Former 3.5 WAR player traded to the Rockies?

Two days ago the Guardians decided to designate pitcher Cal Quantrill for assignment to open up a spot on their 40 man roster. After his worst season in the big leagues and heading into arbitration projected to make around $6.6 million the Guardians chose to move on and continue forward without him. Instead of being picked up by somebody off waivers, Quantrill was just traded to the Rockies in return for a low level minor leaguer. Let’s take a closer look.

Rockies Return:

With an already weak rotation and likely no free agent wanting to go to the boom box that is Coors Field the Rockies jumped at the opportunity to acquire a solid Major League pitcher for cheap. Even though Quantril is coming off his worst season posting an ERA of 5.24 and a FIP of 4.97 since he became a full time starter for the Guardians in 2021 he never had a FIP higher than 4.15. Quantrill is known as a contact pitcher that gets very few strikeouts and instead misses barrels. In 2023 he was done in almost every category including his hard hit rate and walk percentage. He needs to be able to return to his 2022 ways if he is going to come anywhere close to excelling in Colorado. 

Guardians Return:

Cleveland in return were able to get the 2022 seventh round draft pick Kody Huff. Huff, a catcher, was in low A last season and put up solid numbers with a .262/.357/.374 slashline as well as a 104 wRC+. He also excels at throwing runners out and was even named the Defensive Catcher of the Year in the California League last season. He was still left off the Rockies top 30 prospects by MLB Pipeline and will likely have to improve his power to make it to the big leagues.