Free Agency filing update
November 27th, 2015
Before we get into how the Rockies handled their available players before free agents filed lets look at the Award winners around the bigs.
NL Gold Gloves
P - Henderson Alvarez (Philadelphia Phillies)
C - Buster Posey (San Francisco Giants)
1B - Ike Davis (New York Mets)
2B - Chase Utley (Los Angeles Dodgers)
SS - Starlin Castro (Chicago Cubs)
3B - Jedd Gyorko (San Diego Padres)
LF - Colling Cowgill (New York Mets)
CF - BJ Upton (Atlanta Braves)
RF - Marcell Ozuna (New York Mets)
AL Gold Gloves
P - Garrett Richards (Los Angeles Angels)
C - Ryan Hanigan (Chicago White Sox)
1B - Mark Texeira (New York Yankees)
2B - Dustin Pedroia (Boston Red Sox)
SS - Francisco Lindor (Cleveland Indians)
3B - Matt Dominguez (Houston Astros)
LF - Andy Dirks (Detroit Tigers)
CF - Mike Trout (Los Angeles Angels)
RF - George Springer (Houston Astros)
NL Rookie of the Year - CF Jose Soto - Colorado Rockies
AL Rookie of the Year - RF Kole Calhoun - Los Angeles Angels
NL Manager of the Year - Walt Weiss - Colorado Rockies
AL Manager of the Year - Mike Scioscia - Los Angeles Angels
NL Cy Young - Stephen Strasburg - Washington Nationals
AL Cy Young - Felix Hernandez - Seattle Mariners
N MVP - 1B Anthony Rizzo - Colorado Rockies
AL MVP - CF Mike Trout - Los Angeles Angels
The Rockies as you can see took home 3 awards this season, first up was CF Jose Soto who took home the Rookie of the Year award which is incredible if you remember he was just drafted last year! The youngster finished the season with a .300 average and a .377 on base percentage out of the leadoff spot. He finished with 80 RBI's, 37 Stolen Bases which was good for 3rd in the league and he led the major leagues with 115 runs scored.
With the payroll the team had this season and having the second best record in the big leagues this season manager Walt Weiss was a no brainer for manager of the year. Even so, Weiss seemed less than thrilled. "I don't give a damn about the award," he growled to reports, "I just want this team to win championships!" (games quote not mine lol) so we can see what motivated this team to perform so well this year.
The last award to showcase was midseason acquisition 1B Anthony Rizzo who came over in a trade for SP Justin Masterson and 3B Nolan Arenado. All Rizzo did was play 159 games hitting .347 (won the NL batting title) with 43 Home Runs and 131 RBI's and finished 4 runs behind rookie teammate Soto with 111 runs scored.
Team Off Season Notes
- The Rockies won the arbitration case for 3B Jordan Pacheco who will get a 1 year contract worth $850,000.
- The team lost the hearing with SP Jose Fernandez who receives a 1 year deal worth $5,437,500
- RP Joe Ortiz (83.1 IP 2.59 ERA) instead of arbitration this season the 25 year old signed a 4 year extension worth $2,610,000 per season.
- RP Sean Burnett was set to be a free agent but instead signed an intriguing extension. He is 33 years old and pitched 84.1 innings with a 2.45 ERA last season. He made $4.5 million last season but signed a 4 year deal worth $2.6 million the first season which increases to $4.2 million in year 2, $5.8 million in year 3 and a team option 4th year worth $7.4 million. Just hours after signing the deal the team found out that Burnett failed a league issued drug test and is suspended for 10 games.
- In a no brainer the Rockies skipped arbitration with 1B Anthony Rizzo and signed him to a 5 year extension worth $51,100,000 over the life of the deal.