Colorado Rockies: Now is the Time to Trade Carlos Gonzalez

The Colorado Rockies are on the brink of contention with a number of their young guns arriving to help out the rotation, but with Carlos Gonzalez under contract for just one more season and a weak free agent class, now is the time to officially put CarGo on the trade block.

Carlos Gonzalez has been with the Colorado Rockies since 2009 after the team acquired him from Oakland, and seemingly since his arrival, has been a key member of the Rockies core. Year after year we’ve heard the rumors that Gonzalez could be traded, but to this point a deal just hasn’t gone through. That could all change this winter.

First, the basics. CarGo is due $20M in 2017, and while the Rockies aren’t necessarily a small market team (they could afford to pay him that much in the first place), they’re typically in the bottom half of teams in terms of payroll. Moving Gonzalez would open up a decent sum of money to help the club address their bullpen issues and land a first baseman this winter. There is also another option for the way that money can be spent, which we’ll talk about later.

Gonzalez seems to be trending downward, posting wRC+ totals of 146 (110 games) in 2013, 83 (70 games) in 2014, 114 (150 games) in 2015 and 108 (153 games) in 2016. He had the one breakout season four years ago, and if you discount his injury-shortened 2014, he has been just a little bit better than league average at the dish for the Colorado Rockies. He does play a solid right field, saving four runs from being scored last year, but perhaps the answer to this riddle would be to have Raimel Tapia in center, slide Charlie Blackmon to right, and keep David Dahl in left. Obviously this would be a bit of a risk given that Dahl and Tapia have yet to play full big league seasons, but this is likely some form of the outfield that they’re already planning on using once Gonzalez leaves via free agency.

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The outfield free agent class will basically consist of Yoenis Cespedes (if he opts out) and everyone else, meaning that CarGo would vault to the top of team’s wish lists once Cespedes is off the market, if he were to be made available. If the Rockies wanted to fill his spot on the roster via free agency, which would also limit the amount of playing time Gerardo Parra would see with four outfielders ahead of him on the depth chart, then someone like Josh Reddick would provide similar output at the plate, and a slight bump in outfield defense while not breaking the bank.

Trading Gonzalez would also net a return, obviously, and that return could either provide more young pieces for the rebuild, potentially give them some relief help, or both.

The other option for a way to spend some of that money would be to attempt to lock up one of the younger core players (Jon Gray, David Dahl) to get them a year or two past arbitration, which would give the Colorado Rockies some financial flexibility as their young core matures and becomes more expensive down the line. This would be a way to keep the band together for another year or two.

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The final reason that it may be time to trade Gonzalez is that if he is still around, that’s all that the media will be talking about when they’re in the clubhouse, which could eventually grow tiresome for the players that will be around past 2017, and potentially hurt the team’s play on the field. The professional term is “a distraction.” Keeping Gonzalez around doesn’t ensure success, and could even prove to be detrimental in the short term, while many of the club’s core pieces are supposed to be developing, and potentially contending. Without CarGo, the team can focus on getting better, add some pieces to help them in 2017 and beyond, and grow as a unit, rather than being divided by constant free agent/trade talk.

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