Editor's note: Yahoo Sports will rank every team in Major League Baseball from 30th to 1st before spring training begins in mid-February. Our series continues with the Colorado Rockies.

2013 record: 74-88

Finish: Fifth place, NL West

2013 final payroll: $78.8 million (23rd of 30)

Estimated 2014 opening day payroll: $88 million (T-16th of 30)

Yahoo Sports offseason rank: 23rd

Rockies in six words: Good job, good effort, fell short











OFFSEASON ACTION

The Rockies are this winter's bridesmaids, its silver medalists, its ode to the idea that second place is the very same as 30th. They offered Jose Abreu a $63 million deal. He took $68 million from the White Sox. They thought themselves the favorites for Carlos Ruiz. He went back to Philadelphia. They targeted St. Louis as the likeliest team to pony up in a trade for Troy Tulowitzki. They wound up with bupkis.



At this juncture, the Rockies are the definition of tweeners, a team probably good enough not to lose 90 and probably not good enough to win 90. In baseball today, that is a bad, bad place to be, with neither a strong shot at the playoffs nor the prize of big draft and international money to soften the blow of a season gone wrong.

[Also: No. 24 Marlins: MLB's cheapest franchise still resides in Florida ]

For the positive of signing first baseman Justin Morneau to a very team-friendly two-year, $12.5 million deal, the Rockies counterbalanced it by giving away center fielder Dexter Fowler in a trade that returned the young Jordan Lyles, whose repertoire is about as un-Coors Field-friendly as possible. For the stealthy acquisition of left-hander Brett Anderson, who if healthy can front a rotation, the Rockies lavished $16.5 million over three years on Boone Logan, big money and especially big years for a relief pitcher.

Putting LaTroy Hawkins at the back end of their bullpen for $2.5 million should turn out to be a good deal, even if Rex Brothers ultimately supplants him as closer, which may happen sooner than later. And trading from a position of strength by sending lefty reliever Josh Outman to Cleveland for outfielder Drew Stubbs could benefit Colorado, especially if Carlos Gonzalez's appendectomy forces the Rockies to rethink their plan of putting him in center and plant the defensively superior Stubbs there instead.

All in all, the offseason is about a net wash for a Rockies team coming off a disappointing year. Abreu would have given them the long-term solution at first base with Todd Helton's retirement. Ruiz would have allowed them to remove Wilin Rosario from behind the plate and transition him into the corner-outfield role that seems a likely endpoint. And dealing Tulowitzki – which remains a possibility despite his advancing age and big contract, because he's still the best shortstop in the major leagues, and that deal is beginning to look better and better in light of what elite players are fetching in this TV-money-soaked era – would have allowed them to shore up their middle infield and add to a rotation that always could use more arms.

Instead, the 2014 Rockies should look a lot like the 2013 Rockies: barreling toward that thankless area where they're not good or bad enough.

REALITY CHECK

Part of the Rockies' problem is geography. The NL West might be the league's best top-to-bottom division. The Dodgers are monsters. The Diamondbacks, desperate to win this season, will crack the $100 million mark in payroll. The Giants likely won't be as bad as they were last year. The Padres return an interesting young core. Unless the injury bug bites a team particularly hard, none should be a pushover.



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