The Colorado Rockies are a unique baseball franchise for several reasons, but perhaps they are most notable for going against the grain and having a different approach than other teams. This was apparent this morning as it was announced the Rockies swung a trade with the Rays for utilityman Greg Jones in exchange for lefty Joe Rock. While Jones is an interesting prospect, myself (and many others), are definitely wondering “what were the Rockies thinking!?”

Before we get to the doom and gloom of this trade, there are plenty of positives. Jones, a first round pick by the Rays out of UNC-Wilmington, has tools for days. Jones has almost top of the scale speed and has plus raw pop as well. He also provides a ton of defensive value as he is an above average defender at shortstop and in centerfield. He made it to Triple-A last season and hit .278 with 7 home runs in 51 games. On one hand, you can see why the Rockies made this trade. Prospects like Jones don’t come around everyday and if everything clicked for him, he could be an All-Star. However, there are plenty of reasons why this may not have been the smartest move by the Rox.

It’s become common knowledge tha trading with the Rays is a risky business that rarely works out for the other team, (with the exception of the German Marquez trade). Disregarding even trading with the Rays, there are plenty of concerning traits in Jones’s profile. For starters, Jones struck out in almost 40% of his plate appearances last season. He particularly struggles against secondary pitches. At the moment, he’s a four-tool player as the hit tool may be fatally flawed. Even though he hit .278 in Triple-A, that was aided by a .440 batting average on in balls in play (BABIP). Jones also hit a much less promising .173 in 20 Double-A games. Jones, 26, is also a bit of an older prospect.

Even though Jones has plenty of positives, this looks like an overpay by the Rockies. Rock is a solid prospect likely to have picked up some solid innings with the team this season and certainly next year. I won’t go to much into his scouting report, but he was recently ranked 14th on our Rockies prospect rankings. Rock was one of the best pitching prospects in this system and for a team that’s rebuilding, this cuts against the organization’s biggest goal of recreating a stable rotation. Perhaps that’s where the Rockies reasoning lies; was Rock likely to stick in the rotation? His minor league numbers strongly suggest so, but his 3-pitch arsenal weighs somewhere in the middle.

As stated before, Jones is an exciting prospect with tons of potential. The Rockies deserve credit for taking chances on toolsy prospects being pushed out by former teams (like Nolan Jones). However, this seems like a serious overpay with huge risk and while I hope this trade works out for them, it could end up a stinger in the long run.

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