Rockies re-sign Carlos Gonzalez to 1-year deal

The Rockies have agreed to re-sign outfielder Carlos Gonzalez to a one-year deal, per FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman. It’ll pay $8 million, according to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale.

Gonzalez, 32, has remained on the open market all offseason after hitting free agency for the first time back in November. Obviously his apparent decision to turn down a lucrative four-year extension from the Rockies last spring turned out to be a poor one, as he’ll now be faced with hitting the free-agent market again next offseason and will likely have difficulty getting a multi-year deal as a 33-year-old.

Gonzalez, who has hit .288/.346/.511 over a 10-year big-league career but posted a pedestrian .262/.339/.423 line with 14 homers last year, figures to slide back into the starting right field role, pushing Gerardo Parra to a fourth outfielder role and once again blocking Colorado’s promising trio of young outfielders — David Dahl, Raimel Tapia, and Mike Tauchman. Gonzalez could probably use a platoon partner, as he hit just .206/.241/.321 against lefties last year, though all four of Parra, Dahl, Tapia, and Tauchman are left-handed hitters. For what it’s worth, Parra had a reverse split last year, hitting .347/.377/.429 against lefties, so he could be a candidate for that role.

Gonzalez’s return frees up left fielder Ian Desmond to be a platoon partner with Ryan McMahon at first base if necessary, thus significantly reducing the chances of the Rockies re-signing first baseman Mark Reynolds.