The Colorado Rockies may have landed their first baseman for the long haul.
That looks a lot different now than it did when they sent right-handed relief pitcher Angel Chivilli to the New York Yankees in exchange for TJ Rumfield during the offseason. Rumfield, 26, has turned his first season in Colorado into a serious breakout.
Through 134 games, he’s put together 3.3 bWAR, 13 home runs, and a .290/.383/.437 line with a 116 OPS+. His .383 on-base percentage is fourth-best in the National League, and that kind of production is hard to ignore for a player who wasn’t expected to be anywhere near this impactful.
“Rumfield is probably going to finish fourth or fifth in the NL Rookie of the Year vote, but he very much was not on the tier of a Kevin McGonigle or JJ Wetherholt as far as preseason rookie-year expectations went,” Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller wrote.
“In fact, Steamer had him projected for 78 games played and a minus-0.1 WAR. Yet, he might mess around and lead the NL in on-base percentage, presently triple-slashing .289/.380/.437, cementing himself as Colorado's everyday first baseman,” Miller added.
Rumfield didn’t have a clear lane to playing time with the Yankees, where Ben Rice blocked his path, and now Luis Garcia Jr. does as well. Colorado, though, has given him the runway.
That move has worked out for the Rockies, who are better with him than without him. And if Rumfield and All-Star catcher Hunter Goodman keep hitting, Colorado could wind up making life uncomfortable for some teams down the stretch.
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Yankees Suddenly Have A Frustrating Void At A Spot They Once Owned
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Snchezs 2017 win looked like the high-water mark, and it has been hard for the Yankees to recreate that kind of offensive edge at catcher since. The franchise now finds itself watching a spot it once seemed to own slip into uncertainty, with current and future options carrying the burden of restoring that Silver Slugger standard even as the wider history of the award shows how rare sustained dominance at the position can be. [Read more 🡒]