The Rockies continued their plan to build the best bullpen ever today by signing Wade Davis to a 3-year, $52 million dollar contract. With the Rockies expected to officially announce the signing later today, here’s an update on how this signing affects their roster, budget, and the upcoming draft.
After the Bryan Shaw and Jake McGee signings, the Rockies 40-man roster was full. If the Rockies announce Davis’s signing today as Jeff Passan is reporting they will also have to announce an additional move to clear a spot on the roster. The most likely move will be to designate a player for assignment. While that player will be removed from the 40-man roster immediately, it will give the Rockies a week to resolve that player’s status by either trading, outrighting, releasing, or losing them on waivers.
The players that seem the most vulnerable to be designated currently are Jordan Patterson, Shane Carle, and Zac Rosscup. While Carle and Patterson might seem more likely due to their place at the bottom of stack depth charts for their respective positions, Rosscup’s lack of options and being the fourth left-handed reliever on the roster could leave him in the cold later today. Designating Rosscup would also save the Rockies a small amount of money as he is headed into his first season of arbitration.
Based upon the calculations from our last roster update, the Rockies still had $25 million left in their offseason budget. With Davis now commanding $16 million of that remaining budget, the Rockies will have $9 million left for offseason spending if they still plan on matching the salary from the end of last season heading in 2018.
While $9 million may not seem like a lot, the Rockies only having one hole left to fill on the offensive side of the ball and their pen and rotation look stacked so it’s not a unreasonable number to finish off the offseason moves. It does mean that a big offensive acquisition probably isn’t happening unless the Rockies choose to make a trade. A mid-level offensive addition would still be possible as it appears that the free-agent market for position players may be bottoming out.
Because of the qualifying offer that Davis rejected this offseason, the Rockies will have to forfeit a draft pick for signing him. Thanks to the new CBA, it won’t be the first-round pick like last offseason when the Rockies signed Ian Desmond. Instead, the Rockies will only have to forfeit their third highest draft pick in the upcoming draft this June. Which pick that will be exactly is still to be determined and won’t be known until Greg Holland finalizes his deal with a new team.
Since Holland rejected the Rockies qualifying offer, if Holland signs a deal with $50 million or more in guarantees, the new CBA dictates that the Rockies will receive a compensation pick immediately after the first round. That would make the Rockies pick in the competitive balance A round their third overall pick and the one that they would forfeit. However, if Holland signs for less than $50 million then the Rockies would receive their compensation pick for him after the second round and their second round pick would be the third overall pick and the one that they would forfeit.
With their third big reliever signing, it will be interesting to see if the Rockies finally turn their attentions to the offensive side of things or decide to stand pat heading into 2018. Either way, it will have been a notable offseason for the Rockies and their fans as they have spent over $100 million on their bullpen.