The Rockies announced Monday that they’ve reinstated infielder Brendan Rodgers from the 60-day injured list. Rodgers has yet to play in a game this season after suffering a shoulder injury during spring training. Colorado also recalled infielder Coco Montes from Triple-A Albuquerque. That pair of moves will fill the roster spots vacated by last night’s trades of Randal Grichuk and C.J. Cron (both to the Angels in the same deal). Rodgers also fills one of what had been three vacancies on the 40-man roster.
Originally, there was concern that Rodgers’ injury would prove to be season-ending in nature. Ultimately, it’ll still end up costing him about two-thirds of the 2023 campaign, though that’s surely a preferable result for the 26-year-old, as opposed to an entirely lost season. Rodgers has been on a minor league rehab assignment for a couple weeks now and has hit particularly well (7-for-20 with a homer and two doubles) since moving up from Class-A to Triple-A. He appeared in 10 minor league games and tallied 38 plate appearances before being deemed ready to go.
Rodgers, the third overall pick in 2015, has tallied 996 plate appearances from 2021-22 as the Rockies’ primary second baseman, turning in a solid .274/.326/.434 slash with 28 homers, 51 doubles, six triples and strong defense at second base. Defensive Runs Saved credited Rodgers with a whopping +22 mark at the position in 2022, and while metrics like Ultimate Zone Rating (7.9) and Outs Above Average (3) weren’t quite as bullish, he universally graded as an above-average defender and was recognized as such when he captured his first Gold Glove Award last year.
It’s deadline season and the Rockies are sellers, so it’s technically plausible that the Rox could be surprised by an over-the-top offer for Rodgers in the 26 hours between now and tomorrow’s trade deadline, though that seems quite unlikely. Rodgers has another two years of affordable club control remaining beyond the current season, and the Rox surely aren’t keen on trading away such a major piece of their roster when his value is down fresh on the heels of a season-long IL stint. Given the general state of the Rockies, however, Rodgers could emerge as an offseason trade candidate if he performs well in the final two months and sufficiently proves that the shoulder injury is behind him.
Yay Brendan!
Anyone remember 6/15/2021 when the Dads scored six runs in the ninth to push it to extras, and won 16 to 12. Coors is strange.
Home and Away splits were drastic – hope he improves on that.
Poor Brendan wasn’t lucky enough to be traded.
There’s still a few hours left. Don’t give up hope just yet.
I’m happy for him to come all the way back from this and still get some time to play this year. He was just coming into his own before this.
Rodgers AND Montes? So now they have 4 2B on the roster. Maybe that means they are trading Harold Castro. I figured one of the moves would be selecting Daza to give them a backup option in CF.
More important, great to see Rodgers back. He still has potential to be pretty good, as he showed after his slow start last year. If Tovar continues to develop, Rockies could have a strong combination up the middle for years to come.
I thought he was back at Celtic.
I love how the Transactions part of the MLB app lists Rodgers as a shortstop, when he hasn’t played an inning there since 2021.
1st round Bust