Colorado Rockies: Review of the Regular Season and Rocktober
By Paul Ashley
The Colorado Rockies have reached the MLB postseason following each of the past two regular seasons, however, they only have one playoff win during this time. As a certain franchise player is nearing free agency, there are offseason moves that need to be made to return to Rocktober for the third straight season.
Jeff Bridich has been with the Colorado Rockies organization in various roles since December of 2004, but he has only been the general manager since October of 2014. During this time, the Rockies have improved in the win column each season (68 wins in 2015, 75 wins in 2016, 87 wins in 2017, and 91 wins in 2018).
After the Rockies failed to reach the postseason in 2015 and 2016, they moved on from manager Walt Weiss to bring in a more experienced manager in Bud Black. During Black’s first season as manager in 2017, the team had both their first 85-plus win season and their first postseason appearance since 2009.
Prior to the 2017 season, the Rockies added Ian Desmond (five years, $70 million), Mike Dunn (three years, $19 million), Greg Holland (one year, $7 million), and Alexi Amarista (one year, $1.25 million). They also signed Mark Reynolds to a minor league contract and he went on to collect 30 HRs and 97 RBI for the Rockies in 2017.
The team also cut ties with former first round pick Eddie Butler by trading him to the Chicago Cubs for James Farris and international bonus money. During the season, the team acquired Pat Neshek and Jonathan Lucroy to help down the stretch run, traded away Miguel Castro (he was acquired in the Troy Tulowitzki trade), and released Jordan Lyles (another former first round pick).
Despite these moves to improve the team, the Rockies were eliminated from the postseason when they lost the NL Wild Card game to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Nonetheless, Bridich and the rest of the front office were determined to further retool the team through free agency ahead of the 2018 season.