This time of year, baseball fans and media are chomping at the bit for any kind of “Hot Stove” league info – fact-based or otherwise – that they can grasp onto. Is my team going to make a big free agent signing? Who’s getting traded for whom and to where?
Most of it turns out to be fake sports news of course. Like the idea now being floated by some east coast types that the Colorado Rockies are looking to trade Nolan Arenado.
They aren’t. Sorry. Not happening.
Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich did go on the record saying the team would “listen to offers” for their superstar third baseman. Of course they’ll “listen.”
Every single team will “listen” to inquiries about every player, every December. That’s how the offseason works.
Would you listen if you were Bridich and the Red Sox called about Arenado offering up Mookie Betts and Chris Sale? Obviously.
As Rockies Manager Bud Black likes to say, “that’s baseball.”
But those kinds of phone calls don’t happen. So, telling people you will “listen” is standard operating procedure, nothing more.
Breaking News: The Rockies are not trading Arenado.
Bridich also mentioned that the team would “listen” to offers for All-Stars Trevor Story and Charlie Blackmon, as well. Again, this is how the offseason game is played.
Story – who’s still on a very manageable contract – is also not going anywhere. In fact, he may be more untouchable at this point than Arenado is, given his contract situation.
But Blackmon? The Rockies should most definitely keep his name out there and on the market and hope a suitor decides to kick the tires.
The four-time All-Star and batting champion will be entering year four of a six-year contract that will pay him $108 million, with a salary of $21.5 million set for this season.
Those are huge numbers, especially if you’re talking about trading him. What team could afford that, even if Colorado agreed to eat some of that contract?
It would have to be an American League team, since it’s become obvious that Blackmon would now best serve any team as a designated hitter. He put up great offensive stats – again – last season, hitting .314 with 32 home runs and 86 RBI from the lead off spot. He remains one of the game’s elite hitters. But he’s a major defensive liability in the outfield, and in a place like Coors Field, that’s a big problem.
Still, it’s the season of listening, so the Rockies should at least cast a line out there and see if any AL team would do anything more than listen, and actually be interested in adding one of baseball’s best hitters to their lineup.
Would the New York Yankees for example – fresh off giving free agent pitcher Gerrit Cole the Gross Domestic Product of Guam (not really, but close) – could still be a potential suitor (with the Rockies eating some of the contract). They print money in the Bronx, so they can sign whomever they want for as long as they want.
Imagine Blackmon in that murderer’s row line-up? He’d hit 50 homers playing in the bandbox called Yankees Stadium.
Obviously, there are a scant few decent fits for Blackmon given that he needs to be a DH.
The Yankees make sense and maybe Cleveland, but the Red Sox have JD Martinez as their DH, the Astros have a bevy of young sluggers, the Angels just spent a King’s ransom on Anthony Rendon and have Mike Trout on the payroll, while playoff teams like Tampa, Oakland and Minnesota just don’t do business that way. So the options are limited.
Still, the Rockies – with perhaps minimum wage earning Sam Hilliard taking over in right field and offsetting what Colorado would still be paying on Blackmon’s deal – would get a big boost defensively while playing a kid with the potential to hit 30+ homers and steal 30+ bases this season.
For Colorado, trading Blackmon would be addition by subtraction.
Now it’s time to pump the brakes.
Those who know the history of the Colorado Rockies understand that this team is notorious for hanging on to its own, both young prospects and long-time standouts. Aging star Larry Walker for example, was 37 before the Rockies traded him to St. Louis in 2004, netting a minimal return for a guy with Walker’s resume and ability. Rockies brass acknowledged they should have sent the future Hall of Famer (wishful thinking) to a contending team three or four years earlier, when the return could have been substantial. That’s great hindsight, it’s just not how the organization has ever done things.
So, given what has changed and what hasn’t, we can expect Colorado to have Arenado at third base, Story at shortstop, and Blackmon in right field on March 26th in San Diego for Opening Day. Same as it ever was.
Sorry Hot Stove league.
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.
