The Colorado Rockies completed their first trade of the offseason today with the Baltimore Orioles. Jon Heyman reported this morning that the Rockies had sent Konner Wade to the Orioles in exchange for an unannounced amount of International Free Agency cap space.
Wade was drafted by the Rockies in the seventh round of the 2013 draft out of the University of Arizona. While Wade has had a solid ERA in all but one of his MiLB seasons he’s never had the peripherals or stuff to climb into any of the prospect rankings. He’s spent the last two seasons in Hartford working mainly as a reliever and spot starter. Unfortunately, that role is indicative of someone being viewed more as organizational depth than as future MLB contributor.
The Orioles are notorious for not participating in International Free Agency so it’s not surprising that they are willing to trade cap space for a flyer. The Rockies reportedly have only $10k left of their own cap space so it will be interesting to see who they choose to use this new money to sign.
With the reserves deadline past, it appears that the Rockies are now ready to start making trades and signing new players.