The easy one is infielder Joe Gardner, as the Indians' 3rd round pick in 2009 has yet to appear above the AA level for any organization. He was released as a member of the Tulsa Drillers before the 2014 season, and over the course of that year spent time in the Cubs and Braves organizations. He received a 50 game suspension for a second positive drug test prior to the 2015 season and was promptly released by the Braves. He has since spent the 2015 season playing for the independent Lancaster Barnstormers of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball.
Matt McBride, the lone position player connected to the trade to contribute in the majors for the Rockies, made brief appearances in 2012, 2014, and 2015. His 0 for 4 performance in his last day as a Rockie, across both games of a doubleheader against Arizona on September 1st, dropped his career batting average to .199. In his 158 plate apperances, McBride hit 4 home runs and had more strikeouts (33) than hits (30).
Alex White had the misfortune of the majority of his starts coming during the embarrassing 6-man rotation stretch of 2012. He compiled a 6.30 ERA over 27 starts with the Rockies before being traded to the Houston Astros for Wilton Lopez and Jose Monzon. Monzon never appeared above the short season A level before being released. Lopez was mediocre out of the Rockies surprisingly decent bullpen in 2013, and four abysmal appearances to begin the 2014 season led to his demotion. He spent the rest of 2014 in AAA and was released by the Rockies at the end of that year.
Drew Pomeranz was supposed to be the key piece of the trade for the Rockies, and gave the fans some hope after pitching well in 3 of his 4 starts during his initial September call-up in 2011. The hopes were quickly dashed however, as he spent the majority of 2012 in the bigs, and much like Alex White and the rest of the staff, he could never string together a series of solid starts as a member of the ridiculous 6-man rotation. Pomeranz began 2013 in the minors, had 4 awful starts after his call-up in late June, and did not return to the majors until September, when he yielded just 1 hit across 4 relief appearances. This apparently increased his value just enough for the Rockies to receive an offer to their liking, as they traded Pomeranz for Brett Anderson following the 2013 season. The promising but oft-injured Anderson was (surprise!) hurt during his third start of 2014, and only ended up making 8 starts that year. Despite his solid numbers across those 8 games, the Rockies declined his option, allowing him to enter free agency and ultimately get signed by the Dodgers.
For those who are not keeping track at home, here are the numbers of everyone the Rockies got for Ubaldo:
It was easy for Rockies fans to say the trade was a win after Pomeranz's promising start in September 2011 and Ubaldo's rough first half season with Cleveland, but Jimenez nearly matched his phenomenal 2010 numbers in 2013 while single-handedly carrying the Indians into the playoffs, and has shown flashes of the same with Baltimore this year. That is in addition to the nearly 2 more wins (and counting) that Ubaldo has been worth than his replacements were for Colorado.
Now that it can be easily concluded that the Rockies first blockbuster trade was a failure, it is hard to be hopeful that the recent Tulo trade will have a different result. Given the Blue Jays' dominance since acquiring Tulo, and his unreal 1.3 WAR in his first month north of the border, we may need Jeff Hoffman to turn into a Cy Young contender to have any hope of that deal paying off.
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