The Rockies continued their off season trade-fest by shipping off starter/reliever Clayton Mortensen to Boston for Marco Scutaro. Despite playing shortstop with the Red Sox, Scutaro will more than likely be at the top of the second base depth chart in Denver.
MY THOUGHTS
Most Rockies fans are absolutely in love with this deal, but I am more in the "it's great, but.." camp. On paper, this trade looks like an absolute steal for the Rockies, but I liked Mortensen. He didn't have the great pitching alphabet soup measurables like xFip and he had a miserable year in AAA with Colorado Springs, but he did okay in Denver. I didn't dread seeing him pitch, unlike several other guys in 2011 and to be honest I don't give a crap how badly someone pitches in Colorado Springs because Greg Maddux in his prime would have trouble there.
That being said, it is nice to get a proven starting second baseman in Scutaro in exchange for probably an excess pitcher. The problem there is what happens to Chris Nelson, Jonathan Herrera, and the guy I was really looking forward to seeing, D.J. LeMahieu. Nelson will probably make the club as a backup, unless he has an awful spring in which case he is probably done because he has no options left. LeMahieu is probably going to AAA to start the year. Herrera is the real wild card because I could see him being traded, released, sent down, or as an ML backup depending on his spring performance. I think this might actually set the main roster now we just need to get to Spring Training and figure out a pitching rotation and the position back ups.
5 comments:
Scutaro became a bit of a fan favourite during his stay in Toronto. He can be fun to watch & his interactions with opposing players is particularly amusing...he's a bit of a joker I guess you could say. Hope he does well w/ the Rockies.
Marco is an even better player on the field than he is on paper. I don't know anything about your guy so it looks like a BIG WIN for the Rookies.
Great move in getting Scudaro, I don't see Nelson making the team this season, he has shown nothing in the majors and has a worse glove than Herrera.
As a Cubs fan I was p.o.'d when they shipped out LeMahieu for Stewart. Now it looks like you guys might end up shipping him out. This is exactly how prospects are never heard from after they were hyped-lost in the shuffle.
Wow. Yeah, that's big for the Rockies. Good for you guys! I have no earthly idea who's going to play SS for Boston now. That should be interesting.
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