The Rockies announced a flurry of roster moves this afternoon, including the selection of left-hander Ty Blach’s contract that was first reported last night. Additionally, Colorado has placed right-hander Cal Quantrill on the 15-day injured list and announced that they’ve outrighted right-hander Noah Davis to Triple-A. It’s the first public indication that Davis had been designated for assignment, but his removal from the 40-man roster makes room for the addition of Blach.
Davis, 27, has pitched for the Rockies in each of the past three seasons. The club’s 11th-round pick in the 2018 draft has struggled badly throughout his big league career so far, accumulating a 7.71 ERA with a 5.66 FIP in 51 1/3 innings of work in the majors. While some of those struggles can surely be chalked up to the perils of calling Coors Field your home ballpark as a pitcher, it’s worth noting that Davis hasn’t pitched much better during his time at the Triple-A level. In 123 innings of work with the club’s Albuquerque affiliate, the right-hander has posted a lackluster 5.05 ERA with a 19.1% strikeout rate against an 11.9% walk rate. Those deep struggles in both the majors and the minors have seemingly convinced Rockies brass that a change of scenery would be best for both parties, and Davis will now be eligible for minor league free agency if not added back to the 40-man roster before the start of the offseason. Until then, he’ll remain with the club as a potential non-roster depth option.
As for Quantrill, the right-hander was announced last night as scratched from his scheduled start today due to right triceps inflammation, with Blach scheduled to take his place. It wasn’t clear last night whether or not Quantrill would wind up heading for the IL, but he’s now set to be out for at least the next two weeks. Given his placement on the IL is retroactive to August 29, the right-hander will be eligible to be activated from the shelf as soon as September 13.
It’s unclear if he’ll be ready to go that quickly, but there’s plenty of reason for optimism as manager Bud Black told reporters (including Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post) that he expects Quantrill to return to action at some point this season. The 29-year-old right-hander sports a below-average 4.63 ERA (99 ERA+) with a 5.04 FIP in 138 innings of work this year, but prior to a brutal run of five starts prior to the trade deadline was sporting far more palatable ratios of 4.09 and 4.71 through his first 114 1/3 innings of work in a Rockies uniform.
If there is a franchise to be on the list for contraction it should be the Rockies. The have beer money (Coors). They don’t spend on free agents other than Kris Bryant. They are rarely active on trade front. And in May some years they get snowed out.
Whose high pitch: You have no idea what you’re talking about. The Rockies draw very well (17th out of 30 teams), they have a history of spending on free agents (starting pitchers, relievers, and position players), and their main owners are not the Coors family. I remembet one April game, 25 or so years ago, being snowed out. The weather in Colorado is typically beautiful.
Update: as of today, the Rockies are now even better: 15th in attendance out of the 30 teams.
Been in Denver twice for work in past few months, missed the Rocks both times. What are the best bars in the Blake st district?
The Rockies don’t need to be contracted, they need to be sold. They have a solid fan base and a beautiful ballpark. What they don’t have is an owner that cares about winning
Rsox: The Rockies owner does care about winning. The problem is that he makes poor decisions.
Rearranging the deck chairs is one thing; the Rockies are abandoning Noah despite his ark