Rebuilding Rockies will take more than just prospects after trading Troy Tulowitzki

Eventually the Colorado Rockies were going to have to do something.

Moving Troy Tulowitzki was necessary if the Rockies are going to have a future, but only if they got the right pieces in return. What the team got back in exchange for Tulowitzki and LaTroy Hawkins should be a good start, but the team can’t, and shouldn’t, stop there. Winning is going to take more than just acquiring prospects.

The Rockies have one of the worst teams in baseball. Not because of their offense or defense, but because of their pitching. Outside of a history of injuries with a multitude of players, the pitching has been Colorado’s only great weakness. Hindered by the thin, Denver air, it’s an issue that has plagued the team for years now.

With Carlos Gonzalez now on the chopping block, the focus needs to be with solid starting pitching and relievers. The Rockies can hit the stuffing out of the baseball, and their ability to do so is increased because of, you guessed it, Colorado’s high altitude. That’s not a problem.

What is the problem is that the pitching can’t keep opposing teams away from the seats, either. The organization had one top starter in Chad Bettis until he hit the disabled list. That’s not going to cut it, and it doesn’t help that the Rockies have few pitching prospects in their minor league system.

Despite a minor league system that battles the thin air, which makes injury recoveries more difficult, the Rockies have the eighth-best system in the majors, according to Baseball America. In the same token, pitching prospects aren’t the Rockies’ strong suit.

Colorado makes moves as if it’s a small market team, but it has a generous budget to work with -- one that just got exponentially better by shipping Tulowitzki and Hawkins off to the Toronto Blue Jays. That’s in excess of $50 million to work with.

While getting two large contracts off the books is a start, it certainly cannot be the end. For Nolan Arenado, the team’s All-Star third baseman, the returns of the trade didn’t sit too well with him. Especially when the team desperately needs a bonafide ace.

“I don’t know any of these dudes we got,” Arenado told the Denver Post. “But I think if we were going to trade Tulo, I would think it would be for an ace, an established veteran pitcher. Obviously we are starting to rebuild from the ground up.”

Colorado has one of the youngest teams in the majors, and the club just lost two symbols of leadership in the clubhouse -- on the pitching side and on the field. If the Rockies acquire more pitching, they need to do more than pick up prospects. You still have to plan for the present as well as the future, and burning what little tools you do have is not a recipe for success.

In 2007, the Rockies went on an historic tear and made it all the way to the postseason with a mediocre pitching staff -- with a 4.32 team ERA, which ranked eighth in 16 NL teams. Colorado was a .500 team for the majority of the year until September, when it tore down nearly every opponent in its path to include an 11-game win streak.

The 2015 team doesn’t have the starting staff nor the bullpen to contend in a postseason atmosphere, and its 4.91 team ERA is dead last in the NL. Experience was something the Rockies had in 2007. They haven’t had that recently.

“My first time here, I played in ‘07,” Hawkins said last month before he found himself traded. “We weren’t as young in ‘07, we had some guys that had a lot of major league time.”

“But the second time around it’s definitely a younger crowd,” he added. “If you’re not up for the challenge it is (hard to be a voice of leadership). But it’s not for me, it’s fine. I guess being a parent and having kids, I don’t wanna say it’s second nature but you get used to it.”

That doesn’t mean that the club is now devoid of all leadership, but in particular, experienced players from a winning team can have more of an effect. The mindset is different, but you can also have players with experience who aren’t contributing much of anything at their position. Hawkins experienced that for himself when he was demoted from the closer’s role after struggling to open the 2015 season.

Contribution factors into consistency, and consistency breeds either a positive or negative result. The Rockies have been consistently inconsistent, particularly with their pitching staff. Don’t discount the fact that the offense can dry up at times, but the team’s pitching gives up an average of 5.2 runs per game and you can’t expect the bats to score double-digits runs every game.

“We just haven’t been able to play consistently enough, really, for six months, to put together a winning season,” manager Walt Weiss remarked. “And that’s what it gets down to. We just haven’t gotten it done over, you could say the last five years.”

A pitching staff which gives up that many runs on average digs a grave for an organization before the team even takes the field. The Rockies’ starting pitching currently ranks second to last in the majors with a 5.19 ERA, and it doesn’t get any better when the bullpen is brought in since they rank last in the majors with a 4.55 ERA.
The Rockies’ offense, which averages 4.58 runs a game for third-best in baseball and the best in the NL, is good but it can’t churn out that many runs day in and day out. Even without Tulowitzki, the team still has a powerful offense, but running on a mouse wheel filled with potholes and ditches still spells disaster.

Depressing as that sounds, the players hadn’t given up. The Rockies’ clubhouse is a quiet one, filled with players who, Weiss noted, internalize their emotions, but they’ve made it work. They’ve also made the best of a bad situation, and really, when a team is hitting as well as they have and the staff keeps giving it up, sometimes that’s all you can do.

“I know how hard this game is and I know how easily it can turn around,” Hawkins remarked at the time. “You can easily fall on your face. So, I can understand it from all aspects, and that helps me with that part of it, as a team, when we’re struggling.”

Now that Tulowitzki and Hawkins are gone, those quiet bonds will be tested more than ever before. Imagine the Tigers suddenly trading away Miguel Cabrera. That would raise hell in Detroit. Well, the face of the Rockies’ franchise is no longer part of the organization, and he didn’t retire like Todd Helton did.

In order to rebuild, the team is going to need to do more than go all-in on prospects. While prospects are all well and good, young players need guidance and leadership, and two big pieces just got shipped off to another team. No ace, no veterans.

If the Rockies’ ownership and front office is willing to do that with such an established player, you bet it’s going to give potential free agents pause. It was a difficult decision that had to be made, however, when it came right down to the wire, Tulowitzki wasn’t asked like the owner had promised, there was no advance phone call. He got yanked in the ninth inning by his manager.

By the reports coming out of the aftermath of how the deal went down, it cost the trust of Tulowitzki and potentially incoming players. And maybe that of some of the fans. Rebuilding may not be limited to the team, but the trust of potential acquisitions and the fanbase.

There’s no way to know what the next couple of seasons will bring for the Rockies. They could make all the right moves and bomb, or become a force after rebuilding. How the organization approaches this will dictate their future. The groundwork has been laid, but at a cost.

There is a solid foundation in Denver. And the clubhouse still has leaders, each in their own way. Now it’s time for the Rockies to build on that. Whether it takes a year or four, if done right, Colorado can build something that doesn’t just compete for one year, but every season.