March 25: Freeland will not require surgery, manager Bud Black announced Thursday, calling the initial reports from the team’s medical staff “encouraging” (link via Saunders). That said, Black also declined to provide a timeline, revealing only that Freeland will have more imaging performed “in a couple of weeks,” at which point the Rockies hope to be able to offer a more definitive timeline. Freeland will open the season on the injured list.
March 23: Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland exited his outing against the Athletics on Tuesday with a strained pitching shoulder, per Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. Freeland left the mound in pain after throwing a pitch to the A’s Mark Canha, as Thomas Harding of MLB.com tweets.
There is no word on how serious Freeland’s injury is, but it does look like one that could sideline him for at least the beginning of the regular season. A healthy Freeland would follow No. 1 starter German Marquez in the Rockies’ rotation, having thrown 70 2/3 innings of 4.33 ERA/4.95 SIERA ball last year. Those aren’t great numbers – especially compared to a 2018 effort in which Freeland put up a 2.85 ERA/4.35 SIERA in 202 1/3 innings and finished fourth in National League Cy Young voting – but they were markedly better than the 6.73 ERA/5.19 SIERA he recorded over 104 1/3 frames in 2019. The 27-year-old has followed last season’s bounce-back performance with seven scoreless innings and six strikeouts against one walk this spring.
If Freeland isn’t available to start the season, the Rockies will open with Marquez, Jon Gray, Austin Gomber and Antonio Senzatela as their top four. Ryan Castellani, Antonio Santos and Jose Mujica are also on their 40-man roster, but Dereck Rodriguez and Chi Chi Gonzalez are in the mix as NRIs.
Not good. I was hoping that he’d get back to the 2018 version of himself.
I’m sure Cole Hamels would love to end his career in Coors.
I’m sure Coors Field would love to end Cole Hamels career
Lol!
Me too. I was surpised that the Rockies weren’t willing to move either him or Jon Gray or both this off-season, especially after they dealt Arenado.
What is the deal with all these injuries
Covid
Actually COVID is a legit reason, pitchers had very few innings last year compared to normal.
Throwing a baseball that fast and making it move like pitchers do is extremely stressful on the body.
Doesn’t feel any different from any other year
I think the Rockies badly need to blow the team
up and start from scratch (possibly in a different city for their pitching’s sake. Kidding… kind of). They still have several great trade chips in Story, Tapia, Marquez and Freeland, among others. They’ve cleared out all of their big contracts aside from Charlie Blackmon, who still may have some trade value as well. Blow it up, bring up the youngsters (Brendan Rodgers, Ryan Rolison, etc.), and start building a young team that may actually have a chance to compete in the difficult conditions of Denver.
send them VV from phils for a PTBNL
please
What a great dude…loved watching him every fifth day in Washington…