Rox exit Meetings with big bat, bigger questions

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — It’s a baseball holiday tradition. As the Winter Meetings ended Thursday morning with the Rule 5 Draft, the staff at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center gradually replaced baseball-themed placards with holiday decorations, and all the soft and hard sell that they entail.

Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich understands the spirit.

• Hot Stove Tracker

The Rockies leave this year’s Meetings having landed — unconfirmed by the club and pending a physical — free-agent right-handed hitter Ian Desmond, but with their shopping incomplete.

They still need impact arms in the late innings, and it isn’t clear whether the Rockies will plug Desmond into their void at first base or clear a spot for him in the outfield by making a trade.

“It’s tough to know a time frame,” Bridich said of when the Rockies’ offseason moves will be complete. “There’s still a lot of winter left. But we definitely have leads, we have ideas. We’ve certainly made contacts and had communications with teams, with agents. We are, for the most part, running some parallel courses in these Meetings and after the Meetings to address needs that we’ve talked about.”

Desmond deal sparks Blackmon trade rumors

Deals done

Bridich came through on a pledge to increase the Rockies’ payroll by signing the two-time All-Star Desmond, a shortstop for seven seasons with the Nationals and a center fielder last year with the Rangers, for five years at $70 million. It’s the richest contract for a free-agent position player in club history, and the club’s biggest free-agent deal since the eight-year, $121 million contract Mike Hampton signed at the 2000 Winter Meetings.

Rockies, Desmond reportedly agree to deal

Rule 5 Draft

The Rockies reunited with infielder Josh Rutledge on a Minor League deal last month, but the Red Sox took him …

continue reading in source mlb.mlb.com