Here’s the latest on the Rockies’ sudden release of Jhoulys Chacin, a key part of their rotation for most of the last five seasons.
- Four teams have shown interest in Chacin, who the Rockies released over the weekend, 1500ESPN’s Darren Wolfson tweets. (The Twins, who are in Wolfson’s market, are not among them.)
- The release of Chacin helps clear the way for less experienced pitchers like Jon Gray, Eddie Butler, Christian Bergman and David Hale, MLB.com’s Thomas Harding writes. Of course, Chacin himself is just 27, but manager Walt Weiss says the Rockies can’t worry about whether they cut bait too early. “You can’t get caught up in that,” he says. “It’s happened probably thousands of times in the history of this game, and it’s going to happen thousands more. It comes down to, are you willing to make a baseball decision based on where you’re at, at that point in time?” Harding also notes that the Rockies have an insurance option in John Lannan, who agreed to a minor-league deal with the team in November.
- Chacin’s release increases the burden on veteran Rockies starters Jorge De La Rosa and Kyle Kendrick, Nick Groke of the Denver Post writes. De La Rosa is currently dealing with a groin strain. “We need him,” says Kendrick of De La Rosa. “He’s a big key to our rotation, to our team. The sooner we get him back, it’s going to be better for us.”
