Should...should the Rockies trade Brenton Doyle?

In a dark, cold, dingy 2024 the Colorado Rockies were awful. That is not a secret or something that anyone reasonably can hide. They lost 101 games, they blew more multi-run 9th inning leads than anyone else in the league, they stunk at just about every position they reasonably could. And yet, through all of that, like a flower in concrete, they had something fun to watch.

Center fielder Brenton Doyle emerged in a breakout role for the Rockies, putting up 4 WAR (according to baseball reference), playing with an ability in center that the Rockies just flat out have not had in a long time (if ever) and a bat that actually had life to it hitting 23 home runs and 24 doubles. Doyle is already a two-time gold glove winner and one of the few legitimately bright spots in a horrifyingly bad roster that will surely lose a large number of games.

But, you probably are here because you read the title of the post. You probably read that and said aloud “no”. But bare with me. Should the Rockies consider trading Brenton Doyle?

In the preview article on Baseball Prospectus, Mario Delgado Genzor broaches the subject and I have to admit, it wasn’t something I had ever considered in my brain before. Mostly because, the Rockies don’t do trades like this. They are notorious for sticking by players for too long and refusing to capitalize on any “value” a player has in returning more players back to them. They famously let Jon Gray and Trevor Story leave for nothing, famously allowed Brendan Rodgers to wither on their own roster, and there are countless other examples throughout their history of them signing a player to a long term extension rather than seeing what a trade could bring in.

But, despite that, the idea has lodged itself in my brain. Doyle is a tremendously exciting player, but do the timelines not quite match? Brenton turns 27 in May, the Rockies are likely to be bad in 2025 and likely still bad in 2026. So that means by the time you’d think “ok they could have some quality teams here”, Doyle is 29. I hate to play virtual GM in the sense of a pocket book, but Doyle’s value as a tradeable player does drop as he enters arbitration and costs more money to have on your team. I don’t endorse this, I just speak it plainly. If you’re considering physical abilities (something that is likely Doyle’s main contribution to a good roster), center field in Coors is a very difficult place to maintain those. Half the reason the Rockies have never had a consistently great center fielder is because, well it’s extremely difficult to be consistently great and healthy as one. It’s a big outfield, the air is very thin. Things happen. Is there something to the idea that Doyle will not be as effective when the Rockies need him most to be?

The downsides of trading Doyle are also strong, don’t get me twisted here. The trade itself is a cold, calculated team building exercise that removes present fan enjoyment and Doyle’s feelings on his time in Denver, replacing them with a WAR algorithm and a timeline thought. Not to mention what Doyle’s impact is on a clubhouse that is about to get a lot younger. Should the Rockies be shedding young successful players as they rebuild? Would they get a return that is notable or effective at doing what it intends? Is the risk greater than potential reward?

This is the thought that goes into a lot of trades, I suppose. Fans and armchair GMs like to believe in the mantra of “trade your bad players for good players”, but there is always risk and it is sometimes steep. The Rockies would not be trading Doyle without the possibility that they trade a great outfielder that has found a legitimate swing, they could be watching Doyle go to the All-Star game for years with a different uniform on.

But, that doesn’t remove the idea from my brain. There is something to the thought that Doyle will be good for bad Rockies teams and mediocre for good ones. That his production could slip to a point that he proves to be a liability when the team at large is in position to win games. This is not Zeke Tovar, a player who is turning 24 in August and wouldn’t be turning 30 until 2031, long after the projected “competitive window” for the Rockies has begun. Doyle is older and may need his legs to stay as good as they are right now to be what the Rockies need, that is a risk too.

What could the Rockies even get for Doyle? What do they even need to strengthen? Would they be able to find a center fielder to replace him when they are good? These are all questions to answer as well. I believe Doyle could fetch a solid return. He is legitimately the best defensive center fielder in baseball, that is a very important position for any team in the league. If he produces 20 home runs and 20 doubles on top of that, you are looking at a player that becomes a PREMIUM value. Not many teams have that combination.

In terms of what they could strengthen, well that would be always pitching. General Manager Bill Schmidt hasn’t done much different in the ways of player evaluation compared to his predecessors, but he has done a good job of taking on interesting pitchers and stacking the deck for the development team. Past regimes famously emptied the tank on pitching prospects and eventually, ran out of guys who could throw even a lick. This most recently led to the team committing a lot of money to bad starting pitchers because they had no other options. A Doyle trade could grow this stockpile even further. They could have enough pitchers that injuries wouldn’t require them to bring on Dakota Hudson or Ty Blach types. There is something to be said from the Dodgers dynasty and the Tampa Bay Rays continued success that with starting pitching the best ability is availability but the second best ability is…having lots of dudes for when you lose that availability. Not a quantity is greater than quality argument but that having 15 league average guys is probably better than having two elite ones and 13 bad ones. Or in the Rockies case, two league average guys and 13 bad ones. A Doyle trade could strengthen a system that needs to be strong not just for a couple of years but almost all the time.

Now, the risk becomes apparent when you start to think about who would slot in behind Doyle. Not in the present case, but in the future state when they need a center fielder on a team that could compete. An elite defensive center fielder doesn’t just grow in the ground. If they did, the Rockies would not be so happy to have Doyle in the fold. In the system, is Cole Carrigg good enough? Is someone else? That’s not a question anyone has an answer to. But the Rockies likely need a decent enough answer if they were to trade Doyle away.

In the end, I just can’t shake that this might be a good idea. Even with Brenton being as good as he is, I worry that his premium value seasons and the Rockies “good” years are ships in the night. It might be a moot argument though, the Rockies have hinted at a long term extension for Doyle and even if they hadn’t, this is the Rockies we are talking about.

So it goes.