The Rockies quit
In theory, I guess I could write one of these articles for like half the league
Over the weekend, the Rockies agreed to trade Nolan Arenado to the Cardinals. Arenado, who has been their franchise player for years and whose contract extends for a lot more years, had been unhappy with the direction of the team for a long time.
In this case, “unhappy with the direction of the team” means that the team sucks and will continue to suck for years in the future because they have no viable plan to not suck. Thank you for reading this installment of Euphemisms For Everyone.
Instead of building a team that didn’t suck around Arenado (and Trevor Story, presumably the next Rockies star to be traded), they chose to give up and try again in a few years. And to be fair to the Rockies front office that surely wrestled with that decision, it might well have been the right move. To be fair to Rockies fans, though, if it was the right decision it’s because the Rockies front office is wildly incompetent and has no idea how to build a winning team.
So, uh, sorry I tried to be fair to you, guys.
This deal is likely to benefit the Giants, of course, since Arenado has tormented them ever since entering the league. It will benefit the Cardinals, who acquired a big star for a reasonable price. And as for the Rockies, well…
From all accounts, the prospects the Rockies got back are fine, but nothing special. And while they saved a lot of future money, they didn’t save quite as much 2021 money as it might seem:
This is especially strange because 2021 is Pandemic Times and years after 2021 will presumably not be Pandemic Times. In 2021, there will be less revenue to go around; teams that cry poor will cry poorer and teams with treasure chests full of gold will still be hesitant to open them up to purchase baseball players. Yet the Rockies, whose main motivation in this deal is to save money, are still paying quite a lot of money this year, the year in which saving money is more important than in any other year, to a man who will not even be on their team.
This is because in sports, it’s okay to not try. Now, it’s not okay for any individual player to not try: if a team loses a game because of one player not giving it his all, that player is a parasite and a malcontent, a problem child who has no business masquerading as a professional athlete. But a front office, well, that’s different. Sure, in theory it’s their job to put together a winning team, but if they can’t, oh well! Might as well make your team as bad as possible to get a good draft pick.
The Rockies are basically not trying to win, and they’re not really trying to save money either, and it’s okay because this is a normal thing for baseball teams to do. You punt on your present to not even have a better future, but because punting on your present looks like action, you get a pass. The illlusion of momentum is more important than that momentum going in the right direction. If one of the players turns out to be good, great! If not, hey, you win some, you lose some, and if you’re the Rockies that second “some” is a whole lot bigger than the first one.
At some point there has to be a breakdown, where fans stop paying time and attention and money for a team that isn’t worth it. Baseball is a normal American thing, but it’s not invulnerable to stagnation-induced fan apathy. Rob Manfred thinks that stagnation can be solved by expanding the playoffs and adding the DH, but the only real answer is to make teams fucking try.
For years, people have been (rightfully) decrying the Rays model of trading players as soon as they start making money for younger players who they will eventually trade as soon as they start making money. But I don’t think that’s really the future of baseball. I think the future of baseball isn’t in Tampa, but a little further south, in Miami.
Twice, the Marlins have won the World Series, and twice they’ve immediately torn their team down because they didn’t want to pay them the money they owed. Before the 2012 season, they signed three top free agents: Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle, and Heath Bell. Before the 2013 season, they’d all been traded. This is the future of baseball for all but the big market teams: brief runs of success and brief runs of trying that all lead to the same place: giving up for years.
I might think that the Marlins are the future instead of the Rays, but it’s kind of a moot point. No one goes to either team’s games. They can’t build fanbases because fans don’t trust them to keep the guys they like to watch. This is what baseball is trying to become in most of the country. Teams are going out of their ways to turn themselves into the Marlins. At some point, their fans have to ask why bother sticking around? After all, it’s not like their team has a star third baseman anymore.