Nolan Arenado Just (Very Bluntly) Called Out The Colorado Rockies For Disrespecting Him
MLB.com - Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado made it clear Monday he’s unhappy with the club.
After general manager Jeff Bridich told the Denver Post that he expected to begin 2020 “with Nolan in the purple and black and as our third baseman. So we can put this to bed …,” Arenado reacted via text to MLB.com.
“There’s a lot of disrespect from people there that I don’t want to be a part of,” Arenado said in a text. “You can quote that.”
In reaction to Bridich’s announcement, Arenado elaborated.
“You ask what I thought of Jeff’s quotes and I say I don’t care what people say around there,” Arenado said. “There is a lot of disrespect.”
Asked what was said that he found particularly disrespectful, Arenado said, "No. I won't get into the details."
It's amazing that you can give a guy $265 million and still disrespect him in the process. Like how stupid do the Rockies need to be to pull this off? If there's one thing you can't do right now, it's alienate Nolan Arenado during a trade window. Literally the only thing that can sacrifice your leverage is the explicit knowledge that he hates your guts. Let's go to the tape one more time.
“There’s a lot of disrespect from people there that I don’t want to be a part of. You can quote that.”
Short of calling the Rockies a group of selfish jagoffs, this is pretty bad.
Certainly bad enough to get the attention of every other GM, no? I mean if you've been stalling on a package for Arenado, this should definitely put you over the top. The reason he's mad is the Rockies refuse to build a competitive team around him. As of the time of this blog they haven't traded or signed a single major league player this offseason. And reminder, the Rockies finished in 4th place in front of the Padres in 2019. Reasonably speaking they're destined for the basement unless ownership grows some cherries and writes some checks.
If you're thinking about a deal for Nolan, you have to love that he's openly pissed with the Rockies. Who wants to sign a long-term deal and then get shopped a year later? That's a pretty fucked up set of circumstances and when you're literally the best at what you do, you can hold people accountable to your expectations. And in this case, Nolan's expectations are to not get jagged around by the organization.
That's a pretty simple ask from one of the best players in franchise history. And not to get too romantic over all this, but it's kind of ironic (maybe?) that at a time when everyone is complaining that No Rockie Has Ever Gotten Into The HOF, the Rockies are burning every bridge with one of our generation's most surefire 1st ballot players.
Stupid move, sure. But someone will end up benefiting from all this WHOEVER THAT MAY BE