The Rockies aren’t looking to trade ace Ubaldo Jimenez. But there have been reports that a few teams, including the Yankees, have interest in the pitcher. Initial reports have the Rockies being interested in four top Yankees prospects: Jesus Montero, Dellin Betances, Manny Banuelos, and Ivan Nova. The Yankees are willing to move pitching, but none of the mentioned names. Here’s my take on it: why SHOULDN’T the Rockies ask for the moon? It’s not as if this is a team that’s kicking around with a .400 winning percentage. They’re six games under .500 after Sunday’s loss to the Brewers, but have a run differential near even, indicating that the team has been unlucky this season. “Unlucky” would be a good word to describe the Rockies, as the team stumbled out of the gate in April thanks to a horrendous month from Carlos Gonzalez, and hasn’t hit its stride since then. Going hand in hand with Gonzalez’s struggles were those of Troy Tulowitzki in May, meaning the team was down one of their top two hitters for the first two months of the year.
The major issue for Colorado this season has been pitching, though. Jimenez has struggled to the tune of a 4.08 ERA, a vast departure from his strong first half last season. Jason Hammel has also been awful, nearly walking as many as he’s struck out this year, and striking out a batter only every other inning. That’s not a good look. Jorge de la Rosa, who the team re-signed to a two year deal prior to the season, only threw 59 innings for the team before blowing out his elbow at the end of May. The best starter for Colorado this season has been Jhoulys Chacin, despite his high walk rate. The rotation has really struggled, with 14 awful starts going to Greg Reynolds, Aaron Cook, and Esmil Rogers.
But anyway, back to the topic at hand. Why would Colorado want to trade Jimenez? He’s the best pitcher they have when he’s on, and with the team having a lot of money tied up in Gonzalez and Tulowitzki this decade, they need to keep that rotation solid if they want to be contenders. I see no reason why the Rockies SHOULDN’T ask for the world from teams for Jimenez. He’s under guaranteed contract until 2012, with team options for 2013 and 2014. So any team that trades for Jimenez is essentially getting him for three and a half years, for under $20 million over that time period. That is an absolute bargain.
The most comparable deal I can think of is when the Diamondbacks traded for Dan Haren of the A’s. At the time of the deal, Haren was under contract for three more seasons (including a club option year) at $16.25 million for the three years. The salary matches up almost perfectly with Jimenez’s deall, but Haren is a better pitcher than Jimenez. The A’s got six players from the D-Backs, including a future ace (Brett Anderson), a future stud outfielder (Gonzalez), a pair of players who’d be able to eat innings for the A’s with roughly average production (Greg Smith and Dana Eveland), and a pair of hitters who didn’t pan out (Aaron Cunningham and Chris Carter). Ironically, Gonzalez and Smith would both make their way to Colorado in the Matt Holliday deal.
It’s not totally out of whack for the Rockies to be asking for the world from the Yankees. If I were in Dan O’Dowd’s position, I’d be doing the same thing. The Rockies shouldn’t be hurrying to move Jimenez. But if a team is willing to part with prospects like the Rockies are asking for from the Yankees….then that’s a deal you absolutely need to push the button on.
