Remember during the offseason when Bill Schmidt promised that the Rockies would not block their young players? “[W]e’re going to give our guys opportunities,” he told David Laurila in early December.
That sounds like a general manager committed to letting the kids play.
Since then, however, the Rockies apparently have had a change of heart, going on to sign a number of free agents to one-year contracts. It’s an old strategy that sometimes works (e.g., CJ Cron) but often does not (e.g., Matt Kemp, Matt Adams, Taylor Motter, and Chris Owings).
Let’s save the free-agent pitchers for another day — most have not yet had enough opportunities to show what they bring to the Rockies, and pitching raises a very different set of issues.