Rockies Continue To Be Rockies, Give Two-Year Extension to Daniel Bard
The Rockies conjured up their own trade deadline magic, extending their closer, Daniel Bard, to a two-year contract extension reportedly worth $19 million. Bard, who turned 37 last month, has done a solid job as Colorado’s closer for the second straight season, putting up a 1.91 ERA — though with a considerably less impressive 3.55 FIP — in 37 appearances for the last-place Rockies this season.
Colorado had previously dropped hints that there were not going to be many, if any, trades of veteran talent this week. As this extension highlights, this was not a negotiating position to entice other teams to make more lucrative offers for its most valuable players. At this point, I doubt anyone in baseball thought otherwise, as the Rockies have long been notorious for not treating the trade deadline as an opportunity either to improve the team in a pennant drive or to rebuild/retool to help achieve future goals. For one of the best examples, look no further than last season, when they decided not to trade Trevor Story (to Story’s confusion) or Jon Gray, instead preferring to let the former walk for a compensation pick and, since he received no qualifying offer, the latter move on with no compensation for the franchise.
Don’t get me wrong: for a lot of teams, getting Bard as either a short-term rental or on this exact contract would have been a very good move. If he were not the best reliever plausibly available this week, he was certainly in the top tier, and a wide variety of contending teams with middling-or-worse bullpens, such as the Cardinals, Twins, or Blue Jays, ought to have had an interest in swapping prospects with real futures for his services. Bard’s 1.91 ERA this year is no more “real” than his 5.21 ERA last year in the opposite direction, but he’s an above-average closer, and it’s nice to be able to sign one of those in free agency to a two- or three-year deal at a reasonable price.
| Year | W | L | ERA | G | GS | IP | H | ER | HR | BB | SO | ERA+ | WAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 6 | 4 | 3.91 | 51 | 0 | 50.7 | 42 | 22 | 6 | 27 | 63 | 127 | 0.7 |
| 2024 | 5 | 4 | 4.03 | 45 | 0 | 44.7 | 38 | 20 | 5 | 25 | 55 | 123 | 0.5 |
Liking Bard for the rest of 2022 and/or the next two seasons is not the least bit odd; it just makes little sense for the Rockies to be the organization to act on that positive evaluation. Even more baffling is that, when it came to Gray, they never went above a three-year, $35–$40 million offer — one they didn’t even make until the very end of the 2021 season. Valuing a solid starting pitcher only a little more than a solid closer is just the latest example of this organization’s dysfunction. Why trade for a 22-year-old and have to wait 15 years for him to become a 37-year-old veteran when you can just keep the player you have?
About a decade ago (I can’t find the original reference), I was fond of describing the Rockies as having the exact same plan as Homer from the episode of The Simpsons in which he had to pass a class in nuclear physics in order to keep his job. Specifically, his stated scheme was to hide under a pile of coats during the final exam and hope everything would just work out.
I don’t think anything has changed. The franchise’s decision-makers have demonstrated little understanding, in 2022 terms, of why good baseball teams are good baseball teams, why bad baseball teams are bad baseball teams, and what events cause teams in one category to shift to the other one. The Rockies are poorly run in the same manner that a team from 1982 would be poorly run. Year in, year out, they throw a roster together with the finesse of someone dumping their underwear load from a laundromat dryer into their cart at 3 AM on a Thursday morning.
From time to time, the Rockies develop a young player that they’re forced to play because they don’t have enough Ian Desmonds or Gerardo Parri to block them, and they are briefly competitive, as they were in 2009–10 and 2018–19. The rest of the time, they’ll meander between fourth place and last in the NL West, misidentifying their bullpen as the primary reason they’re not successful. This is the worst-run organization in baseball since the Syd Thrift-era Orioles, and as long as the Rockies keep getting nearly 3 million fans in the park not demanding anything different with their wallets, there’s little reason to think things will change.
Dan Szymborski is a senior writer for FanGraphs and the developer of the ZiPS projection system. He was a writer for ESPN.com from 2010-2018, a regular guest on a number of radio shows and podcasts, and a voting BBWAA member. He also maintains a terrible Twitter account at @DSzymborski.
“We’re not the Dodgers. We’re the Colorado Rockies. We scout, draft and develop.”
– Rockies GM Bill Schmidt
Friedman just said he hates trading for relievers at the deadline, and the Rockies hate trading at the deadline, but that might be taking this stance a little far.
“And we repeatedly sign players in free agency to very expensive contracts in order to move them down the defensive spectrum.”
Although now that I think of it, the corner outfield in Coors is large enough that it may not be that much further down the defensive spectrum compared to third base. It’s just that Bryant is fundamentally unsuited to cover it.
Only for the Rockies would Dan jump at the opportunity to write on the weekend about a 2-year extension for a player projected for <1 WAR in every season.
Perhaps it is because only the Rockies would sign a 2-year $19M extension for a 37 year old player projected for <1 WAR in every season.
You all know that the $/WAR model doesn’t apply to relievers…
Every team in baseball would want Bars on that contract. The article makes that point. You all would want the team you root for to sign Bars to that contract. Come on..
Autocorrect is showcasing I text a lot more about bars than Bard, but you know what I meant
Dan probably doesn’t see this one as work.
I really wouldn’t doubt that this is a case of the team doing Bard a solid as he might wish to finish his career in the only place he has been really effective. He has had some mental issues in the past with pitching, but the Rockies took him out of street clothes and gave him another chance. Don’t knock a guy’s possible wishes if it means he goes out happy.
He was plenty effective in Boston. Not that this undermines your general point. Of course I think the Rockies should have demanded more of a discount for doing that solid. But I also don’t mind players getting paid more either.
Here I was, totally dumbfounded about this, but if that’s the scenario then I’m all for it. It’s just plausible enough that I want to believe that it’s true.
One of the main reasons the Rockies extended him is that they very clearly value him beyond his ability to get outs. Bard is someone the entire clubhouse looks up to (you can clearly tell) and he’s a good mentor for the young guys. Also important: Bard is very happy in Colorado, and I can’t be upset when the Rockies did right by him and gave him stability. It’s been a long road back and him and his family deserve it.
What they do next is the interesting stuff. Colomé might just get traded, but I suspect that’s where it ends, and they have a bit of a 40-man roster crunch coming up. Tovar should be starting in 2023, and if they sign someone good this offseason (BRANDON NIMMO PLEASE, as well as others) they’ll be a fun team to watch. I cant be mad at this because Im too happy for Bard and his family. Downvote me all you want.
Yep, Dan is my favorite writer, the Rox my favorite punching bag, but they did absolutely nothin wrong here. Feel good signing I think was a nice, good move. At some point the fans and PR do matter – not to the same degree, but – just like the O’s shouldn’t really even consider trading Mancini for fan/relations purposes.
The rest of the gripes have plenty of merit.
The thing they did wrong is sign a closer when they’re not trying to win baseball games.
If you don’t think the Rockies are not trying to win ballgames, you clearly don’t know a lot about the Rockies. They always want to be at least a respectable team, (and they usually achieve it), and ideally their windows to be postseason contenders coincide with waves of young talent from the farm and timely FA signings. That’s the plan, whether they execute it properly or not is debatable.
And I’ll say that it’s a very refreshing attitude in today’s MLB where every front office is extremely cynical and married to the concept of efficiency.
They’ve had two winning seasons in the last 12 years.
They play like a 90+ win team at Coors and will typically end up in the 75ish win area. They’re also yet to lose 100 games in a season. The M.O. is clear.
It’s kind of like how the Pirates were in the last few years under Neal Huntington. They judged it was better to be consistently mediocre than it was to tear down and start over. But of course, the collapse comes for many teams whether they think they’re dodging it or not.
I’ve been a fan of the team since they started, so I’m not sure how I “don’t know a lot about the Rockies.” But you’re right. A better phrasing would have been “are trying but failing miserably to win ballgames.” I’m not going to applaud extensions for their own sake. The entire problem with Dick is that he spends money very poorly, not that he doesn’t spend it at all.
I also have to disagree with the idea that they want to be a respectable team. They aren’t a respectable team, have never been, and Dick cares only insofar as respectability hurts his wallet. We’ve never won the NL West or much else, for that matter, and we will be also-rans behind the Dodgers, Padres, and Giants for the foreseeable future. We are playing for 4th in our division. I don’t call that respectable.
As long as the Rockies play well at home, management considers that respectable. It is what it is at this point. I dont doubt that Monfort would like to win, but it’s not high on his list of priorities. And well behind “making money” and “hanging out with baseball people”.
Yeah, you’re absolutely right about that. What Dick considers respectable and what we consider respectable are different things. Cheers, here’s to another decade of baseball bliss.
I’m not a Rockies fan, but I do think it’s possible that a guy who’s been through so much, like Bard, might not want the stress and pressure of being shipped off to a different team and having to pitch in a pennant race, where fans have no connection to him and will merely expect perfection from the guy their team gave up prospects for, and where failure could mean the end of his career. I’m happy that he and his family have security and stability now, and if that’s why the Rockies extended him, then good on them. (C.J. Cron has had personal issues of a different kind, so I’m not sure he’ll be going anywhere, either.) The fact that the team is popular even when they’re mediocre says a lot. Maybe it’s not an ideal landing spot for especially high-strung, hyper-competitive types—just try to imagine Max Scherzer as a Rockie—but I can imagine that for some players, getting paid well to live in a great city, and play in a beautiful ballpark in front of capacity crowds, in a figuratively and literally lower-pressure environment, maybe get playing time you might not otherwise get, and even put up some gaudy stats (if you’re a position player), might be pretty attractive, maybe even preferable to the alternatives. I TRULY don’t mean any of this sarcastically at all. Everyone defines job satisfaction and quality of life differently, and that’s OK. Maybe that’s why the Rockies don’t operate the way we think they should. Like their fans, maybe they just like going to the ballpark and cheering on their boys. People say flags forever, but the fact is, nothing flies forever. Maybe the Rockies are baseball’s Zen masters.
Interesting comment!
I believe the proper plural of Gerardo Parra is Gerardo Parrae, unless it’s already plural and the singular is Gerardo Parrum
The ontological consequences of the latter possibility are staggering.
“Why trade for a 22-year-old and have to wait 15 years for him to become a 37-year-old veteran when you can just keep the player you have?” Dan Szymborksi, I really enjoy your humor.
The comments have persuaded me that this could very well be a case where Bard genuinely doesn’t want to be in a new place, and if that’s the case, I will grudgingly salute the Rockies for making a classy move.
That said, it is absolutely staggering how frequently the Rockies give out market-rate deals on extensions. The whole point of an extension is that the player locks in some security now, they don’t have to worry about injuries, and the team takes a slight discount. As far as I can tell, the Rockies just do not ever get that discount. It’s only half a year but I don’t think they saved even a thousand dollars over what Bard would get on the free agent market next winter.
On a related topic…it seems that the Rockies are going to keep CJ Cron, no? And presumably, they’re not planning on DFA’ing Charlie Blackmon anytime soon? It’s not a huge deal but the Rockies have an enormous backlog of 1B/DH types in the minors and I’m not sure how they’re going to find out if any of them are any good. Elheuris Montero and Grant Lavigne are the ones that stand out now, but if either of Ryan Vilade or Michael Toglia learn to hit again they’ll also be added into the mix. They could probably fix this just by DFA’ing Blackmon, letting Cron DH, and letting Montero take over first. I realize that this would probably set the 2023 team back a little bit, and it would be wasted money, but you do eventually have to clear out space to let the young ones test themselves in the show.
(This will definitely be true next year if the Rockies also decide to sign another shortstop for next year and Ezequiel Tovar shreds AAA).
I’m totally speculating again, maybe a little irresponsibly, but it’s a little odd that C.J. Cron has bounced around so much in his career, despite hitting at an above-average level for every team that has employed him (tiny sample in 2020 for the Tigers notwithstanding). The Rays DFAd him after a 30 HR/124 wRC+ season in 2018, and basically, it seems like nobody wanted to keep him around. Perhaps it was just for baseball reasons (not the best defender, the Rays had a 40-man roster crunch, salary issues, etc.), but this winter, he testified that, while a member of the Angels, he had illicitly received opioid painkillers from Eric Kay. He also apparently struggled to come to terms with his friend and former teammate Tyler Skaggs’ death. Maybe teams saw him as a headache, justifiably or not, until he got to the Rockies and found a home, and/or teams are wary enough that they’re unwilling to offer the Rockies much in return for his services. Meanwhile, he’s apparently well-liked by his teammates, and I assume the fans like him, too. On the other hand, they didn’t bother to trade Trevor Story either, so maybe this is just my imagination running wild. But I’m charmed by the idea of the Rockies as a sort of island of misfit toys—where a ballplayer can go to get a second chance, relax, and just play, without all the scrutiny and pressure of having to win yesterday, today, and tomorrow, in front of cheering, capacity crowds who will stick by their guys through thick and thin. (My guess is that the famously intense Nolan Arenado and the famously relaxed Charlie Blackmon would rate their Rockies experiences very differently. I would honestly be very curious to see a survey of job satisfaction among players for each of the 30 MLB teams. But I digress.)
A creative, rebuilding GM with an excellent reliever on an expiring contract like Bard could do something like this, but with 1) being clear that he’s gonna get traded 2) offer a slightly over market deal to get the dude to sign the deal now if need be and 3) eat like half the money to really increase return.
Maybe 2) only works in an agreed upon sign-and-trade type deal like the NBA does, unless there’s a rule against it in MLB I’m unaware of. But the Rockies aren’t doing that. They’re wandering aimlessly in the dark.
Two points about this:
1. Dave Littlefield ran the Pirates until 2007, five years after the Orioles left Thrift on the curb with the rest of the recyclables, so I’m not so sure about that …
2. According to Wikipedia, Syd is short for “Sydnor.” Sydnor!
I think people (in general) underestimate how much front offices have improved. If this baseball front office got transported back to 1999 (the Syd Thrift era)–knowing everything it knows now–it would almost certainly have been a Top 10 front office. Possibly Top 10.
The main issue is that the Rockies are still stuck in the Dan O’Dowd era in many ways, which coincidentally also started in 1999. That was a front office that was really good circa 2005 and had become completely stale by 2010. They’ve changed a bit with the times, but not nearly enough.
It’s not that the Rockies got worse, exactly, it’s that the rest of the league that got far better.
*Possibly Top 3 or Top 5. Whoops, repeated something there.
I really don’t like it when the team I root for has a bad bullpen. I get that a good bullpen is a waste for a team that is not winning in theory, but I would rather my team pay a couple of million for a decent closer even though the team is bad, than not. Perhaps I’m not alone! So I feel this is a good to the fans move! If two million brings in extra fans per game that think like me. Then it’s a good business decision.
Rockies fan here. The issue is the rest of the bullpen is indeed really bad.
This jibes perfectly with my hypothesis about the Rockies. It’s all about today, the here and now. And when I say “here,” I mean literally here, at home, in Denver (well, not LITERALLY here, since I don’t live anywhere near Denver, but you get my point). If I’m a Rockies fan going to the ballpark, I understand my team can’t win every game, and there will be times when the other team just scores a ton of runs, or Hideo Nomo comes in and no-hits our boys—and Nomo was hella entertaining to watch! But I don’t want the boys to get a lead, only to blow it in the ninth, and ruin my fun evening out on the town.
See, the Rockies don’t play a 162-game season. They play 81 sold-out shows at Coors. Sure, they have to take it on the road another 81 times as a contractual obligation to MLB, but blah blah, I’m not there, who cares? I mean, if the Rockies fall, but we’re not there to see it, did they really lose? (I’m being a Zen Rockies fan right now.) HOW IS THIS NOT INCREDIBLY CHARMING, PEOPLE??? I mean, they wear purple! No other team wears purple! That’s my 3-year-old nephew’s favorite color (and one of mine), and now I want to buy him a Rockies jersey, even though we live in the DC area and I’m a Mets fan. The Rockies teach us an important lesson, that it’s not all about winning and losing. The joy is in the playing.
This a great comment. And as a Rockies fan, I can tell you right now that it’s entirely true. Side note: the Rockies usually play like a 90-95 win team at Coors Field. If all you do is go to the ballpark and don’t care about away games (as most people in the park do), the Rockies are a fun team to follow!
Thank you for your kind words! Sorry for my super-long comments, but from your reply, it feels like I really am onto something with the Rockies. There’s something beautiful and poignant about that kind of fandom. It reminds me of when I was a kid in the 90s, and the Mets were terrible, but I still loved them and watched every game, many of them at Shea. As long as they weren’t basically mathematically eliminated, it was like, so you’re saying there’s a chance! Any team can win on any given day, and any day your team wins is a good day. Last April at Coors, Jacob deGrom struck out 14 Rockies in six innings—yet he left the game down 3-2, thanks to Dom Nuñez triple and a Raimel Tapia homer, and had to be bailed out by the Mets’ offense. And who can forget that miraculous run Colorado had at the end of 2007 (coincidentally, while the Mets were imploding :-/)? Fans of other, non-Rockies teams, we’re a stressed-out bunch. But why? Being a sports fan is supposed to be fun. Don’t we watch to take our minds off of our troubles, rather than add to them? It’s something I’ve come to appreciate more as I’ve gotten older, and why I’m enjoying this Mets season so much. I started the season worried they’d be the new “worst team money could buy,” but within two weeks, I saw that they were pretty good, and I haven’t stressed out about a loss since. If they’re getting beat up, if they blow a lead, I think, “Get ‘em next time,” and I move on with my day. I’ll be happy if they win it all, but I won’t be disappointed if they don’t.
And unlike the rest of us, who mostly just love the laundry, and are eager to dump a guy if he slumps for a few weeks, I can see that Rockies fans love their boys, and it says something that their boys tend to stick around. Todd Helton and Chuck Nazty? Rockies for life. Kyle Freeland? Hometown kid made good. Tulo and Nolan, they got traded—they didn’t walk away. Heck, Arenado didn’t even want an opt-out in his contract. Who doesn’t love Daniel Bard—what an amazing story of perseverance and redemption! CJ Cron finally found a home, where he can dingers that bring the fans to their feet. Chuck Nazty is still out there, doing his thing, and maintaining his bond with the fans. I think it’s beautiful. I’ve never been to Denver beyond an airport layover, but one of these days, I’m going to make a trip out there to take in a game or two at Coors. I might even buy my nephew a purple jersey.
I find that the best way to remain a Rockies fan and enjoy baseball is to look at baseball like that: simply something that’s fun and relaxing. If they win, great. If they lose? Oh well, get em next time. That type of fandom allows you to appreciate the game, its quirks and the people within it a lot more than if all you care is wins and losses. I’ve reached that zen-like state of Rockies fandom in less than five years of following them and in my early 20s, by the way. I imagine in 15 years I’ll barely bat an eye if they lose 20 straight or something, at the rate I’m going.
Despite the popular notion, the Rockies hold onto their stars whenever possible. Arenado was traded because he forced his way out bc he was unhappy (which Dick Monfort cant stand, as he wants everyone to be a happy family), Tulo was a similar case, and that took a ton convincing for Monfort to give the okay. They held on to CarGo and Helton until they could no longer play, and are doing the same thing with Chuck right now. They would’ve re-signed Story if he’d wanted to stay. They signed Bryant because they wanted him to be a part of the organization since he was in high school. And so on. There is not a single organization in baseball that looks at transactions from a personal standpoint more than the Rockies. They’re different from the rest, and I can appreciate that.
The other part, too, is that we have tons of transplants (as you know). Even if Rockies fans stayed home, the park would sell out anyway. We become Chavez Ravine East several times a year.
Yeah that is a very important part of why the Rockies rank so highly in attendance no matter what. Loooots of Dodgers, Cardinals, Cubs (and others) fans in Denver, and they tend to show up a lot.
Is it possible to line this signing for all the reasons cited AND be baffled by the bulk of the decisions made by the GM & front office?
But why pick on 1982? The worst teams were the Twins (102 losses but featuring youngsters who’d be part of the ‘87 champs) and Reds (101 losses featuring the last remnants of the Big Red Machine of the 1970s.)
BTW: on the topic of those Reds teams from the ‘70’s; Sparky Anderson was known as “Captain Hook” for yanking starters earlier than other managers… so the general consensus has caught up with what a grown man called “Sparky” knew 50+ years ago. (sigh.)
Just when I thought I couldn’t hate the Rockies more, they do this. And I like Daniel Bard just fine and am happy he’s getting a bag. Just wish he’d get it from someone else.
The Colorado Rockies play in a beautiful ballpark that they go to great lengths to maintain. The game day staff is expectational. Coors Field boosts balls in play, triples, home runs, and reduces strike outs.
All of these things point hard to ‘fan service’ and giving the people what they want (but not, you know, a winner) which makes some of what they do so baffling. Why trade a beloved homegrown talent like Arenado if you’re otherwise so committed to fan experience?!? Daniel Bard is an awesome story and if he wants to pitch his remaining days in Denver I love this. I’m just so damn confused by all of it.
Italian grammatical note : I believe that the plural of Parra would be Parre, not Parri.