Major League Baseball’s trade deadline passed at 4 p.m. ET on Friday, July 30 without the Colorado Rockies trading shortstop Trevor Story or right-handed starter Jon Gray, both impending free agents.  According to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand, the Rockies will instead extend Story the qualifying offer at year’s end and collect draft-pick compensation assuming he signs with another club. Meanwhile, rumors have Gray wanting to work toward an extension to remain in Colorado.

It’s unclear what the Rockies were offered for Story and Gray by other teams, but clearly they didn’t find any of the proposals to their liking. That comes as a surprise, seeing as how most clubs in Colorado’s position—e.g. bad and rebuilding—would’ve gladly taken the best package as they looked toward the future.

Story, for his part, didn’t seem pleased with how things played out. “I’m confused and I don’t have really anything good to say about the situation and how it unfolded,” he told The Denver Post.

Trevor Story is widely seen as one of the top trade candidates in baseball, and if the Rockies don’t move him prior to the July 30 trade deadline, they reportedly can’t count on him returning as a free agent for 2022 and beyond.  Story doesn’t plans to re-sign with the Rox when he hits the open market this winter, sources tell Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post.

The two sides hadn’t discussed an extension as of February 23, according to Story, though it isn’t known if any negotiations took place during March or even beyond Opening Day.  That said, given the amount of discussion that would go into working out a long-term deal worth well north of $200MM, the fact that the Rockies had yet to broach the subject even by late February of Story’s walk year could be seen as a sign that the team wasn’t counting on Story sticking around.

Frankly, it would be more surprising if Story did have designs on a return to Denver, considering that the Rockies are struggling through another losing season and seem closer to a rebuild than a return to contention.  Interim GM Bill Schmidt told Saunders and other reporters that the team has been showing some improvement on the field, and felt that the Rockies were just a few clutch hits away from having a much better record than their current 24-36 mark.  Even if Colorado was a few games closer to the second NL wild card slot than its current 10.5-game deficit, however, that still shouldn’t change the equation about how the Rockies seem overdue to reshuffle their roster.

Regardless, it’s clear that the Rockies haven’t publicly thrown in the towel on the 2021 season just yet, as Schmidt said that it’s “not necessarily” the case that Story or Jon Gray would be dealt.  Trade discussion has yet to pick up in general, as Schmidt said that “some clubs have reached out and expressed (interest), if we get to that point.  But there has not really been anything to talk about…There is nothing really to follow up on.”