CHICAGO — On a day when contenders shook up the baseball world at the trade deadline, the last-place Rockies stood still.
And they lost another game, 3-1 to the Cubs on Thursday afternoon at Wrigley Field, dominated by right-hander Jake Arrieta. The Rockies, losers of 12 of their past 14 road games, have a 44-64 record, worst in the National League.
It’s little wonder that Colorado’s front office is, once again, putting all of its chips on next year.
“I think the big thing was — our posture — is probably one that we would entertain a deal as far as making us better in 2015,” assistant general manager Bill Geivett said after the nonwaiver trade deadline passed. “Although we were active and had some talks, we really weren’t moved to the point where we had anything that would significantly affect us next season.”
Asked if he thought the Rockies would be good enough to win next year, and if that’s what colored the front office’s mind-set, Geivett answered: “I think you can characterize it that way, but I wouldn’t say that is totally accurate. I think you are always trying to get better and always looking at deals to try to do that, but we are looking at 2015. We feel like we had a lot of unfortunate things happen to a very good team.”
Most trade rumors in recent days swirled around left-handed starting pitchers Jorge De La Rosa and Brett Anderson, but the Rockies weren’t offered enough to be interested in trading them.
The Rockies never had any serious offers for shortstop Troy Tulowitzki or outfielder Carlos Gonzalez, either. However, trade talk about both players is expected to heat up during the offseason.
The Rockies have major decisions to make regarding De La Rosa and Anderson, the two best pitchers in their rotation. De La Rosa will be a free agent at season’s end, so the Rockies would have to make him a $14 million qualifying offer. That move would ensure draft-pick compensation if De La Rosa were to sign with another team.
Anderson, 1-3 this year with a 3.12 ERA, has pitched well since returning from a broken left index finger. His recent work has all but convinced the Rockies to pick up his $12 million option for next season.
“If we didn’t feel like they would potentially be part of our future, we would have traded them,” Geivett said.
Manager Walt Weiss was not surprised that no moves were made by the Rockies.
“Some teams that feel like they have a shot get desperate, and they want to make a move at all costs,” he said. “So you never know what it’s going to be like when you get close to that deadline.”
Before the game, Weiss talked about his team’s lack of offensive execution in recent weeks. That flaw was illustrated again Thursday.
The Rockies sent seven men to the plate in the seventh inning and scored just once.
Patrick Saunders: psaunders@denverpost.com or twitter.com/psaundersdp
