We’re all eager to flip the calendar to 2021. The Colorado Rockies can go ahead and do it right now. 2020 is over for them.
The moment this season ended? September 12th.
Bottom of the 10th inning. Rockies and Angels tied at 2-2. All-Star shortstop Trevor Story comes to the plate with the winning run on third base and one out. Facing inconsistent Anaheim reliever Ty Buttrey and needing nothing more than a fly ball to win a must-win game, Story instead watches a Buttery fastball sail right down the middle for strike three.
With two outs, struggling third baseman Nolan Arenado grounds out, and the Rockies fail to score. Anaheim gets a three run homer from rookie Jared Walsh in the top of the 11th and the Rockies go meekly (again) in the bottom of the 11th.
Season effectively over.
After the Angels beat Colorado 5-3 in similar fashion in the series finale the next day, the Rockies record fell to 21-25. At that moment they were just three games out of the final wild card playoff spot, but things are much worse than that.
This Colorado team, losers of six of their last 10 games, looks dispirited.
Flat.
Unengaged.
Empty.
Lifeless.
Disinterested.
Go ahead and pick a few more adjectives, but everything points the same direction: Downward.
This was never going to be a Rockies roster than contended for a championship in the season of the asterisk. But going into the season, certainly making the expanded postseason field by finishing in the top half of the mediocre National League was more than doable. So by that measure, 2020 will go down as a failure.
No one would have predicted that Arenado would slump so badly, or that Story, after a hot start, would tail off as well. Charlie Blackmon was unstoppable during the first three weeks of the season. Since his batting average was sitting at an even .500 after 17 games, Blackmon has cooled off more than dramatically. He’s hitting just over .210 since. Last season’s fourth All-Star, David Dahl has been hurt and/or ineffective most of the season. Daniel Murphy has been a bust again this year. None of that was supposed to happen.
There were legit questions about the bullpen going in, and those fears have been realized. They can’t hold leads. But the offense can’t hit with runners in scoring position, and the defense – once a Rockies calling card – has been spotty too, even from the normally reliable Story, who’s already approaching double digits in errors in a dramatically shortened season. Not a single Rockies hitter is “hot” at the plate, and only veteran reliever Daniel Bard has been anything close to reliable in the late innings.
So those three games that separate the Rockies and the surprising Miami Marlins for the eighth and final playoff spot might as well be 30.
Wait ‘till next year? There’s no time to wait.
The Rockies as currently constructed can’t just wait for things to improve. They’re probably another poor season away from some form of an extreme makeover. Things have to change a whole lot between now and the start of what we all hope will be a normal 2021 if a major roster purge is to be avoided during the winter of 2021.
As soon as this abbreviated season ends (officially) it will be time to say goodbye to Murphy, Wade Davis, Matt Kemp (he’s been average, but a player like young Josh Fuentes can fill that spot better), Jairo Diaz, and Chi Chi Gonzalez.
Rebuilding the bullpen will take a combination of internal and external candidates. Now’s the time to start playing (and living with the mistakes of) the young Sam Hilliard, who has amazing upside. Make Blackmon the full-time DH. Keep newly acquired Kevin Pillar in centerfield while Dahl, Raimel Tapia and Hilliard take turns in the corners. Get Brendan Rodgers some at bats when he returns from the injured list.
Still, the biggest offseason move isn’t about players. It’s past time to replace old-school hitting coach Dave Magadan with someone from the Robert Van Scoyoc coaching tree. The Rockies offense might hit for a reasonable team batting average, but they do next-to-no consistent damage.
The Rockies have hit just 56 home runs in 46 games (23 played at Coors Field.) Van Scoyoc – the hitting coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers – has seen his pupils club 89 homers, 43 of those at pitcher-friendly Dodger Stadium.
Van Scoyoc played a little college baseball before turning to analytics to help him teach and improve the hitting skills of others. It’s done amazing things for the Dodgers attack. And it’s not just about talent. The Dodgers have turned journeymen like Chris Taylor and Max Muncy into sluggers. There’s got to be someone with a skill set similar to Van Scoyoc that could bring fresh ideas to the Rockies organization and begin bringing out the talent in Colorado’s top prospects.
The Rockies need to re-evaluate a lot more than who is on their roster before next season. Otherwise, next year will probably be the swan song for Arenado, Blackmon, Story, Jon Gray and others who’ve made up the core of two Rockies playoff teams.
They should start the process right now.
Listen to Mark Knudson on Monday’s at 12:30 with Brady Hull on AM 1310 KFKA and on Saturday mornings on “Klahr and Kompany” on AM 1600 ESPN Denver.
More from The Woody Paige Sports Network:
- Woody Paige: Pressure is on John Elway, Vic Fangio in 2020
- Target these NFL regular season win totals with confidence in 2020
- Woody Paige: That time I played blackjack with Michael Jordan in Monte Carlo
- The best dressed player from each team in the NBA bubble
- Jadeveon Clowney signs one-year contract with Tennessee Titans
- Broncos All-Pro Von Miller suffers season-ending tendon injury
