The Rockies announced Wednesday that they’ve optioned catcher Drew Romo and second baseman Adael Amador. Both players made their MLB debuts last season but will start this year in the minors.
That’s more notable for Romo. Colorado called up the former second-round pick last August in tandem with the decision to release veteran Elias Díaz. Romo started 13 games behind the plate. He struggled in his first look at big league pitching. The switch-hitting Romo hit .176 without a home run through 53 plate appearances.
Colorado re-signed Jacob Stallings on a $2.5MM free agent deal. The 35-year-old backstop had a nice 2024 season in a part-time role. Stallings hit a career-best .263/.357/.453 with nine homers across 281 plate appearances. His far more modest career numbers suggest he’s unlikely to repeat those numbers, but he should provide a steady hand defensively. Stallings is a former Gold Glover who works well with a pitching staff.
The Rockies may be reluctant to overwork Stallings, who caught around 600 innings last year. That opens the door for one of Colorado’s controllable catchers to play their way into semi-regular playing time. Romo and Hunter Goodman are the only other catchers on the 40-man roster. Goodman didn’t have an impressive ’24 season overall (.190/.228/.417), but he hit five homers in September to provide some positive momentum going into the offseason.
If there were an open camp competition to split time with Stallings, Goodman has had the clear advantage. He’s hitting .368 with four walks and three strikeouts in 23 Spring Training plate appearances. Romo had just two hits and a walk while striking out four times in 17 at-bats. Thomas Harding of MLB.com wrote over the weekend that the Rox are prioritizing Goodman’s work behind the plate after using him more frequently in the corner outfield last season.
The Rockies also have five-year MLB veteran Austin Nola in camp on a minor league deal. He’s hitting .364 in 11 games. The Rox could theoretically opt for a Stallings/Nola tandem, but it seems likelier they’ll give the 25-year-old Goodman a longer look. Romo, who hit .297/.339/.499 for Triple-A Albuquerque last year, should continue playing regularly in the minors.
Amador, 22 next month, never had much of a shot of breaking camp. He played in 10 MLB games last year while Brendan Rodgers was on the injured list. The Rox surprisingly jumped him directly from Double-A, and he hit .171 over 36 plate appearances. Amador hit .296 this spring, but he’s due for his first Triple-A experience. The Rockies brought in Kyle Farmer and Thairo Estrada on cheap one-year deals to handle second base until Amador is ready for regular MLB playing time.
They didn’t surprisingly bring up Amador. They pretty much had to. When Rodgers was hurt the Rockies had a lot of batters on the IL. The ONLY players on the 40 man roster at the time that were not on in the majors or on the IL were Amador and outfielder Yanquiel Fernandez. None of the players on the IL were hurt bad enough to be moved to the 60 day IL, so the only options were calling up one of the two or DFAing one of the two and selecting the contract of someone else. The latter option would have been FAR more surprising to me.
I believe Goodman got a few starts at 1st as well. Kid’s got some pop.
It’s not too surprising that they would look to him as the second catcher going into the season imo. He’s never had the prospect status of Romo iirc, and given romo’s growing pains in his cups of coffee so far, you’d probably rather have him getting regular reps in the high minors for his development.
He did, but that happened very early in the season. Once Michael Toglia took over as the regular starter in June or so, Toglia started every game the remainder of the year. First base is locked down right now for the Rockies as much as any position other than shortstop and center field