4:57pm: Story says that he will have surgery and expects to miss the rest of the season, as MLB.com’s Thomas Harding tweets.
4:06pm: The Rockies have placed shortstop Trevor Story on the 15-day DL with a torn UCL in his left thumb, the club announced. It’s a major blow to the outside chances the team had of making a run to the postseason in 2016.
Rafael Ynoa has been recalled to take Story’s place on the roster, but there’s little chance he’ll replicate the 23-year-old’s production. Colorado has received top-level production from Story, who was a well-regarded but (it now seems) under-hyped prospect before making his major league debut this year.
[Related: Updated Rockies Depth Chart]
Story had an amazing start to the year and really hasn’t looked back. All told, he owns a .272/.341/.567 batting line with a league-leading 27 long balls over 415 plate appearances. Even after adjusting for the effects of Coors Field, that’s about twenty percent better than league average in total offensive productivity.
Though he has racked up 130 strikeouts, that’s plenty forgivable given the quality of the contact Story is delivering when he does make contact. (Let’s just say he keeps good company in that regard.) And the well-struck balls also give hope that he can maintain something near his current .343 BABIP. Defensive metrics are split as to whether Story is slightly above-average (DRS) or below-average (UZR) with the glove, but combined view him generally as a mid-range defender at short.
This particular injury isn’t uncommon, and hasn’t generally seemed to pose major future obstacles to the players that have it. But it may well keep Story out for the rest of the year. Andrelton Simmons recently missed two months after having surgery for his own thumb UCL tear, and that kind of timeline would push right up against the end of the regular season.
Going without Story for most (if not all) of the rest of the season is going to put a big dent in Colorado’s chances of sticking in the NL West and Wild Card race. The club just held tight at the trade deadline, forgoing chances to sell veteran assets after a recent run of quality play had moved the team to within a game of .500. But even as their division and Wild Card rivals all made important additions in recent days, the Rockies will now go without one of their most productive players.
What is really crazy is some random kid broke this on twitter yesterday and it went un-noticed. I was searching Trevor Story there for fantasy reasons, saw his tweet and assumed it was nothing… I DM’d him, apparently he knows lots of people in the FO: https://twitter.com/GetManners/status/760269957955461121
ProBably bc he doesn’t have a blue checkmark.
And now the NL Rookie of the year is decided, with 2/3 of the field landing on the DL for an extended period of time with separate thumb injuries.
I applaud the Trevor Story story, but he wasn’t winning the ROY. All Seager.
You obviously never seen the .235 BA away from Coors.
Corey Seager would have won it anyway. Awards shouldn’t be decided by the amount of HRs one has.
Yeah they should be decided by computer algorithms. That makes much more sense.
It kind of does, unless you think computer algorithms are some zany contraption. If you want to know who was the best player statistically, relying on anything but numbers is self-defeating.
I’m sorry I am not going to agree with that ever. People were able to successfully judge baseball players long before computer algorithms existed by using their brains and their eyes. Were they perfect? No, of course not. But then again neither are statistics.
Seager has the chance to (and should) surpass him.
He was never behind him
He was the first month of the season.
If we’re getting technical, Seager was probably behind him the first few weeks of the season.
“No, we need a do-over! We really meant to be SELLERS!!!”
…as they hold onto Cargo and Blackmon
You do realize that there is an offseason that those guys can still be moved, right? BTW, what was the purpose of holding Hellickson again?
Thats a silly question about hellickson.
QO. Its a pretty thin market and the phillies can extend a QO. He could easily net 4 years 44 mill or 4 year 48 million in the off season.
The extra draft pick comes with a little over 3 million bonus draft pool money. They can spend the savings, if they save, on the rest of the draft.
I think it is just as silly to ask about CarGo. I’d much rather keep CarGo than trade him for a weak package the Reds got for Jay Bruce. The offseason will open up more markets for a trade.
I actually think holding on to Hellickson was a smart move. If he declines the QO, philly gets a draft pick. If he takes it, they have the money and it wouldn’t be too bad of an investment given how razor thin this year’s fa pitching market is
If he declines it AND gets signed by someone else. What if he ends up as a Stephen Drew or Kendrys Morales? It’s not likely, but it is possible. Plus with the way the pitching market was set up this year, it’s likely that the return package would be more likely to help the next winning Philly team (possibly as early as 2017) than a 2017 draft pick.
Another way to look at it would be that teams don’t value Hellickson that much to where they’ll meet these demands that similar types of pitchers have netted. Dunno. In the old Type A/B system I got that loss of the draft pick bc it would go to the team from which the player last played. I’m all for teams getting picks as compensation for lost talent, but don’t see why teams have to just lose their picks. It always hurts the free agents more than the team. Needs tweaking because guys Hellickson shouldn’t decline the same offer that David Price declined.
You do realize pitching > position players right in terms of teams willingness to sign? When in the history of a QO has a pitcher ever been in a stephen drew or kendrys morales situation?
Unless hellickson is asking for greinke kershaw price lester type money doubt he goes unsigned even with a QO attached.
He could easily net somewhere between 11-15 million a year. Kennedy last year got a 5 year deal 80 million from the royals, 16 mill avg after getting QO by the padres.
Hellickson also is just 29-30 which plays in his favor.
That stinks. Not a Rockies fan but I wanted to see if the kid could reach 35 this year.
too bad, the rockies are starting to come on a little too and getting into the hunt for the WC
One player does not make the team. Admittedly it will be more difficult now, but they could pick up a SS like Alexei Ramirez in a waiver deal if necessary. If not, a combo of Descalso and Adames won’t be as good as Story, but shouldn’t be horrible either.
It is a bit odd though; Rockies stood pat because they are on the periphery of Wildcard? Nobody could have predicted Story. Alexei Ramirez is no answer though. He’s awful.
Yes, why do you consider that odd? All 30 teams do not have to be either buyers or sellers. There is a third, less sexy, category called holders. That is just as valid a concept. They are not good enough to sacrifice the farm, but they are not willing to just give up when there is a decent chance to have a winning season for the first time in 5 years. They beat the Dodgers last night to get to .500 and the next 5 games are against the Dodgers and Marlins, two teams directly in front of them in the WC standings. If they have a good week, they will not only be in the hunt, they will be leading the hunt.
As far as Ramirez goes, that’s probably true, but he is the first veteran FA to be I thought of that might pass waivers in August.
they need reyes now
No we don’t. I’d rather go with Adames or Descalso. Reyes shouldn’t even be allowed in Coors Field as a visitor.
Diaz goes down then Story goes down. Seager is on a rampage, he must really want that RoY.
Conspiracy lol. Seager is secretly taking down any potential competitors.
“The Rockies have placed shortstop Trevor Story on the 15-day DL”
What year was this post written?