A blockbuster trade, announced on Friday and officially finalized on Monday, sent shockwaves throughout the baseball world. Star third baseman Nolan Arenado has been sent to the St. Louis Cardinals, in exchange for a group of prospects.
The move seemed like it was overdue, with Arenado being openly unhappy with the current situation in Denver. Much of this was due to the actions of Rockies GM Jeff Bridich.
A Disappointing Return
The return in this trade is a bit underwhelming. But, to be fair, Arenado’s price may have been driven down by the shoulder injury he suffered last season, and his salary of $35 million is also a lot for some teams to stomach. With a no-trade clause, Arenado would also have to personally approve his new team.
However, it was also driven down by the fact that Arenado can opt out after the 2021 season. And whose idea was that?
“I was the one who actually pushed for that opt-out,” Bridich said to the Denver Post in October 2019. He elaborated, saying, “to Nolan’s credit, he didn’t have a ton of interest in that initially being in there. It wasn’t a priority of his for it to be in there. I was the one who thought it might be a good idea.”
Well, Jeff, it wasn’t a good idea. You know what else wasn’t a good idea? Paying Arenado’s entire salary in 2021. Yes, you read that right. The Rockies not only traded away the face of their franchise, they are paying him to not play for them.
In total, the Rockies are sending $50 million to St. Louis in the trade. They haven’t even spent that much on a free agent in the last three offseasons.
However, by this point, Rockies fans have come to expect nothing less from Jeff Bridich, the man who drove away the face of their franchise.
So, how did this all begin?
Bridich-ulous
In 2018, the Rockies were a good team. Led by Arenado and fellow elite infielder Trevor Story, the offense hit 210 home runs. Colorado also ranked 8th in runs per game, at 4.69.
The pitching was good, as well. Kyle Freeland won 17 games with a career-best 2.85 ERA, and German Marquez emerged as a solid #2 option. Wade Davis recorded a career-high 43 saves, and the duo of Adam Ottavino and Scott Oberg combined for a 2.44 ERA.
As a whole, the team won 91 games, and beat the Chicago Cubs in the NL Wild Card game. The team had a solid core, and had two of the most elite infielders in the game to build around.
But build they did not.
The 2018 Offseason
The Rockies had some big free agents after that season, with infielder D.J LeMahieu hitting the market, as well as Ottavino. They both left the team, and incidentally both ended up signing with the New York Yankees.
To replace LeMahieu, the Rockies signed Daniel Murphy. The deal was worth $24 million across two years. LeMahieu actually received the same exact deal from the Yankees. So how’d they compare?
Murphy: .269/.316/.426, .742 OPS, bWAR: -0.9
LeMahieu: .336/.386/.536, .922 OPS, bWAR: 8.9
Yikes. The Rockies also resigned Arenado this offseason, extending him for 8 years and $260 million. This was a good deal, of course. Arenado was the face of the franchise, and a truly elite player.
But you know what happened next.
Worthy of Bridich-ule
The Rockies of 2019 took a major step back. After winning 91 games and advancing to the NLDS the previous year, the team finished 71-91. Despite another year in the top ten in runs per game, the Rox won 20 less games than in 2018, and finished 4th in the NL West.
Naturally, the team had some holes to fill, specifically when it came to the pitching staff.
But, this is Jeff Bridich we’re talking about. So, just as naturally, the team didn’t fill any of those holes, or even attempt to.
The 2019 offseason came and went, and the Rockies made absolutely no attempt to improve. The team literally did not sign a single major league deal in the entire offseason, with all of their contracts being minor-league ones. (via the Rockies transaction page. Check it yourself. It’s crazy.)
A few of their new minor league contracts ended up contributing in 2020, to be fair. Let’s see how they did:
- Jose Mujica (2 games, 12.46 ERA in 4 & 1/3 innings)
- Chris Owings (17 games, .268/.318/.439, 2 HRs)
- Elias Diaz (26 games, .235/.288/.353, 2 HRs)
- Daniel Bard (23 games, 3.65 ERA, 6 saves in 6 opportunites)
Okay, so Bard was awesome. But, still. These four players gave the team a combined 0.6 bWAR during the 2020 season.
So, Bridich is already tempting fate here. Just a year ago, he extended Arenado for 8 seasons. By following that up without even attempting to improve after losing 91 games, you aren’t exactly sending a strong message to your cornerstone player.
But it got even worse.
The Bridich-Arenado Rift
In January 2020, Arenado openly expressed frustration after Bridich revealed he had previously listened to trade offers regarding the third baseman.
“There’s a lot of disrespect from people there that I don’t want to be a part of,” Arenado texted to an MLB.com reporter, which you can find in the article linked above.
There’s two issues to deal with here. First, why is Bridich listening to offers regarding Arenado at all? The team struggled in 2019, but not by any fault of his. He’s a player you build around, not a player you trade away in hopes of a better return.
Second, why was he revealing this publicly? Arenado was obviously going to be upset by this. Just a year ago, he signed a monster contract, and was hailed as the face of the franchise. But after one bad year, the GM reveals that he considered tearing it down?
Now, Bridich has created a rift with his star player, one that ultimately proved to be irreparable.
Bridich and Monfort’s “Damage Control”
On Tuesday, Bridich and Rockies owner Dick Monfort held a press conference, to discuss the trade and the future direction of the franchise. This led to some, well, interesting comments from the two of them.
In Bridich’s defense, he might not think they’re in a rebuild. But the team just parted with one of the best players in baseball, and it wasn’t a very good team even with him there. At this point, it would be better to just tear it all down and start over.
And why did he want to move on? Well, probably because his GM never made any attempt to improve the team, and openly discussed trading him just one year after signing him to a massive extension. Just a thought.
It still doesn’t, really. You would think that this would be a sign that it isn’t a good trade, right? Apparently not if you’re Dick Monfort.
Well, you could have figured out a way to keep him. As we already went over, the team signed Daniel Murphy to the exact same contract.
I mean… it seems that a lot of Rockies fans would like that. Especially after this comment:
Monfort is basically outright saying that the Rockies will never sign a big-name player in free agency. On top of that, he’s using the age-old excuse of being a “mid-market team”.
As Bill Shaikin reminds us, the Padres play in a smaller media market (San Diego), and paid Manny Machado $300 million.
So, as you can see, the press conference did not go very well. Making it even worse was the fact that Arenado had his introductory conference with the Cardinals at the exact same time. Predictably, Arenado’s went much, much better.
The 8-time Gold Glover hasn’t even played a game with the Cardinals yet, but already committed to being around long-term. The two press conferences were at the absolute opposite ends of the spectrum.
What’s Next?
So, what’s the next move for the Rockies? It seems that even they don’t know. The team has absolutely no discernible plan or direction.
Unfortunately, for as long as Jeff Bridich and Dick Monfort are at the helm, it appears that will always be the case.
