{"id":28512,"date":"2025-07-28T04:08:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T04:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/28512\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T04:08:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T04:08:15","slug":"latest-on-rockies-trade-candidates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/28512\/","title":{"rendered":"Latest On Rockies’ Trade Candidates"},"content":{"rendered":"

After already dealing<\/a> Ryan McMahon<\/a> to the Yankees, the Rockies are open for business heading into Thursday\u2019s deadline as one of the few true sellers on the market.\u00a0 Another trade with the Yankees could be a possibility, as The Athletic\u2019s Brendan Kuty<\/a> reports that New York has interest in Colorado reliever Jake Bird<\/a> among many other names on the bullpen market.<\/p>\n

Bird\u2019s first three Major League seasons (2022-24) saw the right-hander post a 4.53 ERA, 19.3% strikeout rate, and 9.7% walk rate across 177 innings for the Rockies, all in a relief capacity apart from three pseudo-starts as an opener.\u00a0 His 4.05 ERA and 9.1% walk rate in 53 1\/3 innings in 2025 are pretty comparable, but the big difference is a strikeout rate that has leapt up to 26.7%.\u00a0 Above-average whiff and chase rates support the increase in missed bats, and Bird\u2019s solid barrel and grounder rates have also helped him limit damage at Coors Field.\u00a0 Interestingly, Bird\u2019s home\/road splits this year are actually much better in Denver (2.48 ERA in 29 innings) than away from home (5.92 ERA in 24 1\/3 innings).<\/p>\n

A 3.19 SIERA paints an even more flattering picture of Bird\u2019s improved performance, as a .352 BABIP has inflated the reliever\u2019s ERA.\u00a0 Adopting the sweeper as his primary pitch seemed to have unlocked both Bird\u2019s strikeout ability, and it has helped his curveball regain its 2023 status as a plus offering.\u00a0 Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake is a known proponent of the sweeper, which likely adds to New York\u2019s interest in the Rox reliever.<\/p>\n

Bird will reach arbitration eligibility for the first time this winter, so he is controlled through the 2028 season.\u00a0 The Rockies are also reportedly open<\/a> to offers on two other controllable relievers in Victor Vodnik<\/a> and\u00a0Seth Halvorsen<\/a>, as Colorado\u2019s willingness to take a broader approach to the deadline represents a change in direction for the organization.\u00a0 The Rockies had been traditionally wary about even moving pending free agents at the deadline, yet the new low of the team\u2019s dreadful 27-78 record seems to have convinced the organization that larger changes are necessary.<\/p>\n

Even controllable relief pitching only has so much present value to a team that may be years away from contending, so it makes sense for the Rox to consider moving some of their bullpen arms.\u00a0 Given the natural volatility of relief pitching and Bird\u2019s lack of a track record, selling high on his current success might well be a wise move for GM Bill Schmidt.<\/p>\n

Beyond the bullpen arms, Colorado is getting hits on other players on the roster.\u00a0 MLB.com\u2019s Mark Feinsand<\/a> writes that Hunter Goodman<\/a>, Brenton Doyle<\/a>, Kyle Freeland<\/a>, and Austin Gomber<\/a> are all getting varying degrees of trade attention, though it is very unlikely that Goodman or Doyle are moved.\u00a0 Goodman is enjoying a breakout season that resulted in an All-Star citation.\u00a0 Doyle is struggling through a rough year that has seen his bat and center field glovework both take big steps backwards from 2024, but the Rockies don\u2019t seem likely to sell low.<\/p>\n

Goodman and Doyle are both controlled through the 2028 season, whereas Gomber is an impending free agent and Freeland is under contract through the 2026 campaign.\u00a0 Freeland is owed around $5.33MM for the remainder of this season and then $16MM in 2026, with a $17MM vesting player option available for 2027 if Freeland tosses at least 170 innings next year.<\/p>\n

This price tag makes it pretty unlikely that Freeland will be dealt, unless Colorado was to eat most or all of that remaining salary.\u00a0 The southpaw has a 5.24 ERA over 101 1\/3 innings in 2025, and a 5.03 ERA in 840 2\/3 frames since Opening Day 2019.\u00a0 Because Freeland has spent his entire career in Denver\u2019s thin air, there\u2019s a bit of an x-factor in gauging how well he could perform outside of such a hitter-friendly environment, even if his lifetime splits aren\u2019t too drastic (4.85 ERA at home, 4.24 ERA on the road).\u00a0 Rival teams might not be intrigued enough by this potential upside to the take the plunge on a trade unless the Rockies indeed covered a lot of Freeland\u2019s salary, which might not make it worth it for a Rox team that still needs someone to eat innings.<\/p>\n

Gomber is much less expensive and a rental player, so a rival team might have more willingness to take a flier on the southpaw as a depth arm.\u00a0 Feinsand notes Gomber\u2019s superior road splits to his work at Coors Field, but the overall results haven\u2019t been great, as Gomber has a 5.14 ERA in 578 1\/3 innings since joining the Rockies prior to the 2021 season.\u00a0 That includes a 6.03 ERA in seven starts and 34 1\/3 frames this year, as shoulder problems kept Gomber off the mound until mid-June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After already dealing Ryan McMahon to the Yankees, the Rockies are open for business heading into Thursday\u2019s deadline…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[22380,22381,49,48,4240,22382,22383,462,82],"class_list":["post-28512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-austin-gomber","tag-brenton-doyle","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-hunter-goodman","tag-jake-bird","tag-kyle-freeland","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}