Pitchers and catchers will be reporting before you know it and that means it is once again time to take a look at each aspect of the Colorado Rockies roster and see what kind of year we are in for.
The short version is that this team will almost certainly struggle to compete and will likely be focused instead on younger players that can contribute in the future.
Still, it’s worth grading them out by position to see the areas that need improvement.
That said, let’s begin with one of the few areas where the Rockies actually stack up quite well, on the infield.
Defensively, the Rockies could have one of the best infields in all of MLB. Ryan McMahon is coming off back-to-back Gold Glove nominations at third base and while someone named Nolan Arenado appears set to win that award in perpetuity, RyMac has proven himself to be truly elite.
Over at second base, Brendan Rodgers just won his first of potentially quite a few Gold Gloves and was even in the running for the Platinum Glove for best overall defender in the National League but once again lost to that Arenado guy.
Ezequiel Tovar, who is still just 21 years old, looks to take over at shortstop and while his Rookie of the Year campaign will surely come down to how he performs at the plate, the scouting reports on him have seen the potential for defensive hardware in his repertoire since he was a teenager.
If we were judging based on metrics like Defensive Runs Saved, C.J. Cron was actually in fourth place and just outside of the nominees at first base from a year ago, giving the Rox a steady presence there. Michael Toglia, another young player to keep a close eye on, also boasts potentially top-end defense especially after working with legend Todd Helton.
This means that on days when Toglia is playing, every spot around the infield diamond is manned by a Gold Glove caliber defender, making this specific element of the team easily the most impressive part of the roster.
Offensively, this group is a little more of a mixed bag.
Cron was phenomenal in the first half last season, rightfully earning himself an All-Star nod but his numbers plummeted after the Midsummer Classic, potentially from the weight of having carried the lineup for as far as he could. He ended the season with an OPS+ of just 107 which is good but not great.
Both McMahon and Rodgers have long shown promises of potentially being impact players at the plate but it has not manifested yet. They’ve each got power and developing discipline, but strikeouts and lack of consistency have held each back, so far, to being league average offensive players at best.
Tovar, as previously mentioned, is a big question mark here. He could, like most rookies, struggle to find a rhythm and spend most of the year catching up to big-league pitching. But there is also a reason why plenty of national analysts have tabbed him for a potential RotY run as his bat has tremendously improved the last few years. In the minors, that is.
A best-case scenario would see Cron stay at his first-half numbers more consistently, buoyed by better lineup protection in the form of McMahon and/or Rodgers finally taking that next step. Of course, a healthy Kris Bryant could help things quite a bit but we will get to him when we get to the outfield.
A worst-case scenario sees Cron putting up his second half numbers and starting to show signs of aging, McMahon and Rodgers plateauing where they are and Tovar taking time to adjust to the Bigs.
Still, as mentioned, from a defensive standpoint this group gets an A, maybe even an A+ depending on the day.
Where it matters most, though, there are still a lot of questions and so it is hard to give the best unit on the Colorado Rockies an overall grade any higher than a B+.