1 potential trade candidate on all 30 teams | MLB.com
Just a year after adding the veteran infielder to bolster their top-heavy offense, the Rockies might be well-served to look at trading Daniel Murphy to fill in some other holes on their roster. That’s at least the opinion of Mark Feinsand in this column.
What’s the market for a will-be-35-year-old, defensively limited first baseman? There probably is at least a decent market given the fact that Murphy rebounded offensively to post perfectly fine numbers. He is also due only $8 million next season, with a $12 million mutual option or $6 million buyout for 2021. That’s all manageable in baseball’s current economics.
Feinsand notes that Murphy would be a good fit in the American League where he could be a designated hitter. That makes sense and probably further bolsters the case that another team might actually be interested in trading for him. But if we’re being realistic, the kind of return the Rockies could get for one year of Murphy is probably more on the fringes of the roster than addressing the foundational problems that were exposed in 2019.
NL West offseason preview: Will anyone challenge Dodgers’ division dynasty? | ESPN
Remember that time, just one year ago, when we thought the Rockies were the answer to the alliterative question posed in this headline? Now we just find ourselves following another NL West team with more questions than answers as they try to figure out how to catch up to the Dodgers.
David Schoenfield writes about a problem that we already knew faced the Rockies: given their self-imposed payroll restrictions, they look like they will be rolling with a very similar team in 2020 to the one that flopped in 2019. They will be counting on an awful lot of internal improvements from their offense and pitching to get back into playoff contention.
The picture painted here isn’t exactly a rosy one. Schoenfield reminds us how hard it is to get free agent pitchers to Colorado, among other things. In doing so, he recorded a first for this offseason: a note about what the Rockies might do before 2020 that doesn’t mention Tanner Roark.
Sarris: More load management in baseball? What the sport might learn from the NBA | The Athletic ($)
Ahh, 2019. The heart of the “fans identifying with management” era, where fans hold heated debates about how to best manage workloads. Eno Sarris writes a detailed piece here in case you’re looking for some ammo when you’re sitting next to a fan who is mad about Nolan Arenado’s scheduled day off.