The Rockies finally appear to be giving in and taking the long road towards rebuilding their organization.
Now that the Rockies have traded Troy Tulowitzki away, the Rockies are preparing to trade OF Carlos Gonzalez, reports Jon Heyman of CBS Sports.
“They expect to move him,” a rival GM told Heyman.
For now, the Mets don’t appear to be in on Gonzalez, reports Marc Carig of Newsday, although the Mets have had interest in acquiring Gonzalez in recent seasons.
Gonzalez is certainly doing nothing to hurt his trade value in 2015, especially lately. He’s stayed healthy all year long and has posted a .278/.332/.520 line with 20 home runs and 51 RBI in 359 plate appearances this season.
But he is a red hot hitter right now, currently enjoying a six-game hitting streak in which he’s hit seven home runs, driven in 15, and has posted a whopping 1.918 OPS. He has hit ten home runs in his last 15 games with a 1.525 OPS.
Of course, only four of those games have come away from Coors Field, a venue the three-time Gold Glove Award winning has always thrived in. He has a .301/.359/.577 line at Coors Field in 2015, hitting 12 of his 20 home runs in his home ballpark.
His home/road splits are not terrible, although there’s a huge drop off in production away from Denver. He has hit .256/.305/.463 with eight home runs and 19 RBI in 43 game son the road, which is pretty on-par with his career marks (.258/.313/.440).
The issue with his production is against left-handed pitching this season. He’s hit just .162/.222/.176 with only one extra-base hit in 82 plate appearances against southpaws, making him a huge liability against left-handers.
There’s also the injury risk Gonzalez has been throughout his career. While he seems on-track this season, he hasn’t played more than 135 games since 2010, and has never played in more than 145 games in his career. However, there’s a theory out there the thin air in Colorado plays a role in these injuries, so hypothetically a move out from Denver could benefit Gonzalez.
But Gonzalez still only 29, has an established track record, and is a left-handed hitter, the kind of hitter Joel Sherman of the New York Post has said the Mets prefer in their search for an outfielder.
He’s owed about $44 million through 2018, after which he can be a free agent. He would unquestionably provide an incredible amount of stability and credibility to the Mets outfield if he can stay healthy, and he probably could be had for less than it would have cost the Mets to acquire Tulowitzki.
But it creates a logjam in the outfield, both in the present and the future. Not that it would necessarily be a bad problem, but Michael Cuddyer is under contract through 2016, Curtis Granderson through 2017, and Juan Lagares through 2019. With Michael Conforto here already, it’s hard to find a place for all of this salary to play with regularity as it is. Adding Gonzalez for the next 2 1/2 years could make the scenario even more difficult to solve.
Just Mets 