Like a seasoned hitter coming to the plate in a clutch moment, Paul DePodesta isn’t going to press. He’s going to let the game come to him.
With the MLB trade deadline approaching on Aug. 3, the Rockies are again sellers, and Colorado’s would love to make some splashy trades that help expedite the franchise’s rebuild.
But there’s no guarantee DePodesta will have the chance to do so.
“It really is just about what opportunities present themselves,” DePodesta said. “I’ll be disappointed if there are some good opportunities that present themselves and we’re not, for whatever reason, able to execute on those. I guess it’ll also be disappointing if those opportunities don’t arise. But we can’t force them.
“We’re not of the mindset that we’ve got to make two or three trades, even if all we’re getting back are low-level prospects. We like the players we have, and if there’s a way for us to get better, we’ll certainly explore it. But we have no mandate to move anybody.”
The Rockies already swung one deal earlier this week, sending flamethrowing reliever Seth Halvorsen to the Dodgers in exchange for Triple-A reliever Nick Frasso and Class-A outfielder Landyn Vidourek. That trade was essentially for one like pitcher (Frasso has a high-90s fastball) whom the Rockies believe can help their bullpen soon, as well as a gamble on a toolsy position player in Vidourek whose performance hasn’t yet lived up to expectations.
Beyond that, DePodesta says there is no one on the roster that the club would absolutely refuse to trade, though there are a handful of players whom the Rockies see as central to turning the corner to being competitive in the next few years. Slugging catcher Hunter Goodman is certainly on that list, and it’s likely that right-handed starter Ryan Feltner, first baseman TJ Rumfield, third baseman Kyle Karros and southpaw reliever Brennan Bernardino are, too.
“We would have to be really compelled, both in the short- and intermediate-term, to do something like (trading Goodman),” DePodesta said.
All of the Rockies’ position players are through next season, as is the bulk of the pitching staff. DePodesta and GM Josh Byrnes like the direction of this year’s team — which is currently a 22-win improvement from last year’s 119-defeat disaster — but DePodesta knows the Rockies need to be aggressive when possible in order to continue to pad that improvement.
“The biggest thing this year was just showing meaningful progress, not just on the field, but just as, if not more importantly, off the field as well with our environment, our culture, our mindset, etc.,” DePodesta said. “To date, we’ve been really pleased at all those things.
“… So as we go into the deadline, the way we’re evaluating is like, ‘Are there moves that we can make that would accelerate that progress going forward, or potentially broaden our ability to get to where we want to be?’ That’s really our basis for making any of these types of decisions.”
Players on the roster with expiring contracts, or options on their 2027 deals, make sense for Colorado to shop.
In the rotation, Michael Lorenzen — who has made a team-high 21 starts with a 6.53 ERA — has a club option for next year that includes a $250,000 buyout. Kyle Freeland has a that vests if he pitches 170 innings, which is unlikely. The Colorado native currently has a career-worst 7.28 ERA, but perhaps a contender could see him as a long reliever.
Plus, Tomoyuki Sugano will be a free agent at the end of the season. He has a 4.76 ERA in 17 starts, and has had stretches this season (2.84 ERA in his first six starts) that could have some buyers seeing him as an effective back-end rotation addition. And in the bullpen, starter-turned-reliever Antonio Senzatela has a $14 million option for 2027 that doesn’t include a buyout. He has a 3.60 ERA in 31 games this season, but has regressed lately, with a 11.74 ERA over the last month.
Those four are the team’s top pitchers who are contenders to be trade bait for the Rockies to obtain what they desperately need — young, controllable, and capable starting pitching prospects. DePodesta acknowledged starting pitching is “an area we need to shore up going into ’27.”
“We just don’t have as many in-house options that are already performing at this (big-league) level,” DePodesta said. “That said, we’re pretty pleased with Gabriel (Hughes) and Tanner Gordon pitched great (his last couple outings), and he’s had some really good outings overall. And so we want to be able to give some of our younger guys more opportunities (in the rotation) because we think we’ve got some other ones as well that that should be coming from the minors.”
Among position players, the Rockies could use their outfield depth to add to their pool of minor-league starting pitchers.
While Mickey Moniak (under club control through 2027) and Jake McCarthy (through 2028) have been key parts of the Rockies’ offensive turnaround this year, they could be expendable if the price is right. So could Troy Johnston (hitting .296) or Jordan Beck (demoted to Triple-A amid a rough season, but has potential). Brenton Doyle, going through another down year and injured for the last couple months, probably wouldn’t fetch much interest on the market.
Whatever the Rockies end up doing — or not doing — DePodesta & Co. are surely keeping in mind that the vast majority of traded prospects end up being fringe MLB roster players at best. There are few exceptions to that rule, so every trade made by sending a player with big-league service time for a prospect comes with inherent risk.
That fact is what makes DePodesta’s job of turning around Colorado’s fortunes all the more daunting amid his first trade deadline in LoDo.
“When I first took the job, I would have (said) that there are probably a lot of players that will be part of that next great Rockies team that aren’t yet here,” DePodesta said. “They might be free agents. They might be in the minor leagues in a different organization. They might be in college. I hope they’re not in high school.
“All of us here are anxious to make (the return to contention) happen. So we don’t want it to take an overly long period of time, but some of it’s out of our control, in terms of the talent we’ll be able to acquire.”
