Rockies trade rumors: Colorado had real chance to deal Jose Reyes at deadline, per report

The Colorado Rockies failed to trade shortstop Jose Reyes at the July 31 trade deadline, according to a report from CBS Sports' Jon Heyman.

In the article -- which contains speculations about every team's offseason (and this info about the Rockies pursuing outfielder Gerardo Parra) -- Heyman drops this little tidbit:

Colorado had a chance or two to trade Jose Reyes shortly after acquiring him, but the Rockies asked for big-time prospects back. Now they are stuck.

Purple Row is currently searching for confirmation of this report, but it is the first we've heard of it.

We can't say for sure what exactly "big-time prospects" means in this case. We don't know if that is the other team overvaluing their own players or trying to make Jeff Bridich look unreasonable or any number of other tactics. Other unknown factors include Reyes' salary or if the Rockies were asked to include any of their own prospects. We don't know what other teams were offering so whatever deals Bridich walked away from may have been entirely justifiable.

Unless this is simply inaccurate information, a report that the Rockies could have moved Jose Reyes and didn't hurts now that he is one of the most toxic assets in baseball. Hindsight is 20-20, but it would be nice to know some details about who or what was offered considering many fans were concerned about not moving Reyes at the time.

The main return in the Troy Tulowitzki trade is, was, and always will be the three incredibly promising pitching prospects the Rockies received. But getting those arms necessitated the inclusion of Jose Reyes, which led some to conclude that the full value of the trade could not be tallied until he was moved.

The unfortunate reality is that before even his domestic abuse arrest, Reyes had already become a toxic asset for this team; a failure to trade him isn't just a failure to see a tragic event in the future but a failure of talent evaluation as well.

Here's the poll from early October that the community here voted on about Reyes' contract:

There is a ton of speculation here and drawing conclusions without the facts makes fools of us all. But if Jon Heyman and whomever he is getting his information from have no agenda other than the truth -- and the team really was holding out for a high-end prospect -- this could be the first piece of evidence highlighting Jeff Bridich's first major screw-up.