Colorado Rockies Rumors: "Our Winter Is Not Finished"
The final comment from Colorado Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich during Tuesday’s introductory press conference for Ian Desmond inside Coors Field said a lot about where the Rockies are potentially heading next with their plans for 2017.
Rumors will continue to swirl about who the Rockies are pursuing in free agency, but Bridich made it very clear that Colorado considers Desmond to be the team’s first baseman.
“We signed Ian to be our first baseman. There’s been way too much conversation, way too much talk and planning for us to say otherwise right now,” Bridich said. “Look, there are certainly other priorities for this team as well. I’m focused on a lot of different things to try to make this team better and continue to make it better. I don’t think our offseason is done yet and our winter is not finished but Ian is our first baseman.”
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So what does that mean for the Rockies? Are they done in their quest to sign Mark Trumbo or possibly even Edwin Encarnacion?
Until those sluggers are off the market, rumors will continue about the Rockies adding another first baseman. Of course, theoretically, if that were to happen, Colorado would shift Desmond to the outfield (where he played last year with the Texas Rangers) and trade off one of their current outfielders.
One of the names often mentioned in rumored trade talks is Charlie Blackmon. He’s been linked to potential trades with Toronto (see here) and Baltimore (see here). However, Bridich says he’s talked to Blackmon about those rumors and their validity.
“We actually talked yesterday,” Bridich told reporters yesterday after Desmond’s press conference, including Thomas Harding of MLB.com. “I told him to take all the rumors and everything that he might be reading with a huge grain of salt. As the situation was with ‘CarGo’ (Carlos Gonzalez) over the past few years, there are teams that are doing their jobs and doing their due diligence and calling on our guys.
“But we have never come out and said, ‘We want or need to trade Charlie Blackmon.’ I felt like he needed to hear it from me. Unless he saw something directly attributed to me, he could take everything else with a grain of salt.”
Bridich’s comment about Colorado’s offseason not being complete would indicate the Rockies are still looking to boost their bullpen. With 38 slots of the 40-man roster currently occupied, Colorado has room to bring a pair of relievers on board.
Mike Dunn and Brad Ziegler are two of the most often-discussed names when it comes to adding firepower to the Colorado bullpen. We analyzed Dunn in this article and Ziegler in this article.