The Rockies have arguably overachieved this season, but with 12 games separating them and the NL’s second Wild Card team, Colorado seems destined to miss the playoffs for the 10th time in 12 seasons. Many interpreted Nolan Arenado’s offseason trade to St. Louis as the Rockies waving the white flag, clearing the deck ahead of what figures to be an arduous, multi-year rebuild. The long-held assumption is that Colorado will blow it all up by moving Trevor Story, Jon Gray, C.J. Cron and German Marquez at the upcoming trade deadline. However, interim GM Bill Schmidt would push back on that narrative, dismissing the perception that Colorado is headed for a fire sale.
“Yes, we do have decisions to make, but we don’t have to move players for financial reasons,” Schmidt relayed to Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. “At the end of the day, it will be about what we can get back. We are not a farm system for other people.”
Unfortunately, this is the sad reality small-market clubs face, particularly when juxtaposed against the deep-pocketed likes of New York and Los Angeles, who prey on the weak by treating less financially-equipped teams like an ATM, poaching young talent as effortlessly as shoppers combing the shelves at Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s.
It’s easy to see why Schmidt, who the Rockies promoted upon Jeff Bridich’s departure earlier this year, would develop a Napoleonic complex of sorts as one of the lesser-heralded teams in a cutthroat NL West. However, the Rockies’ middling roster coupled with a bottom-rung farm system (ranked 27th out of 30 MLB teams) leaves them little choice but to start over, which will almost assuredly require them to clean house, either at the trade deadline or when Gray and Story come off the books next offseason.
With Story a near certainty to leave in free agency this winter, the Rockies would ideally get something in return for him, though if Schmidt doesn’t see a trade avenue worth pursuing, the alternative would be to make him a one-year qualifying offer, likely in the range of $19-20 million. Then if Story rejects that offer and signs elsewhere, the Rockies would receive a compensatory pick in next year’s draft.
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