July 29: The Rockies have now officially selected Flexen, optioning Gavin Hollowell in a corresponding move. They already had a couple of vacancies on their 40-man roster, which is now at 39.
July 28: The Rockies will promote right-hander Chris Flexen to start tomorrow’s game against the A’s, tweets Luke Zahlmann of the Denver Gazette. Colorado will have to formally select his contract, as Flexen isn’t yet on the 40-man roster.
Flexen landed with the Rockies on a minor league deal two weeks ago. It was a good landing spot for the veteran, who’d been cut loose by the Mariners and Mets in rapid succession. The path back to the majors was easy to see with a Rockies’ club navigating a brutal stretch of injury luck in the starting staff.
Those health issues continued, as Colorado placed Chase Anderson on the 15-day injured list with shoulder inflammation this afternoon. Anderson has held a spot in the Rox’s rotation since being claimed off waivers from Tampa Bay in the second week of May. The 35-year-old has a 6.08 ERA through 14 appearances.
Flexen, 29, has spent the bulk of the year in the bullpen. He started four of 17 outings for Seattle, struggling to a 7.71 ERA across 42 innings. Flexen had been quite a bit better for the M’s in the preceding two seasons. He combined for a 3.66 ERA through 317 1/3 frames between 2021-22. His 16.5% strikeout percentage was below average, but Flexen kept his walks to a modest 6.8% clip.
The Mets agreed to take on what remains of his salary a few weeks ago as a means of acquiring reliever Trevor Gott from Seattle. Colorado will only pay Flexen the prorated amount of the $720K minimum salary for as long as he’s on the MLB roster. He’s headed back to free agency at year’s end but could use the next couple months as an audition for a spot in the 2024 rotation. Colorado’s rotation outlook for next season essentially consists only of Kyle Freeland and Austin Gomber at present. If Flexen can find some early success, it stands to reason the Rockies could have interest in re-signing him next winter.
this should be fun to watch. 29th of July. seriously, I do hope Flexen bounces back and saves his career, that double DFA was harsh.
Woohoo. We finally have a 5 man rotation again.
I count Freeland, Gomber, Lambert, and Flexen. Anderson just went on the IL as the story says.
I guess they could put Seabold back in the rotation, which would help them get a higher draft pick.
Well I had 15 minutes of somewhat happiness before I saw that. Oh well.
I am done with Seabold and I hope they are too. I’d rather see a bullpen day every 5 days. It actually hasn’t worked out that badly recently.
Seabold should try out fishing or maybe deep diving. Baseball isn’t working as a career for him.
(Sorry if you just read this, Connor, but if you did you just made my point—you should be focusing on baseball things, not reading a comment on MLBTR.)
It’s also not been working well as a career for Flexen.
3ip 1h 4k last night for Seabold
Keep up the good work, save the fish
Flexen didn’t look too good in Seattle this year. I can’t imagine how he would have looked pitching in Coors Field.
Yeah Seabold has always looked good in garbage time this season. And last night was pretty much garbage time when he was in. But he did look better than he has as a starter, so maybe his future is in relief.
They kind of jerked him around a lot and most starting pitchers are creatures of habit. Getting in the way of their 5 day routine can sometimes ruin them. Hopefully he can be better once he starts getting the ball reliably every 5 days.
Routines are important. See what has happened to Kolby Allard.
I laughed when Colorado picked up Seabold from Boston. He was beyond awful for the Red Sox and had a feeling he’d get demolished in Colorado.
Hopefully for Flexen, the third time is a charm. He’s been a decent pitcher until this season. Hopefully he can figure things out for the Rockies and continue his career.
Great Profile picture. Works every time
Repair your season with Flexseal!
As a Mariners fan, I hope Flex bounces back. He kinda got the shaft. He was pitching fine last year but got bumped due to Kirby an Castillo to the bullpen an it clearly didn’t work out.
In an alternate reality we traded him last offseason as a 3/4 pitcher for someone that gets on base
Flexen in Coors Field. This is not going to go well. The A’s will be scoring some runs tonight!
To add insult to injury, they’re wearing the license plate jerseys tonight. Rockies always lose when wearing the City Connect jers.
Good prediction so far unfortunately
The path to Roctober starts today!