Kiszla: Rockies need to wave white flag on lost season and trade shortstop Trevor Story – The Denver Post

All that stands between the reeling Rockies and the abyss is shortstop Trevor Story.

But Story can’t save our Bad News Denver Bears, stumbling out of the gate so ineptly they seem bent on being mathematically eliminated from the playoffs before the calendar flips from April to May.

The time to trade Story is now. Why delay the inevitable? Any delusion this team can be competitive has been exposed. Raise the white flag. Get on with the future.

Can anybody explain to me the rationale for holding onto Story? Does franchise owner Dick Monfrot feel guilt in the wake of letting DJ LeMahieu walk and alienating Nolan Arenado? At this point, can there really be fear of further irking fans by trading another star during this calendar year? Or could general manager Jeff Bridich be dragging his feet because he can’t pick up the phone and open trade discussions in a meaningful and reasonable way with peers throughout the major leagues?

Yes, the All-Star Game is coming to Denver. But it makes no sense to hold onto Story, so he can doff his cap in to the Coors Field crowd during pre-game introductions and be the subject of myriad rumors as the trade deadline looms on July 30.

After the Rockies gave away Arenado to the St. Louis Cardinals in the worst trade ever witnessed in Colorado, Monfort insisted the team was built to compete in 2021. After only a dozen games, that foolish optimism has been shot to the dark side of the moon.

The Rockies are a contender only to lose 100 games, and even if they don’t, there’s a very good chance there could finish an almost unfathomable 40 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West. You are what the standings say you are. Like it or not, Colorado is in rebuild mode.

Monfort and Bridich, however, seem stuck in denial mode, hoping manager Bud Black’s magic with pitchers and a small-ball approach can somehow make an undermanned roster respectable. Before disillusioned fans can forgive Monfort for letting a team that finished only one game behind the Dodgers in 2018 fall to pieces, the Rockies need to level with paying customers and present a coherent plan for rebuilding this mess.

The first step will be difficult. It will require saying goodbye to Story. If Bridich can’t make a trade that makes sense for a 28-year-old shortstop with power, speed and a slick glove, then why would Monfort keep him on the payroll for any reason other than blind loyalty?

To move Story will require fans, as well as Monfort and Bridich, to accept the harsh realities of a last-place team with little leverage in the trade market because the shortstop can walk as a free agent when his contract expires at season’s end. Even if Monfort offered to make Story the richest player in the game, and there’s absolutely no indication that will happen, why would he want to stay on a team unable to build a winner around Arenado?

While it will be difficult to get worse than the peanuts on a dollar obtained for Arenado, we also need to accept Colorado will not receive a household name in return for Story.

While we dream about trading Story for 24-year-old Yankees infielder Gleyber Torres, whose star has fallen since he took the majors by storm as a rookie in 2018, hoping Bridich lands a major-league player with all-star skills in the deal seems like a pipe dream. What’s a reasonable expectation? The Colorado farm system is in desperate need of a Grade A prospect or two.

Circumstances of the team’s own doing conspire against the Rockies winning this trade. But taking a step forward rather than a futile attempt to hold onto what’s already lost would be a move in a positive direction.

Colorado has yet to play its second homestand of the year, and it’s already come to this:

The best thing that can happen to the Rockies in 2021 is for Bridich not to mess up the Story trade.

Source: Read Full Article