Colorado Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich. (Jeff Leyba, The Denver Post)
Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich will head to Nashville next week looking to wheel and deal — maybe. Baseball’s winter meetings, which start Monday, cram a bunch of executives and agents in one place and cranks out a hot-stove sprint of player moves.
that “some things could get done at or just after” the Nashville meetings. And the big question for the Rockies centers on whether they’ll trade slugger Carlos Gonzalez.
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But what about the Rockies’ free-agent options? Plenty of players and pitchers are available. Will they Rox make a move? How much money do they have to work with? Are trades more likely than free-agent signings?
Rockies outfielder Carlos Gonzalez. ()
Bridich has said the Rockies’ overall payroll from 2015 — a club record-high $100 million, which ranked 20th in MLB — will stay about the same in 2016. After on Wednesday, here’s what they’re working with in available cash for 2016 payroll (totals are estimated and rounded):
Settled contracts:
Jose Reyes … $22 million
Carlos Gonzalez … $17.43
Jorge De La Rosa … $12.5
Boone Logan … $6.25
Nick Hundley … $3.15
Jordan Lyles … $2.975
Daniel Descalso … $2.1
Tyler Chatwood … $1
Brandon Barnes … $1 (his new contract total is not known; give or take a few hundred thousand)
Sub-total … $68.4 million
Pending arbitration players (not yet signed; numbers are estimates):
Nolan Arenado … $6.5 million
Charlie Blackmon … $4.5
DJ LeMahieu … $3.5
Adam Ottavino … $1.5
Sub-total: $16 million
Pre-arbitration contracts (based on MLB’s minimum salary of $507,500; some players will make slightly more):
24 players … $507,500 each
Sub-total … $12.25 million
TOTAL … $96.7 million
That leaves the Rockies about $5 million to work with, as it stands now. Not coincidentally, that’s also what they were working with before last season when the Rockies made pitcher Kyle Kendrick their last big addition, signing him in February to a $5.5 million contract.
The Rockies before last season shed Michael Cuddyer’s $11.5 million contract (which they basically used to pay for built-in raises to Troy Tulowitzki and Gonzalez) and Brett Anderson’s $8 million (which they used to sign Kendrick and catcher Nick Hundley). They haven’t shed any big contracts from last season (Tulo for Reyes was basically a wash).
The takeaway here is that the Rockies are nearly booked on payroll. They are much more likely to trade players than sign them. Or trade them before they sign them. And a trade of their two highest-paid players — Jose Reyes (less likely) or Gonzalez (more likely) — could free up a workable amount of cash to sign somebody else.
Tags: arbitration, Carlos Gonzalez, Jose Reyes, Kyle Kendrick
