DENVER, Colorado — The Rockies had one word in mind when they traded CJ Cron and Randal Grichuk to the Angles: pitching. They brought back two young arms: right hander Jake Madden (LA’s eight ranked prospect) and lefty Mason Albright (28th ranked prospect).
“We need to replenish as many starting pitching prospects as possible,” said Rockies Manager Bud Black. “And we’ve seen a few of our pitching prospects come up and I feel as though we need to add to that depth. We need to add to that quality.”
Second baseman Brendan Rodgers, who made his return to the lineup Monday night, talked about the frustration of having to keep making trades at the deadline, “You just gotta keep going year by year. Things are gonna turn around. I think we’re making some right moves and we’re heading in the right direction.”
Cron went from signing a minor league deal with Colorado to hitting so many homers into the cron zone! He hit .267 with 68 home runs and 226 RBI through 348 games. He was the Mile High’s summer all-star in 2022. Black gushed about Cron’s clubhouse presence, “Good leadership abilities, kept things loose but yet intense and professional at the same time. For two plus-years, he didn’t quite get to three, but he was a good Rockie. A real good Rockie.”
Colorado has routinely had to keep making moves at the MLB Trade Deadline as a seller, which Black says hopefully that will change, “We had pieces to give to people, but ultimately you want to be in those other shoes, getting pieces like we were those first few years. We’ll get back to that. We want to get in that position where we’re acquiring players and not trading them.”