The Colorado Rockies have agreed to a contract with free agent outfielder Gerardo Parra. The contract is worth three years and $27.5 million with an option for a fourth year.
Parra originally came up with the Arizona Diamondbacks, where he spent six years. In 2015, Parra spent the season with the Milwaukee Brewers and then traded to the Baltimore Orioles.
Parra has been in the big leagues since 2009 when he broke into league with the D-backs. He has a career slashline of .277/.326/.404 with 56 home runs and 311 runs-batted-in. Parra is also a two-time Gold Glove winner.
Parra brings a ton of speed and experience to the table, but it leaves the Rockies with a plethora of outfielders. This could cause some problems and turmoil inside the organization. Colorado possesses three starting caliber outfielders in Corey Dickerson, Charlie Blackmon and Carlos Gonzalez, making one of these players expendable. There were rumors surfacing prior to the Parra signing, now it seems inevitable that one of them will be leaving the Mile High city.
Since the Troy Tulowitzki trade of last year, Gonzalez's name has been thrown around the market and he was a hot topic at the winter meetings. Currently, the Rockies are in talks with the Baltimore Orioles, whom Parra was recently with. Gonzalez brings the same thing to the table that Parra does except he is a little older, 30 compared to Parra who is 28.
If Gonzalez is moved, Parra would likely fill the void in right field taking over for Gonzalez. But, there are other possibilities that the Rockies could take.
They could shop Dickerson or Blackmon along with Ben Paulsen, who right now is set to be the true successor of Todd Helton, or even Kyle Parker, who split time between Triple-A and the big leagues.
If the Rockies did decide to replace Gonzalez with Parra they would be sacrificing a lot. In 2015, Gonzalez hit .271/.325/.540 with 40 home runs and 97 RBIs in 153 games played.
If the Rockies could find a way to move Dickerson, who has been injury prone for the last three years, or Parker then they could move Gonzalez to left field, which is a bigger area to cover at Coors Field, and slide Parra into right.
Parra would probably slide either into the two hole behind Blackmon or into the six hole behind Paulsen.
The Rockies finally decided to make a move in the free agent market and because of it and there surplus of outfielders, it will cause problems with other free agent outfielders such as Yoenis Cespedes.
This signing sets up a trade of a another talented outfielder, which helps Colorado in their quest for quality pitching. The Rockies will never bring in a big time free agent starter unless they vastly overpay, so the only other way is via trades, which is what they can do now that they signed Parra.