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After Joe Gardner was released in March, the Rockies' lone remaining player from the Ubaldo Jimenez haul was Matt McBride, a then-28-year-old utility player with great minor league numbers but no discernible major league future.
Since 2012, his first full season in the Rockies organization, McBride has done nothing but hit. And hit. And hit some more. He posted a .344/.365/.535 line in 108 Triple-A games in 2012 and followed that up by hitting .328/.359/.683 in an injury-shortened 2013 campaign. McBride did more of the same in 2014, having his way with Pacific Coast League pitchers to the tune of a .305/.345/.487 line prior to being called up to the big league club for the remainder of the season on Aug.19.
What happened
McBride had one really big game early in his 2014 tenure with the Rockies, hitting a grand slam as part of a 2-for-3 performance against the Royals in his first big league start of the season on Aug. 20. He went just 5-for-27 at the plate after that point, but a couple of home runs and a pair of doubles helped McBride end up with a slug-heavy 102 OPS+.
| AVG | .226 |
| OBP | .294 |
| SLG | .484 |
| OPS+ | 102 |
| HR | 2 |
| BB | 2 |
| SO | 12 |
| Rdrs* | 5 |
| rWAR | 0.5 |
* -- Defensive runs saved above average (provided by Baseball Info Solutions)
Defensively, McBride made a positive impact in a small amount of innings. He posted positive UZR/150 and defensive runs saved figures at every position he manned in 2014, something he'll probably have to continue doing to extend his major league career beyond this year. Sure, he's hit well in the hitter-friendly PCL, but you really don't need to look any further than the photo at the top of this article -- and at McBride's minor and major league walk numbers -- to see why that is the case.
2014 Grade: Incomplete
McBride made only 34 plate appearances with the Rockies in 2014, putting his career total in the big leagues at 115. It might stay that way -- or at least, almost certainly will with the Rockies -- after the 29-year-old Pennsylvania native was outrighted off of Colorado's 40-man roster and elected to become a minor league free agent last week.