Finding a landing spot for Jay Bruce
By Jason Burke
Colorado Rockies
The Mets and Rockies squared off in Colorado at the beginning of the week and Bruce ended up going 3-for-13 with two home runs, a double, two runs scored and three RBI. The reason that Bruce would make sense for Colorado would be that they have received the worst production out of right field of any big league team and the Rockies are closing in on a playoff spot, currently holding a 5.5 game lead over the Milwaukee Brewers. We all know what the Crew does with 5.5 game leads–just ask the Chicago Cubs who trailed by that margin at the break and now hold a half-game game lead in the NL Central.
The Rockies could use a boost to make it into the Wild Card game, presumably to face the Arizona Diamondbacks for the millionth time this season, so any improvements that can be made could not only get them to that game, but also past it and into a date with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Carlos Gonzalez has been with the Rockies for nearly a decade, and he has spent the majority of that time in right field, often dazzling in the process. This season CarGo has a -1.4 bWAR (-1.8 fWAR) and holds a wRC+ of 50, which is half the production of an average player and 72 percent less production than Jay Bruce this year.
Adding Bruce wouldn’t cost the Rox too much in the way of prospects, given how late in the season it is, so really there is no reason not to add him if the focus is on winning. Of course there are some complications that arise if Colorado is planning to offer Gonzalez a deal this winter, because his playing time would diminish greatly.
It should also be noted that if the Rockies and Dodgers meet up in the NLDS, Bruce is 6-for-23 against Clayton Kershaw with three home runs in his career, and has been even better against Yu Darvish, going 4-for-6 with a pair of dingers.
Before you start on with the whole “but his defense” argument, Bruce has saved six runs while playing right for the Mets this season and has a UZR/150 of 4.6. Both are better than Gonzalez in 2017.
Over the past three seasons at Coors, Bruce is 16-for-50 (.320) with a .740 slugging percentage and a 1.060 OPS. It’s safe to say he’d do well in purple.