On March 16, the Colorado Rockies signed superstar third baseman Kris Bryant to a seven-year, $182 million contract. The move brought true star power to a Rockies team mostly devoid of any major names, and in theory the move should have been met with excitement and rejoicing among fans.
Instead, however, the Rockies were met on social media by a mass of fans who were confused and vaguely angry. How could a seemingly helpful move almost undoubtedly improving the fans’ favorite team for the next several years get met so strongly with negative reactions from the team’s most true-blooded fans?
The answer lies within a truth that is deeply intertwined with the nature of sports, and also a truth that the Colorado Rockies can’t seem to wrap their heads around: baseball acquisitions don’t happen in a vacuum, and you can’t view any moves in a vacuum because of that.
To properly tell the tale of why so many fans were left dumbfounded by the Rockies signing Bryant, one must first back up. One must first back up a considerable bit, in fact: all the way back to February of 2019.
In February of 2019, the Rockies were arguably at the height of the level of relevancy that they had ever sustained as a franchise: coming off of playoff berths in two straight years, something never before accomplished in franchise history, and they looked primed to make a run to the playoffs for a third straight year thanks to a major move the Rockies made in the 2019 offseason.
They signed their homegrown superstar and arguably the best third baseman in baseball, Nolan Arenado, to an eight-year contract, worth $255 million. Arenado’s contract, earning him an average of $32 million annually, was a record at the time. The Rockies had dished out some serious cash to finance a stable, and hopefully successful, baseball team for the first time in franchise history, and baseball fans in Colorado were ecstatic.
Two years later, in February of 2021, The Rockies had not been to the playoffs since, and, with no hopes of making the playoffs seemingly on the horizon, the Rockies were forced to trade away Arenado to anyone who would answer the phone.
What happened between the Rockies and Arenado in just under two years forcing the necessity of a trade is enough to write a book on, but suffice it to say that Arenado no longer believed the Rockies had a direction as an organization and weren’t committed to winning.
He was right, as it turned out then-Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich resigned from the club just two months after Arenado was traded. His replacement, Bill Schmidt, then spent the next offseason trying to offset the many baffling moves that the Rockies endured under Bridich’s tenure, the first of which was reacquiring a 20-year-old prospect named Case Williams who Bridich had shipped off to the Reds the year prior, and the most recent of which happened on March 16, which was the aforementioned signing of Bryant.
The series of moves which Bill Schmidt made in the 2022 offseason put the current Rockies team not necessarily in a position to be perennial playoff contenders but certainly on the doorstep of that position.
Bryant is just one piece of a much larger puzzle known as roster construction that Schmidt has been tasked with redoing this offseason, and when the puzzle pieces are placed together a clearer image of Schmidt’s blueprint on how to bring the Rockies back to relevancy is revealed.
Bryant will be paired at the corners with first baseman CJ Cron, who is coming off of what most would consider a career best offensive year that warranted him a contract extension in Colorado, and up the middle the Rockies will rely on two solid youngsters.
Ryan McMahon, who has proved to be a league-average hitter with sneaky power and a flashy glove in his four full seasons with the Rockies, and he will play second base alongside the Rockies’ former highest rated prospect in system history, Brendan Rodgers, who showed major promise in his first major sample size with the Rockies’ big league club.
In case either of those middle infielders stumble, Schmidt also signed veteran shortstop Jose Iglesias, fresh off a red-hot September which propelled his former team, the Boston Red Sox, to a playoff berth, to a low-risk, one-year deal.
Any way you dissect it, the Rockies will have an above average-to-good infield going into the 2022 season, and they will pair that arguably the team’s biggest strength, a potent established rotation on the mound.
The Rockies’ 2022 rotation will be headlined by their established superstar, German Marquez, who is regarded in most circles around baseball as a top-20 pitcher in the game. He will be followed closely by Kyle Freeland, who has shown, at times, that he can be every bit as good as Marquez.
The Rockies locked up pitcher Antonio Senzatela long-term over the offseason, a clear sign that they believe he will be penciled in to start long term, and he’ll compete for the third starting spot with the Rockies’ return for trading away Arenado from the previous season, Austin Gomber, who in his limited time in Rockies purple has shown to be just a tick above league average on the mound.
Out of the fifth and final rotational spot, the Rockies will turn to an offseason acquisition with major league experience, albeit not quality experience, Chad Kuhl, who spent the better part of five years with the Pittsburgh Pirates, until a highly-regarded pitching prospect, be it Peter Lambert or Ryan Rolison, proves ready to take his place.
Let’s face it, this rotation isn’t the 2010 San Francisco Giants, but they will fall solidly in the top half of rotations in baseball this season, which once again puts the Rockies in position to be in position to contend.
The Rockies don’t really have much of an outfield to speak of, with no outfielders from the previous season accumulating the value of even two wins over a replacement level player, or WAR as it’s known in baseball circles.
They also don’t have much of a bullpen, outside of another offseason acquisition under Bill Schmidt, a veteran by the name of Alex Colome. With the entire puzzle put together, it’s easy to see the direction the Rockies hope to move in as the 2022 season approaches, a strong rotation and a solid infield will, hopefully, propel the team to the doorstep of the playoffs, and perhaps even in to the back end of the playoffs, depending on how unproven prospects like the aforementioned Rodgers and Lambert perform.
And if this blueprint is starting to sound familiar, it’s because it is: the 2022 Colorado Rockies are, on paper, following exactly the steps taken by none other than the Colorado Rockies in the offseason leading into 2019.
Remember earlier in the article, when I said that the post-2018 Rockies looked like they were in prime position to contend for the near future for the first time in franchise history?
Well, their blueprint for success relied around, first and foremost, recently locked-up superstar third baseman Nolan Arenado, who would be paired around the infield with established shortstop Trevor Story and and up and coming prospect at second base, deemed good enough by the Rockies to replace the productivity of long-standing second baseman DJ LeMahieu, who the Rockies let walk in the offseason for nothing.
At first base, the Rockies planned to start Mark Reynolds, a veteran who experienced a career rejuvenation with the Rockies just a few years prior and earned himself a second stint as the team’s first baseman. They also signed veteran Daniel Murphy as a backup plan in case the aforementioned prospect wasn’t yet ready to take the reins from LeMahieu.
In 2022, the Rockies infield centers around the recently-locked up superstar third baseman Kris Bryant, who will be paired with established second baseman Ryan McMahon and an up and coming prospect at shortstop, deemed good enough by the Rockies to replace the productivity of long-standing shortstop Trevor Story, who the Rockies plan to let walk in the offseason for nothing.
At first base, the Rockies will start Cron, a veteran who experienced a career rejuvenation with the Rockies just last season and earned himself a contract extension. They’ve also signed veteran Jose Iglesias as a backup plan at shortstop in case their shortstop prospect wasn’t yet ready to take the reins from Trevor Story. Sounding familiar yet? If not, let me drive home my point more completely: the prospect, both in 2018 and in 2022, tasked with saving the Rockies infield is the same guy: Brendan Rodgers.
Now, if those similarities weren’t clear enough, perhaps the rotation is an even better example of the blatant copy-paste of offseason approaches that the Rockies have taken from 2018 to today. Heading into the 2019 season, the Rockies rotation was headlined by the same two names who will headline the rotation in the upcoming 2022 season: German Marquez and Kyle Freeland. In both 2019 and 2022, the Rockies hope(d) that Antonio Senzatela would take an increased role to replace the loss of a veteran pitcher who was paramount to the team’s success in the previous season (in 2019 it was Tyler Anderson, in 2022 it’s Jon Gray).
Both 2018 and 2022 teams look to rely on a prospect to ultimately replace Anderson and Gray’s arm in the rotation, and if you haven’t guessed by now, yes it’s the same prospect: Peter Lambert. Both teams even added depth arms for the back end of the rotation in case Lambert isn’t all that he’s cracked up to be yet (Chi Chi Gonzalez in 2019, Chad Kuhl in 2022). Additionally, both 2019 and 2022 Rockies teams had no real outfield to speak of other than an aging and increasingly poor defensive clubhouse leader named Charlie Blackmon, and neither team had any real fire power in the bullpen either. Get the picture?
In a vacuum, the Rockies signing Kris Bryant is surely a step in the right direction for a franchise that has been middling for the last three seasons and are surely grasping at anything to bring them back to playoff relevancy, which is certainly understandable. However, as I mentioned in the opening paragraph to this article, the issue with baseball moves is that they can’t be viewed in a vacuum.
From a 3,000 foot view, the Rockies have built their current roster to follow the footsteps exactly as they took in the offseason following the 2019 season, albeit with slightly less talented players at nearly every position other than first base.
This strategy failed once, and it is almost certainly doomed to fail again. From an isolated point of view, it would be surprising that Rockies fans would react so poorly to Bryant signing on with the franchise for the foreseeable future, but when the whole picture of the Rockies as a franchise is laid out before you, it becomes more understandable why Rockies fans are apprehensive about getting excited over this signing in general.
History has a funny way of repeating itself like that sometimes. Humans, though, have a funny streak of learning from their past mistakes and not letting themselves get fooled twice. And on March 16, Rockies fans sniffed out a past mistake, and by not celebrating what at face value seemed like a good move, they showed that they, too, have some human resilience.