Isaac Stevens & Tyler Paddor | August 1, 2025
The Rockies swung three trades prior to yesterday’s deadline, acquiring 5 total prospects, including 4 that slot into their MLB.com top 30. Some fans wanted more deals. Jimmy Herget seemed likely to be dealt. Seth Halvorsen was a hot name, though came with a hefty asking price as a player with 5 years of team control remaining. Mickey Moniak had some attention.
Ultimately, the Rockies dealt Ryan McMahon, then Tyler Kinley, and finished with a deadline day trade of Jake Bird. Let’s break things down trade by trade and grade the Rockies deadline.
Ryan McMahon➡️New York Yankees
The Rockies sent longtime infielder Ryan McMahon to the New York Yankees in exchange for LHP Griffin Herring and RHP Josh Grosz. MLB Pipeline has the two pitchers ranked number five and number 19 overall respectively in the Rockies farm system now.
2025 was McMahon’s ninth season for the Rockies, and in that span he ranked among the team’s history with 1010 Games Played (9), 812 Hits (12), 167 Doubles (11), 140 Home Runs (11), 452 Runs Batted In (13), 402 Walks (6), and an 11.4 fWAR (12).
Beginning his MLB career in 2017, the now former Rockie was immediately accustomed to Colorado’s winning style–as that was the first year they made the playoffs since 2009. Then just one season later in 2018 he hit 5 homers, flashing the potential to become an everyday player en route to another playoff run, even appearing in all four games the Rockies played in that same postseason.
From 2019 to 2024 McMahon had five separate seasons with at least 20 home runs and a minimum of 65 RBIs. He soon became “that guy” in the darkest seasons in franchise history, and became one of the only consistent and familiar faces Rockies fans were able to enjoy.
While not only was the 30-year-old memorable for his bat, he played several seasons of elite defense, ranking fourth amongst all third basemen since 2018 in total Defensive Runs Saved, Outs Above Average, and Ultimate Zone Rating–the three highest regarded defensive metrics for evaluating a player’s fielding. With all of McMahon’s accolades with the Rockies, he even got to represent them in the 2024 MLB All Star Game. While also being a finalist in multiple Gold Glove awards.
Before being traded to the Yankees, McMahon was in the midst of a hot streak Dating back to June 7, he slashed .241/.316/.504 along with 10 home runs in only 34 games, equating to a 114 wRC+. So it’s only fitting that McMahon gave one last hoorah for the Rockies while giving himself as much value as possible.
What does this mean for the Rockies?
The Rockies are infamously known to be hesitant at the Trade Deadline. They hold players way longer than they should, and essentially miss out on optimized value that the majority of other teams would have traded away. Since 2016, Ryan McMahon joins CJ Cron and Randal Grichuk as the only position players to be traded by the Rockies at the Trade Deadline.
Meanwhile McMahon was the first position player not on an expiring contract to be traded by the Rockies in that span, an extremely low rate for a team who’s finished above .500 just twice in those ten years. So seeing the Rockies already go out on a limb with a week left until the deadline with the McMahon trade was encouraging.
What Did the Rockies Get in Return?
LHP Griffin Herring | 22 Years Old | 6’2” / 196 lbs
Of the two prospects that the Rockies acquired for McMahon, LHP Griffin Herring is the main piece. A Louisiana State University product, Herring was a key contributor to LSU’s 2023 National Championship, posting a 3.93 ERA across 18 games out of their bullpen. The lefty spent his 2024 season in the bullpen again for the Tigers, but this time lowering his ERA down to 1.79. Herring’s success led the Yankees to select him in the 6th round of the 2024 MLB draft, albeit receiving a signing bonus equivalent to the 92nd overall pick.
Upon being drafted, the Yankees molded him into the pitcher they envisioned: turning him into a starter, changing his arm slot, and adding a changeup. These methods have proven successful as so far in his first minor league season, the newly ranked number five Rockies prospect has posted a 1.71 ERA across 18 games started, posting the second lowest ERA in all of Minor League Baseball (at least 80 IP).
What makes Herring so effective is his deceptive delivery from the left side. Coming out of the windup, nothing looks particularly smooth or slow, throwing off hitter timing and creating foolish swings. While only throwing in the low 90s, the 22-year-old gets elite extension around 6.6 feet off of the mound making his fastball come in quicker than anticipated. Paired with his fastball, Herring offers a devastating slider that sits 83-86 MPH with some steepness to make it a deadly power downhill breaking ball.
Herring has added a changeup in the pros that has seemingly been the key to the rotation transition and elite levels of success.
In an ideal world, the Rockies are hoping Herring adds a tick or two on his fastball. Each year that passes there are more and more pitchers in MLB that are throwing in the high 90s, and that not only makes reaching the big leagues more difficult, but it also makes success harder to come by.
Improved command will do nothing but help the young lefty as well. There will be a decent amount of mistakes in location, but batters in Low-A and High-A aren’t good enough yet to execute on those errors. So as Herring progresses through the minors, his command will have to improve if he wants to continue seeing great results. Having the trio of Sean Sullivan, Carson Palmquist, and now Griffin Herring as promising lefty arms gives the Rockies added southpaw intrigue.
RHP Josh Grosz | 22 Years Old | 6’4” / 199 lbs
The other end of the stick is RHP Josh Grosz, a 2023 11th rounder out of East Carolina. In Grosz’s collegiate career he was a workhorse “go-get-him” pitcher who found ways to get outs. In his 145.2 innings pitched for East Carolina, the new 18th ranked Rockies prospect had a 4.76 ERA, an unimpressive figure though one that also would distract from the quality of stuff and pro improvements.
Upon being drafted by the Yankees Grosz was able to improve his command, increase his strikeout numbers, and lower his ERA down to 4.14 in 2025. That kind of gradual improvement is so pivotal to see with starting pitchers similar to Grosz.
Simply put, Grosz has a pitchers’ repertoire; a low-to-mid 90s fastball with run, a traditional slider thrown at 86 MPH, and a potentially lethal changeup. His fastball runs up as high as 97, and is a plus pitch when living at the top of the strike zone.
As for his slider and changeup they both live on the horizontal axis moving in opposite directions–a recipe made for success. The idea for the 22-year-old righty is that he’ll find another level of consistency and find sequences that work for him on a start-to-start basis. The Rockies were able to develop Ryan Feltner–who has a similar pitcher’s mold to Grosz–into an MLB starter rather quickly. So having a pitcher like Grosz join the Rockies system should yield dividends.
Overall Trade Grade: B+
The Rockies are not close to success, and with McMahon’s contract they were able to get rid of over $30 million dollars over the next 2 seasons and change. That alone is huge, and since the Rockies were able to get two top 30 Yankees prospects, that makes the trade even better for Colorado. On top of improving the farm system, this also opens up spots for prospects such as Kyle Karros and Warming Bernabel this season. Chasing one individual higher end prospect like Chase Hampton or Ben Hess may have been more beneficial but Herring and Grosz both carry MLB ability.
Tyler Kinley➡️Atlanta Braves
Originally drafted by the Marlins back in 2013, Tyler Kinley has experienced a career of improbability, setbacks, and most importantly perseverance. Not many 16th rounders make it to MLB and especially not the way that Kinley did it. At the beginning of the 2017 season, he was 26 years old and was starting the season in High-A; three years older than league average. Even when the right-hander got the call up to Double-A that year he put up a 5.19 ERA.
All it took for Kinley was one opportunity, and that winter he played for the Tigres Del Licey of the Dominican Winter League and boasted a dominant ERA of 0.47 across 19 innings pitched. This was good enough for the Minnesota Twins to select him in the Rule 5 Draft after going unprotected. So from one season starting the year in High-A to the next in MLB is out of the ordinary. The first four games of Kinley’s MLB career were bad, so bad in fact that the Twins decided to return him back to the Marlins. From there, the reliever spent the rest of 2018 and all of 2019 in Miami.
After a solid 2019 campaign where Kinley put up a 3.65 ERA in 49.1 innings pitched, the Marlins designated him for assignment, and this is where Kinley was claimed off of waivers by the Rockies. The reason why Kinley’s road to Major League Baseball was included is because his stint with Colorado was just as persevering. His first two seasons were solid, tossing 94 innings and accumulating an fWAR of 0.4. One season later the 34-year-old saw his best results.
He started 2022 as the best pitcher in all of baseball, posting a 0.75 ERA through his first 24 innings pitched (only two earned runs), good enough for a 0.9 fWAR. Unfortunately, Kinley had imaging done on his right elbow showing a flexor tear, resulting in a surgery that’d sit him for most of 2 seasons. After fully recovering he had a healthy 2024, but finished the season with the third highest ERA for any reliever at 6.19. It was a similar story this season where Kinley had the 8th highest ERA for relievers before being dealt to the Atlanta Braves.
Looking at surface level stats, Kinley didn’t look great and was one of the worst relievers in baseball the last two seasons at preventing runs. However, his underlying numbers show he’s more valuable and could become a serviceable leverage reliever. Kinley ranks amongst the top of MLB pitchers in Chase%, Whiff%, and Hard-Hit%; batters are swinging and missing at a high rate and when they do make contact, it’s weak more often than not.
So what’s the caveat? Why is his ERA so high? Straight up, Kinley’s command is not good, he ranks in the bottom 6% of pitchers in BB%, and on top of that he allows flyballs at a relatively high rate. So when you pair free base runners along with fly balls at a ballpark like Coors Field it’s a recipe for bad news. A pitcher like Tyler Kinley succeeds in the big leagues more often than not, and that is the reason why he had traction from other teams, and was eventually traded to the Braves despite having one of the highest ERAs in all of baseball.
What Did the Rockies Get in Return?
RHP Austin Smith | 26 Years Old | 6’4” / 210 lbs
Austin Smith is a more untraditional prospect that is typically traded at the deadline. Drafted in the 18th round of the 2021 MLB Draft out of the University of Arizona, Smith’s career has started eerily similar to Kinley’s. At 26 years old Smith started the season at High-A, and made it up to Double-A level upon being traded to the Rockies. A 2023 UCL tear has made Smith’s pathway through Minor League Baseball tougher than anticipated, but this season the 26-year-old is seeing exceptionally better results than he did in 2024, lowering his ERA from 6.92 down to 4.31, while lowering his walk rate and raising his strikeout rates; all great signs towards a players’ development.
The intrigue is evident when it comes to Smith’s pitching attributes. When he’s on top of his game the Arizona product’s fastball touches the upper 90s while his slider shows true sweeper shape; all with good command. When everything is on this is a MLB reliever profile. However, Smith’s fastball sits in the 92-95 MPH range, and lacks a consistent feel for his slider.
Finding a way to project his performance is difficult when seeing inconsistent on field results. However, Smith’s extension is a fixed characteristic. He glides down the mound–thanks to his athletic delivery–and consistently gets around seven feet of extension, making his perceived velocity much faster than what’s actually being thrown. If he can more consistently find 97/98, that fastball would immediately put him in contention for a Rockies bullpen spot without considering anything else. So while not being a perfect prospect, Kinley has shown us how much can change in one season and Smith can very well be on the same trajectory.
Overall Trade Grade: B
No reliever in baseball has given up as many earned runs as Tyler Kinley the last two seasons, and so the fact the Rockies could go out and acquire a prospect with any upside is a positive. Dealing Kinley also opens room for other young relievers to be given opportunities.
A very minor extra consideration here is the Rockies getting out from under Kinley’s 2026 club option and saving $750K on the books next season that would’ve been owed had the club declined the option and issued the buyout amount. $750K isn’t much but the Rockies clearly want to peel some payroll off potentially to bulk up front office salaries.
Jake Bird➡️New York Yankees
A senior sign in 2018, Bird has already lived out a quality career as he creeps up on 200 career appearances. Hailing from the Los Angeles suburbs, Bird was incredible at UCLA for four seasons, leaving with a 3.13 ERA, including a sub 2.75 ERA in 3 of his 4 seasons. Oddly enough, Bird didn’t miss many bats in college, only striking out 130 hitters in 227 innings.
Fast forward to this season and Bird managed to strike out 62 MLB hitters in 53.1 innings in a Rockies uniform prior to heading to the Bronx. His 4.73 ERA and 1.48 WHIP may not have seemed tradeable but through July 1st, Bird carried a 2.63 ERA and had only given up 2 homers in 48 innings. Further, among pitchers with 50 or more innings, Bird ranks 8th in Stuff+ leaguewide; his breaking ball duo is a force to be reckoned with.
However, much like in 2023, Bird seems to have started a descent in performance after piling up a workhorse amount of early-season innings. The Rockies may have been fortunate to net such a return following a disastrous start to the second half for Bird.
As we say goodbye to the fiery Bird, it’s worth honoring his quality Rockies career as he ranks 15th among all-time Rockies relievers for strikeouts (209), 18th for innings pitched (225.1), and 13th for holds (32).
Perhaps more notably, Bird’s 2023 was one of the best seasons for a Rockies reliever in team history with him ranking 4th in innings pitched by a reliever since 2000 with 84.1, one of the highest marks for a reliever in the 2020s.
What Did the Rockies Get in Return?
2B Roc Riggio | 23 Years Old | 5’9” / 180 lbs
Riggio is the centerpiece of this deal as a former 4th round pick on a torrid pace this 2025 season. The tiny but mighty Riggio may only stand 5-foot-9 but he’s already slugged 18 homers this year in 270 PAs–that’s around a 40 homer pace with 600 PAs. Riggio likely isn’t a future 40 home run hitter but he’s proving 25 or more is completely on the table if he gets comfortable in MLB.
Hailing from Oklahoma State, Riggio has connections to the Holliday family following a fantastic two-year career in Stillwater that saw him club 29 homers in 113 games, including 18 in his sophomore season. The Yankees scooped him up in the 4th round as an older draft eligible sophomore with the expectation he could be a bat first prospect with a good shot to impact an MLB lineup quickly.
That idea seemed aggressive after a somewhat pedestrian 2024 season in which Riggio OPS’ed just .746 with 11 homers but he’s bounced back in a big way in 2025, with the aforementioned power surge.
Riggio’s pure raw power isn’t massive–certainly not as substantial as you’d expect given his power output this year–having fringey max exit velocities but Riggio’s swing is geared for power and frequent loft, allowing him to have average or better in-game power.
Riggio also has average swing decisions and contact skills, giving him an extremely well rounded offensive skillset for a second baseman. In total, it’s led to a .937 OPS this year between High-A and Double-A (plus 2 games rehabbing in the Complex League),and a .370 OBP fueled by a quality 12.2 BB%, though that figure will likely tick below 10% in the upper minors and MLB.
Riggio won’t likely be a standout defensively as a fringey athlete with a small frame and below average arm but he plays hard (very energetic guy) and should end up around average at second.
I’d make the case this is the best prospect acquired at the deadline for Colorado, given the proximity to MLB and the likely stability of his offensive skillset as he translates to MLB. There’s a chance Riggio is the new second baseman of the future but at least gives the Rockies another key offensive prospect to be in the mix starting next year with DH at bats also in play.
LHP Ben Shields | 26 Years Old | 6’4” / 210 lbs
Shields is an unorthodox prospect having signed with the Yankees after going undrafted in 2023 but the ascension since entering pro ball is something to behold. Shields averaged right around 90 mph at George Mason but now has ticked up to sit 92-95 with his fastball that can be a sneaky good pitch because of Shields’s low-launch slot.
The standout ability here is Shields’s devastating breaking ball combo, he spins a slider and curveball right around the same velocity range, though the curveball is a sharp vertical pitch while the slider gets heavy gloveside break. Both can be above average offerings and make Shields a nightmare for lefties, while the curveball can play against righties.
Shields isn’t a pin perfect strike thrower but he’s still got average or better command and has the upside of a backend starter, though the Rockies will likely sculpt him into a swiss army knife reliever or swingman, capable of providing multiple innings at a time. Role projections like these may not be the most exciting but building the glue of the roster is something Colorado has struggled to do for years.
Overall Trade Grade: A-
With Bird’s performance trending sharply down, getting a trade off became slightly harder but the Rockies still cashed in, getting two very likely big league contributors. Trying to pull the trigger on a Bird deal sooner (Bird gave up 4 runs on July 28th) may have helped secure more value, but it’s hard to say the Rockies didn’t do very well here.
Overall Deadline Review
Fans wanted to see just a touch more action, specifically a Herget deal at the least for another fringey Austin Smith type prospect. At least Herget is not a pending free agent, though his future services shouldn’t be counted on as an absolute; he may not perform at this level again.
It’s worth keeping in mind that Griffin Jax and Camilo Doval–two of the highest profile relievers available–were dealt in the waning minutes of the deadline; clearly the market didn’t unfold quite as fast as many expected. The reality is, Herget was a Plan B or C for teams and if Plan As were still being traded that late, a trade was more complicated than just pressing accept in MLB The Show.
There were talks of a potential Halvorsen or Vodnik deal but both are underperforming and carry significant upside into next season with plenty of team control; trading them solely for the sake of trying to capitalize on a good market may have proven a poor strategy. Halvorsen proved at the end of last season that he can be a top-20 reliever in the sport given the elite quality of his stuff. He’s barely 50 innings into his career and has growth in front of him.
Meanwhile, Vodnik truly has not performed well enough to be viewed as a certainty on the trade market and likely did not net a lot of attention or offers worthy of the Rockies consideration.
Moniak may have generated some interest but he’s got stark platoon splits and likely carried a high price given the two years of team control he has remaining.
With what the Rockies did do, they secured fair value and picked up four players likely to reach the big leagues and a lottery ticket in Smith from the Braves who could reach the majors with his fastball alone. An additional trade would have pushed this deadline a bit higher but this was a logical and pretty well executed July for Bill Schmidt and Co.
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