The Colorado Rockies made a number of roster moves on Wednesday within the span of two hours, and Skyler Timmins did a marvelous job of keeping up with them:
- First, they traded RHP Angel Chivilli to the Yankees for 1B T.J. Rumfield
- Then, they designated OF Yanquiel Fernández for assignment
- Finally, they traded RHP Jace Kaminska and cash considerations to the Twins for INF Edouard Julien and RHP Pierson Ohl
At 2pm, Paul DePodesta hopped on Zoom with the media to answer questions about the moves and what they mean for the future of the organization.
On the decision to trade Angel Chivilli
I wouldn’t say we necessarily wanted to [trade Chivilli], because he obviously has a terrific arm, he’s still very young, he did miss a lot of bats. I think there are a lot of things about Angel that are really attractive. We weren’t anxious to move him, but we did feel like our bullpen is a real area of depth, and there have been clubs asking about a number of our bullpen arms throughout the course of the last couple months. And ultimately, this was a deal that seemed to fit and seemed to come together for us. It wasn’t a situation where we were looking to move him by any stretch, there was just enough interest, and I found a deal that ultimately made sense. But we were dealing from an area of strength where we could then bolster our position player club going forward.
On TJ Rumfield
We think he’s a solid defender at first base to go along with the bat. He’s been a very productive hitter the last two years in Triple-A as a 24 and 25-year-old. I think he’s got really good bat-to-ball skills. He has some emerging power. But he’s a guy that can manipulate the barrel pretty well, and as a consequence, has hit for average along with some of that juice. So we think he’s a nice combination of skills and is very capable at first base.
On the decision to DFA Yanquiel Fernández
It’s hard, to be honest with you. We’re now certainly at a point where we feel like every time we make a move, we’re losing someone we like or potentially losing someone we like. And that was certainly the case with Yanquiel. He’s been a good prospect and got a chance to get his feet we at the major league level last year. He has some power, so it’s hard.
I think at this point we felt like we did have some depth outfield-wise, especially with the left-hand hitting outfielders. We now have a group in the big leagues that we feel pretty good about. We also have a handful of guys on the 40-man who maybe haven’t yet gotten a lot of time in the big leagues, or even any time at all with, like, Sterlin Thompson. So it really came do to that where, if we lose someone, in what part of the roster can we afford that? And right now, I think that left hand-hitting outfielder spot was where we were just a little heavy.
On Edouard Julien
I think we’re certainly intrigued by the bat. I think he had a really, really good track record, even going back to the time when he was in High-A, Double-A, Triple-A into his rookie season. He’s produced at the major league level at different times. The last couple of years, he hasn’t had as consistent of opportunities that he had that rookie year, but we like the versatility. He can play first, he can play second, and we like that left-handed bat against right-handed pitching. So we think there are probably some different ways that we can use it.
On Pierson Ohl
I think he could do a little bit of both (opening and relieving). He’s also started in the minor league, and his mix is a little different, depending on whether or not he was starting or relieving. But he’s a very, very good strike thrower. He does have some good pitches in his arsenal to keep hitters off balance. Principally, he has the changeup but he also has a feel for a handful of other pitches. So I think philosophically, he fits with us really well and could pitch in a multitude of roles for us.
On the left-handedness of the recent trades
I think there were some struggles last year against right-handed pitching in general. And obviously, you’re going to see more right-handers than left-handers, so I think it certainly was a focus for us as we went through the offseason to make sure we had a few more weapons from the left side, if possible.
On creating roster competition and positional flexibility
I think what we’re really trying to do is create, I think, really healthy competition on our roster [with these moves]. Now, most of the players we have acquired do have a good amount of versatility. I think there are lots of different ways that the pieces can fit, and I think that’s really what we’re looking for.
And I think we’re also going into the idea that the roster is going to be fluid through the course of the year. We all know that we’ll have injuries, we’ll have players that maybe don’t perform the way you expected them to, etc. and I think these players having versatility just makes our roster a little bit more robust. So we may not be done adding — we’ll see — but we did want to make sure that we had healthy competition at a handful of these different spots and then different ways to put the puzzle together.
I don’t think we’re going to be taking positions away from any guys who are capable of playing. In fact, it may actually be the opposite. This spring, you may see some guys playing some positions that maybe they haven’t played as much in the past, just to see if we can’t increase their versatility.”
On a common thread
There are certain things we want to be able to do as a team. I think we know it’s really hard to get all of those attributes in a single player. But as a team collectively, we want to be able to do a lot of different things. We know we need to get on base more; we know we need to chase less; we’d like to hit for some more power; we want to be able to run the bases more effectively and have that be more of a weapon on our team.
So trying to accomplish all these things at once, again, is really hard to do with just one player. But I think each of the players that we’ve acquired have pieces that have elements of those goals, and we’ll bring those to our team as a whole.
On continued player development
Last week, we had our summit in Denver with all of our baseball personnel. And one of the real themes of that was that development never stops, and I think Schaeff and his entire staff at the major-league level are committed to continue to develop guys, even at the major-league level. That’s something that we’re going to be focused on, not just this year, but I think going forward in the organization and really sort of bring that into the development that the players have already had in the minor leagues. But there’s not doubt we think that there are heights yet to be reached for all these players, not just the ones we’ve just acquired, but even for the players we’ve already had on our roster.
On acquiring another starting pitcher
We continue to engage on finding even more pitching, largely starters, because we feel like we’ve got pretty good depth in our bullpen, but we’re looking at all different avenues. So far this offseason, we’ve traded for folks, we’ve claimed players, we’ve signed free agents, and I think we’re still actively looking through all of those avenues for additional starting pitching.
On Charlie Condon and the future
We love Charlie, and I think we’re very excited to have him. With all these moves, I think back to probably 25 years ago or so when I was with Oakland and we were in spring training and we were adding one more player, and there was some concern about how he was going to fit. And I remember Billy [Beane] at one point saying, ‘Do we finally have too many good players? Is that the point we’ve reached? We have too many?’
Obviously, we’re not there yet. We’re going to keep adding talent to this roster, but in no way are we not believing in the young guys we have. We have a lot of really good young players that are in Double-A and Triple-A, and there’s no doubt in my mind that they’re going to earn their opportunities on this team. And once they do, they’ll have long runways with us.
As we keep saying, the Rockies have a vision. They seem to have a clear idea of how they want to construct their roster and the things they’re looking for in players.
It’s also a breath of fresh air to hear from Paul DePodesta as often as he’s been available.
What are your thoughts on the Rockies’ roster moves? Do you think they’ll make more? Let us know in the comments!
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