The Colorado Rockies are still looking for a relief pitcher, and according to Thomas Harding of MLB.com it appears that Rockies General Manager, Dan O’Dowd, is waiting until after the holidays to continue his shopping for bullpen help.

“I think it’s going to be after the first of the year if we’re going to engage in something,” O’Dowd said. “It’s one thing to want to add someone, but it’s quite another we feel if we make a bad decision in the process. There were guys we had interest in, but we weren’t willing to go far enough to do that.”

Pitchers like Joaquin Benoit, Jesse Crain, Matt Guerrier and Bobby Jenks have set up the salary benchmarks for setup men. All of them signed lucrative multi-year deals. O’Dowd said the Rockies, who have rarely gone past one year for a reliever in recent years, would be willing to engage in a multi-year deal but only under the right circumstances.

Harding says that the Rockies have shown interest in David Aardsma and Grant Balfour, but the latter is a Type-A free agent who was offered arbitration by his former team, the Rays. The Rockies aren’t willing to give up a first-round pick in the 2011 First-Year Player Draft.

The Rockies would like to retain left-hander Joe Beimel, now a free agent.

Harding says that the Rockies are limited on what they can do. They have just one open spot on their 40-man Major League roster, so signing more than one player to a Major League deal would require an additional move.