The Rockies announced this morning that they’ve selected the contract of left-hander Ryan Rolison. Kris Bryant was transferred to the 60-day to make room for Rolison on the 40-man roster after he recently underwent an ablation procedure on his back. Colorado also announced that righty Anthony Molina has been recalled from Triple-A, while righties Bradley Blalock and Juan Mejia were optioned to Triple-A to make room for Rolison and Molina on the active roster.
Rolison, 27, was the Rockies’ first-round pick back in 2018 but has yet to make his major league debut. The southpaw’s career has been thrown off track by plenty of missed time. He missed the entire 2020 season due to the cancelled minor league season, missed multiple months in 2021 due to an appendectomy, and lost his entire 2022 campaign due to shoulder injuries. He returned in 2023 but once again battled shoulder problems, leaving him to make just four starts that season. Since then, he’s mostly pitched out of the bullpen for the Rockies, with a 4.67 ERA in 34 appearances at the Triple-A level over the past two years. That includes a solid 3.72 ERA with a 26.1% strikeout rate this year, however. With Rolison now finally in a groove after years of injury-marred campaigns, it seems the Rockies are going to take the opportunity to get their former first-round talent into a big league game for the first time in his career.
Moving off the 40-man roster to make room for Rolison is Bryant. It’s hardly a surprise to see the 33-year-old transferred to the 60-day IL given the seriousness of the procedure he underwent this past week to try and alleviate the chronic back pain stemming from his chronic lumbar degenerative disc disease. Ablation destroys the nerves in an area causing pain in an effort to eliminate pain signals from that area. As Bryant told reporters (including Patrick Lyons of Just Baseball Media) yesterday, he won’t resume baseball activities for a “couple weeks” before beginning to ramp up as is feasible in terms of pain tolerance. That leaves him with no concrete timetable for his return, but he did make clear he hopes to return to the field during the 2025 season.
Regardless of when Bryant ultimately ends up returning, 2025 already appears to be the latest in a string of seasons where the former MVP has been derailed by injuries. The veteran was among the game’s perennial All-Stars as recently as 2021 and carried a .278/.376/.504 career slash line into the 2022 season. After signing a seven-year deal with the Rockies during the 2021-22 offseason, however, Bryant has appeared in just 170 games total while slashing a well below-average .244/.324/.370. With Bryant having returned -1.6 bWAR/-1.8 fWAR at the halfway mark in his contract, it’s hard to imagine the deal being anything other than a bust for the Rockies once all is said and done.
Even so, with three seasons and $81MM left on the contract after 2025, the Rockies are surely hoping that Bryant can eventually get healthy enough to be a legitimate contributor before his contract comes to a close. While the sort of production that earned him the NL Rookie of the Year award in 2015 and the MVP award the following season is unlikely to be in the cards at this point, it’s not impossible to imagine Bryant being able to get back to being an above-average hitter; after all, he did manage to hit a solid .306/.376/.475 in 42 games with the Rockies back in 2022.
As for the club’s other roster moves, Molina joins the big league roster for the first time this year after pitching to a 6.79 ERA in 35 relief outings for the Rockies last year. Mejia made his MLB debut earlier this year and sports a 4.70 ERA across six appearances, while Blalock is in his second MLB season but has struggled to a 12.94 ERA in 16 innings of work for Colorado this year.
Wrong link to Mejia.
There goes the 40 win season!
It’s been a real grind for Rolison cool to see him finally get a shot, a la Pint.
I know they’re millionaires but really feel for Bryant. Seems like a likeable guy. Be nice if he could get what’s left of his career back together.
Millionaires are people too
He’s got a degenerative disc in his back. A spinal fusion is in his future. The result would be less pain, but less mobility and flexibility. His career as a full time player a team can count on, is over.
I feel bad about Kris Bryant. He looked to have a trajectory of a solid MLB player and just got hurt. 3 more seasons there Colorado… sucks it didn’t work out.
once you have a back problem; it just does not go away, and he is likely going to have to work out a retirement plan with rockies…or just play the INJURY string with them.
Blalock definitely got shellacked and earned that demotion – I guess by the time their catcher came into pitch Padres were tired of running up the score. or Stallings should be considered for relief.
Stallings now has a better ERA than any of the Rockies starters, and most of their relievers.
The Kris Bryant contract makes me feel a lot better about the Chris Davis contract.
They need to move Bud Black to the restricted list.
They also need to figure out some way to release Dick Monfort.
It’s coming. A sure sign that a manager needs to get his resume together, is when the GM goes on record saying said manager has his full support.
It’s just beyond overdue. He’s got black mail on him or Montfort does not care if the organization exists or not.
and…guess what happened. Bud….gone.
It’s time to sell the team and clear out the FO. The attitude of loyalty to stick with those who have been in the organization for years needs to end. There is potential with players like Tovar and Doyle to build around, but the Rockies need to come up with a better plan. I’ve been a fan since day 1 and what we are witnessing this season is not acceptable by any means.
File a claim get the insurance money, let’s move on
They are starting to lay the groundwork to get Bryant’s contract covered by insurance. I don’t think we will ever see him again unfortunately. Maybe a little goodbye tour similar to David Wright? Wright was a fan favorite who stayed with his original team his entire career though. Can’t see much of a sentiment coming from the Rockies fans for him.
Kris Bryant his career is over. The Rockies for Borassed. He had to be one of the worst ideas they ever had. How many legitimate bidders for a guy like him, who was declining into free agency. They are out a ton of menu.