Five big spring training questions
For the first time since 2011, the Rockies will hold spring training without Nolan Arenado.
The star third baseman was traded to St. Louis on Feb. 1, dramatically altering the makeup of the Rockies. Replacing Arenado in the field and in the heart of the order is a huge task, but it’s only one of many issues facing a team that has posted a .437 winning percentage over the past two seasons.
Here are five big questions facing the Rockies as the start of spring training approaches:
1. Who’ll replace Arenado?
Eight Gold Gloves, four Platinum Gloves, four Silver Slugger awards and 235 home runs are not easily replaced. Impossible, actually, according to Ryan McMahon, who’ll likely be Colorado’s new third baseman.
McMahon, who became Colorado’s primary second baseman when DJ LeMahieu departed after the 2018 season, grew up playing third base, so he’s comfortable there. Spring training will provide him with a chance to refresh those skills.
What he must improve is his performance at the plate. He hit for power in the truncated 2020 season — nine home runs, six doubles and a triple — but there were holes in his swing. He hit .215, with a .295 on-base percentage and 66 strikeouts in 193 plate appearances (34.2%). Knowing that’s not good enough, McMahon has made subtle adjustments to his swing and approach. McMahon won’t make anyone forget Arenado, but he believes he’s ready for his new job.
2. Is Rodgers ready?
Ideally, the Rockies would like Brendan Rodgers, the third overall pick of the 2015 draft, to win the second base job outright this spring. After multiple injuries, including surgery to repair his right shoulder in July 2019, Rodgers needs to take advantage of this chance. He’s a natural shortstop, but that job belongs to all-star Trevor Story, at least for now. In 32 big-league games, Rodgers has hit just .196 with no home runs and a .462 OPS in 102 plate appearances.
If Rodgers can’t lock down the starting job, it could go to either Garret Hampson (who’ll also compete for time in center field and back up McMahon at third) or journeyman Chris Owings, who signed a minor-league deal with an invitation to spring. Owens slashed .268/.318/.439 over 44 plate appearances in 2020 as a utility player before a hamstring injury limited his season to only 17 games. Manager Bud Black likes having veterans like Owens on the roster.
3. Who’s on first?
It should be Josh Fuentes, Arenado’s younger cousin, as long as Fuentes proves he can provide consistent offense and become a more disciplined hitter. When supplanting veteran Daniel Murphy in the starting lineup toward the end of the 2020 season, Fuentes flashed a terrific glove and was credited with nine runs saved, tied for ninth-most in the National League. In 30 games and 98 atbats, Fuentes hit .306, with a .470 slugging percentage, while knocking in 17 runs.
Also in the mix are prospect Colten Welker, who advanced to Double-A Hartford in 2019, and Greg Bird, the former Grandview High School star, who signed a minor-league deal on Thursday. Bird, 28, looked like he might be the Yankees’ first baseman of the future when he slashed .261/.343/.529 with 11 homers in 178 plate appearances in 2015. His career, however, has been stalled by a series of injuries.
4. Who’s the fifth starter?
It’s the eternal question of spring training. The first four pieces of the rotation are set: right-handers German Marquez, Antonio Senzatela and Jon Gray, along with left-hander Kyle Freeland.
Lefty Austin Gomber, the only major-league-level player received in the Arenado trade, will be given every chance to win the job. He was a swingman in St. Louis, working as a starter and a reliever. He made his major league debut in June 2018, posting a 4.44 ERA in 29 games (11 starts). After spending all of 2019 in the minors, Gomber was back with the Cardinals in 2020 and impressed, putting up a 1.86 ERA in 14 games (four starts).
Others, including Chi Chi Gonzalez, who’s back via a minor league deal, will get a shot. Ryan Castellani (1-4, 5.82 ERA in 10 games/nine starts in 2020) needs to improve his command to get a chance. Fans are eager to see left-handed prospect Ryan Rolison, but he won’t make the rotation out of spring. He’ll likely start at Double-A Hartford, could make a pit stop at Triple-A Albuquerque and might get a September call-up to the majors.
5. What’s Ian Desmond’s role?
At 35, the veteran is entering the final year of his five-year, $70 million deal. Desmond chose to sit out the 2020 season, and while he’ll certainly report to camp in shape, his role is undefined and it’s fair to question how much he has left to give. He most likely will back up Raimel Tapia in left field and could get at-bats against lefties if the lefthanded-hitting Tapia struggles against southpaws.
Barring a miracle, Jeff Bridich owes Skip Perry 25 bucks. For 14 consecutive springs, Perry of Golden and his pal Cheesy Rex from Parker have put down the same friendly bet: Whichever team has the better season, Perry’s Chicago Cubs or Rex’s St. Louis Cardinals, has to pay the other guy $25 at the end of the year. If one of the two squads happen to win a World Series, it’s $50.
Most years, as you’d expect, it’s Skip, a native Chicagoan and the owner of Wrigley’s Chicago Bar & Grill in Golden, who’s forking over the cash. But he still revels in 2016, the autumn when the clouds finally parted on the North Side, the Cubs won their first World Series since 1908, and Rex had to pay the heck up. Which he did. In pennies.
“Two boxes, $25 each,” Perry laughed.
They’ve still got those pennies — and those boxes — under plexiglass at Wrigley’s, an oasis of Cubbie blue about 10 minutes north of Red Rocks. But thanks to Bridich and the Rockies’ dealing Nolan Arenado from Coors Field to Busch Stadium, the balance of power in the National League Central just tilted hard red.
If you’re a Cards fan along the Front Range, it’s party time. But if you’re a Cubs fan — and they’re everywhere in greater Denver — it still feels as if Bridich, the Rockies’ embattled general manager, just stuck a rusty trowel in between your shoulder blades.
“You can’t change stupid,” Perry said of Bridich. “So do I think any worse of him than I did? Not at all. They’re not very good management. They’re not very smart.
“It was never personal, up until now,” Perry said. “Mess with our division? Now it’s personal.”
The Rockies got a majorleague arm (Austin Gomber) and
four lottery tickets. The Cardinals got a five-time All-Star and an eight-time Gold Glove winner on the hot corner. Oh, and $51 million.
“I said, ‘It’s done. That’s it,’” Perry said of the trade, which became official Feb. 1. “Before we could kind of stay level, either with the Brewers or Cardinals. But this puts (St. Louis) so much ahead.
“What idiots you are to make this stupid trade and give them $51 million. How do you save money when you eat half his contract and get nothing for him? We’re crying in our beers. That’s what we’re used to, other than in 2016.”
Rockies fans wear bruises. Cubs fans wear scars. Perry has lived in both worlds for much of his life, having grown up in the Windy City’s Northwest suburbs before attending CSU. He moved back east and worked at the
Chicago Tribune for 25 years before coming back to the Front Range and opening Wrigley’s with wife, Paula, in March 2008.
Skip can run down the starting lineup of the Cubs’ ill-fated 1969 roster by uniform number. He proposed to Paula at Wrigley Field in 2006.
When Perry called the lady in charge of scoreboard announcements at Wrigley Field 15 years ago and told him he needed a marriage proposal displayed the very next week, she almost laughed him off the line.
“I don’t care if you know the president of the Chicago Tribune,” came the reply. “You’re not going to get it next week.”
The Tribune owned the Cubs then and Skip, as a matter of fact, did know the president. So he made a call. A few minutes later, the Cubs scoreboard lady rang him back.
“I don’t believe you know the president of the Tribune,” she said with a gasp.
When the big day came, in the bottom of the fifth inning, the announcement appeared. Skip got down on one knee. Paula squinted from their seats behind home plate at the scoreboard. She looked … indifferent.
Oh my God, Skip thought, she’s gonna say no.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
“There’s another Skip and Paula here, and they’re getting married. What are the odds of that?”
“Sweetheart,” he replied, “that’s you and me.”
She said yes.
Over 22 years here, the Rockies became his second-favorite team. At least until they turned around and kicked his favorite squad where it hurts.
“It still hurts. Hurts me all the way around,” Skip said. “It hurts my Cubs team. It hurts my Rockies
team. And it hurts my business.
“It’s still a hot topic and everyone’s still talking about it. And still talking about it in such a sad way. In 2015 and ’16, the Cubs were in such an upswing. And now we’re just losing.
“The Cardinals are still the best organization in all of sports … we have our little three-, fouryear spurts where we’re going for it and then 10 years of nothing. And it looks like we’re in (for) another 10.”
FanGraphs.com now predicts the Cardinals to take the Central with 82 wins. The Cubs are projected to win 79. The Rockies, just 67.
So, naturally, Rex wants to up the ante.
“He said, ‘Gosh, let’s up the bet to $100 this year,’” Perry said. “And I said, ‘(Expletive) you, Cheesy Rex.’ I mean, they’re very confident.”
Thanks, Jeff. Thanks a lot.