Report: Rockies Shopping Charlie Blackmon

Jon Paul Morosi and Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports have reported today that the Colorado Rockies are dangling outfielder Charlie Blackmon on the trade market in exchange for pitching. Due to the hitter-friendly park that is Coors Field, the Rockies have been unable to attract pitchers for years. The thinking, as it would seem to be, if they were able to flip Blackmon for pitching, they could then go sign an outfielder that might produce at a higher level due to playing 81 games at Coors Field.

Of course, the whole reason I'm writing about this right now is that Morosi and Rosenthal mention Texas as a possible trade partner, reasoning that the Rangers have been on the market for an outfield bat, and have been interested in Blackmon in the past.

In 2014, Blackmon put up a wRC+ of exactly 100 in 648 plate appearances, which is considered to be exactly average. Considering he's played his home games in arguably the most hitter-friendly park in baseball, one would hope to see a bit more production from an outfielder. Sure enough, looking deeper, Blackmon put up a wRC+ of 123 at home and 71 on the road.

While Texas has likely been on the market for an outfielder, I'm still of the belief that there's one caveat to that: If there's a fit. In this case, I can't really see Charlie Blackmon as much of a fit in Texas. I've made no secret that I believe the organization has a certain measure of belief that Ryan Rua can contribute to the ball club in 2015, and if that proves to be true, then pitching, not offense, is the main avenue for improvement at this point. As you may have noticed, that's become somewhat of a recurring mantra here at One Strike Away.

This is likely more a case of the national writers spitballing and throwing out potential destinations rather than speculating them as likely trade partners. Assuming that, I can't imagine that Jon Daniels is terribly interested in trading for an outfielder that, while putting up an OPS of .617 away from Coors Field, would likely possess less upside than internal options even as a fourth outfielder.