Sunday, January 22, 2012

Rockies stay busy, acquire Marco Scutaro from Boston

Dan O'Dowd was among the most active general managers even before this weekend rolled around, and then he continued his aggressive overhaul of the Rockies major league roster with another pair of deals.

The headliner may go down as one of his best trades in his 12 year run with Colorado. In a deal that was on again, off again for roughly 24 hours, the trigger was finally pulled on a trade bringing Boston Red Sox shortstop Marcus Scutaro to Denver in exchange for... Clayton Mortensen. Yes, the fringe at best major league starter/reliever (who actually pitched well during his stint with Colorado) for a guy who can fill three major roles for Colorado.

We're going to call that a win for O'Dowd.

The Rockies will be on the hook for all $6 million that Scutaro is owed. That obviously played into the inclusion of Mortensen in the deal rather than a prospect, and the dispute over taking on all $6 million likely played into the delay of the deal.

But at the end of the day, Scutaro is coming, and as I said before, he should fill three important roles for Colorado.

1) He will be the unquestioned starter at second base.

The Rockies haven't had one of those since Kaz Matsui in 2007. Before that you have to go back to Eric Young Sr. to find a steady second-sacker in Denver. Needless to say, it's nice to know the position will be filled for at least 2011.