“Sometimes, your best trade is the one you don’t make.”
—Baseball Wisdom
Todd Helton will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday.
Unlike fellow Cooperstown addition Adrian Beltre, who could have gone in as a Dodger, a Seattle Mariner or a Texas Ranger (based on his 21-year career), Helton will enter as a member of the only Big League team he ever played for:
The Colorado Rockies.
But back in January 2007 there was a real question whether or not Helton would play for Colorado his whole career.
To quote an ESPN report from January 27, 2007:
The Colorado Rockies are in high-level talks to trade first baseman Todd Helton to the Boston Red Sox . . . .
Helton has six years remaining on his contract — the remainder of a nine-year, $141.5 million extension he signed in 2003 . . .
Rockies owner Charlie Monfort recently said he does not want to tie up so much of his team’s payroll on one player . . .
The report, originated by The Denver Post, understandably caused quite a stir, not only in Colorado but throughout baseball. Thankfully, it never came to pass.
Dan O’Dowd, then the Rockies general manager (nicknamed Dealin’ Dan because of the many trades he engineered after coming to the Rockies in 1999) told me a different story when I interviewed him for my book Game 163 a decade later.
“That was based on Todd’s desires. It wasn’t a call we made to them. It started with a conversation Todd had with me, but quite honestly, those kinds of conversations go way above a GM’s head, because you’re not the one who owns the team.
“That was an owner-to-owner discussion. A lot of the owners were involved in that deal. Trading that kind of player is an ownership decision, not really a baseball decision.
“I think Todd wondered if we were ever going to win there. I understood it completely. But I think at the end of the day, he began to reflect on everything he had in Denver. Playing for one team your entire career creates a legacy that’s really hard to do in professional sports anymore.
“Todd decided he really didn’t want to go, which was actually really good. I don’t think any of us wanted to do that. At the same time, it wasn’t something we weren’t going to pursue if that’s truly what he wanted to do. He’d been through a lot.”
Colorado’s newly minted Hall of Famer, whose number 17 was retired in a pre-game ceremony August 18, 2014, will be feted one more time at Coors Field next month—10 years later, almost to the day.
“Todd Helton Day” is Saturday, August 17, and the Rockies’ opponent will be . . . the Padres.
Boston is scheduled to play in Baltimore that night.
Denny Dressman is a veteran of 43 years in the newspaper business, including 25 at the Rocky Mountain News, where he began as executive sports editor. He is the author of 16 books, nine of them sports-related. You can write to Denny at denny
dressman@comcast.net.