SAN DIEGO — Ubaldo Jimenez was a superstar who walked to the ballpark. Nobody liked him, other than the owners, the general manager, his teammates, fans, autograph seekers, reporters and stadium ushers.

That left the raw question Sunday as his trade to the Indians became official when he passed a physical: Why did the Rockies trade their greatest pitcher ever?

There were a confluence of factors, beginning with his curious mediocrity over the past 13 months and the club’s desire to fill pitching gaps in a minor-league system weakened by misses on first-round picks Greg Reynolds and Casey Weathers.

“This isn’t rebuilding, this is restocking,” general manager Dan O’Dowd said while acknowledging misses in the draft. “Even if we were 10 games up instead of 10 games back, it would have been hard to say no to this deal.”

Read more at denverpost.com.

Rockies Carlos Gonzalez, Ubaldo Jimenez and Troy Tulowitzki got ready for spring training earlier this year. Photo by JOHN LEYBA, THE DENVER POST FILE