28 home runs and 92 runs batted in. After the disaster of the Daniel Murphy years, Cron played solid defense and perhaps most importantly, posted a Wins Above Replacement of +3.4…which is roughly five points higher than the cumulative WAR of the half dozen free agents the Rockies signed between 2018-2020.
3) The farm system produced the final positive of this threesome. After a long wait, infielder Brendon Rodgers finally emerged from the injured list and made an impact on the field. The highly touted prospect became a staple at second base, hitting .284 with 15 homers and 51 RBI. He also had a positive WAR (+1.4) for the first time in his young career. There’s reason to be optimistic about his future.
(A quick honorable mention to Rockies Manager Bud Black, who was supposed to skipper a team to a 100-loss season. Instead, the Rockies won 73 games and surpassed all expectations. Black got some well deserved Manager of the Year votes.)
Three Bad things: 1) The Rockies continued to be a front office without much definition. General Manager Jeff Bridich “stepped down” at the end of April, ending a tumultuous tenure that included the alienation of the team’s best player, Nolan Arenado, and a series of free agent signings that turned out to be disastrous, both on the field and for the team’s bottom line. These are the kinds of mistakes that a mid-market franchise like the Rockies can’t just throw money at to fix. Even though he helped get Colorado to consecutive play-off appearances for the only time in franchise history, the Bridich tenure will not be looked back on favorably.
2) After Bridich departed, long time Director of Scouting Bill Schmidt took over on an interim basis. Given the tenuous nature of his position, it wasn’t a surprise that Schmidt stayed low key, and didn’t make any big moves. But the front office’s lack of action at the trade deadline – when they had the opportunity to trade Story and starting pitcher Jon Gray, both of whom had expiring contracts – was a big time blunder. Instead, Gray departed as a free agent to the Texas Rangers, with the Rockies getting absolutely nothing in return, and Story is expected to sign a hefty free agent contract when the current lockout ends. The Rockies hope to get a compensatory draft pick in return for their All-Star shortstop.
3) Not to pile on Schmidt – who was named as the full time GM shortly before the end of the season – but his first media appearance after getting the gig was really…bad. Schmidt told the media, “We’re not the Dodgers. We’re the Colorado Rockies. We scout, draft and develop.”
The glaring problem with that statement is that the Dodgers are one of, it not THE best organization in baseball at drafting and developing players. During Schmidt’s tenure as Scouting Director, LA has routinely produced more impactful players from their farm system than any other team. They have lapped the Rockies in this area. So that kind of comparison rang hollow then, and it sounded a lot like excuse making for the immediate future. A bad look.
The Uglies: 1) The botched trade of future Hall of Famer Nolan Arenado in February was a low point in franchise history. Almost exactly two years after Arenado signed a mega-contract extension with the Rockies, thereby establishing him as the cornerstone around which future contending teams would be built, then-GM Bridich and Rockies ownership pushed him out the front door and on his way to St. Louis.
The worst part was the club’s claim that it was Nolan that didn’t want to be a Rockie long-term. Yes, the superstar third baseman was unhappy with the lack of improvement with the team and their fall to the bottom of the NL West standings. But the fact of the matter was that after the pandemic cost all MLB teams a reported $100 million, Colorado could no longer afford Arenado’s $35 mil per season contract. The opt-out that was so highly publicized was never going to come into play – Arenado’s representatives knew full well they would not get that kind of money in the current free agent climate. The Rockies front office was fearful Nolan would not opt out, so they had to trade him for financial reasons. It would have helped if they had just admitted as much.
The return was minimal, which led one former MLB GM to call it the worst trade in MLB history. Ugly.
2) On the field, the team’s offense was…offensive. A team that plays half their games in hitter friendly Coors Field ranked 21st in MLB in home runs. The lack of offensive production – even from stalwarts like Charlie Blackmon and Story – was alarming. For a team with limited power threats, they struck out over 1,300 times and continually failed to produce runs in key situations. The team batting average of .249 was mediocre, but good enough to get hitting coach Dave Magadan another year in the dugout. Ugly.
3) You may have heard this before: The Rockies bullpen was dreadful in 2021. Yes, the club ranked 25th in team ERA at 4.82, but the starters were actually solid during the season. The bullpen was the fifth worst in all of baseball and could muster only 33 saves as a team. Only four teams were worse. Daniel Bard, coming of a “Comeback Player of the Year” pandemic-shortened season in 2020, struggled as the closer, posting a WHIP of almost 1.6, walking a batter every other inning and losing eight games. Bard continues to be a great story, but not a closer.
The new year begins with MLB immersed in a lockout and the Rockies with the virtually the same roster they had in 2021. That’s not the recipe for immediate improvement. We’ll see what good can come out of it.
Be sure to catch “The Park Adjusted Rockies Podcast” with Mark Knudson and Manny Randhawa available where you find all your favorite podcasts.