Rockies tried to trade All-Star MVP Elias Diaz before cutting him

There was “no trade market’ for Elias Diaz?

What, like there was no trade market for Trevor Story?

Like there was no trade market for Jon Gray?

Full disclosure: There aren’t a lot of Brad Pitts up in the Grading The Week offices these days. Oh, but we’ve got ourselves a ton of Billy Beanes. And every one of them would happily bet you a case of Voodoo Ranger Juice Force that they could run a front office better than Bill Schmidt and the Rockies right about now.

And Diaz, who was the All-Star Game MVP in July 2023 and released in August 2024, pretty much underscores exactly why.

Diaz walks, Rox shrug — D

OK, so let’s all agree that a youth movement on 20th and Blake is all well, good, and overdue. Per Baseball-Reference.com, the Rockies’ two best players as of Saturday morning, based on WAR (Wins Above Replacement), were center fielder Brenton Doyle (3.2 WAR), who’s 26, and shortstop Ezequiel Tovar (2.8), who’s 23.

Team GTW? We love athleticism up the middle, especially at Coors, where the outfield gaps swallow you whole. You build around those two guys. If 25-year-old Michael Toglia (.220 BA, .785 OPS, 19 home runs going into Saturday night), who could always pick it at first, turns around his BABIP fortunes, there’s another decent piece.

Schmidt is an old scout at heart and an old scout indeed. Like his contemporary George Paton over at the Broncos, he’s made some interesting, if often benign, short-term veteran acquisitions, “bridge” guys. And like Paton, the draft is his happy place.

But the GTW crew is starting to think a.) Schmidt overrates his ability to reshape a struggling roster through that portal alone; and b.) Schmidt maybe likes the MLB draft a little too much.

This is the only rational explanation you can give for why the Rockies repeatedly and stubbornly refuse to sell high, or even mid-high when it comes to veterans on expiring contracts.