A Bird on the mound is worth five to the Sox?
Not. Good.
Full disclosure: Grading The Week’s baseball wonks, like most of us, can’t wait for the Rockies to get their 17th almost R-E-B-U-I-L-D — the dirtiest seven letters at 20th & Blake — since 2019 underway.
But it’s never going to get rolling, or much as it might, if Jake Bird and Ryan McMahon don’t pick it up.
Is Jake Bird cooked? — D.
Bird’s a good dude, and relief pitching is notoriously volatile, especially at Coors Field. But brother, he’s picked a cruddy time (to put it kindly) for regression to kick in.
The MLB trade deadline is July 31. The Rockies are painfully short on — well, everything. But especially short on attractive veteran assets that might entice contenders to ship over a few prospects in return.
For almost three months, the 29-year-old righty reliever looked like one of the best-kept bullpen secrets in baseball. Through May 31, he’d sported a 1.67 ERA over 23 appearances with only one home run allowed — a sliver of light within the darkest season in Rockies history.
Since June 1, that carriage outta town has turned into some kind of pumpkin.
Bird posted a 4.91 ERA over 14 2/3 innings last month. Over his first four appearances in July, that ERA shot up to 23.62, thanks to seven earned runs allowed — four of them over a third of an inning of work in Boston this past Tuesday during a 10-2 beatdown at the hands of the Red Sox.
The Bird with the Beard went to bed Friday night with an season ERA of 3.62. Still sexy by Coors standards. But also not the kind of CV that’s going to catch the wandering eyes of opposing general managers. There’s time, dude. But with the All-Star break coming up, it’s running short.
McMahon perking up? — B.
Bird notched the win against the Reds on Friday night to improve to 3-1 on the year, but not before giving up a run on two hits along the way.
McMahon’s weekend, by contrast, got off to a better start: A two-run homer in the fourth — his 13th — as part of a 3-for-4 night at Great American Ball Park.
The catch? Until Friday, it had been a rough 10 days for the Rockies’ affable third baseman. Over his first nine games in July, the left-handed slugger had hit .097 with a .281 OPS while striking out 13 times against zero walks.
The series-opening blast against Cincinnati was his first since June 20. The multi-hit game was his first since June 24. If nothing else, maybe a strong showing on the banks of the Ohio will catch the attention of the Reds, who went into the weekend getting the lowest collective Wins Above Average (-1.9) out of the third base position in all of MLB.
Et tu, DJ LeMahieu? — C.
Or maybe the Yankees, who could use a glove with pop on the hot corner, will swoop in and cycle out one Rockies infielder for another. Team GTW is pouring one out for DJ LeMahieu, the ex-Coors great who was designated for assignment by the Bronx Bombers last week despite a playable, if unspectacular, .266 batting average and a .674 OPS. DJ’s limbo isn’t expected to last long, though. This past Thursday, MLB Network’s Jon Morosi floated Seattle as a potential landing spot for LeMahieu, who struggled with third base in New York but offers a bat that still plays at first, second or DH.
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