June 19: Hiura cleared waivers and was outrighted back to Triple-A, according to the MLB.com transaction log. It’s not clear if he’ll elect free agency.
June 16: The Rockies announced that first baseman Michael Toglia has been recalled from Triple-A Albuquerque. Infielder Keston Hiura has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move. The club’s 40-man roster count drops to 39.
This is the reversal of a transaction from a few weeks back. On May 31st, Toglia was optioned to Albuquerque, with Hiura selected to the roster to take his place. Toglia had a nice season in 2024 but got out to an awful start in 2025.
Last year, he hit 25 home runs in just 116 games and took over as the clubs’ regular first baseman. His 32.1% strikeout rate was high and his batting average was low, but he drew walks at an 11.8% clip. His .218/.311/.456 line actually translated to a subpar 98 wRC+, thanks to the hitter-friendly nature of Coors Field, but that still made him one of the better hitters on a bad team.
This year, prior to being sent down, his walk rate fell to 8.7% and his strikeout rate climbed even higher to 39.1%. He currently has a .194/.266/.349 slash and a 55 wRC+. Since getting optioned, he has played 11 Triple-A games, with numbers in line with his 2024 season. He hit three home runs with an 11.8% walk rate and 29.4% strikeout rate for a .273/.353/.568 line and 112 wRC+.
Hiura, 28, got a small amount of big league playing time and didn’t do much with it. He got 21 plate appearances over eight games. He did not draw a walk but struck out seven times. He knocked four hits, including one double. It all added up to a .222/.333/.278 line and 71 wRC+.
Presumably, Toglia will now be retaking the regular first base job after this brief reset. In his absence, Hiura got a decent chunk of the time there, with utility players like Orlando Arcia and Kyle Farmer also chipping in.
Hiura now heads into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Rockies can technically take five days to explore trades. There’s not likely to be a ton of interest. Hiura was performing well enough in the minors prior to coming up but it’s been the case for years now that he shows pop in the minors and then strikes out too much in the majors. He now has 1,105 big league plate appearances with 50 home runs but a massive 35.9% strikeout rate.
He exhausted his final option year with the Brewers in 2022, which pushed him into journeyman status. Over the past few years, he has repeatedly cleared waivers and signed minor league deals with clubs like the Tigers, Angels and Rockies, occasionally getting brief looks in the majors. If he clears waivers again, he’ll have the choice of electing free agency or reporting back to Albuquerque.
Photo courtesy of Rhona Wise, Imagn Images
Maybe the Brewers pick him up. A small vocal group of fans would be especially happy. But not much room available unless he can play 3B.
There are exactly zero Brewers fans that want him back, but we are all sad with how things turned out for him.
Have you been drinking? Brewers fans DO NOT want him back lol He was flat out terrible playing second and strikes out way too much. He’ll have better luck playing in the Sunday night softball leagues
From the stats itself, he wouldn’t qualify as the worst Brewers player ever, tangerinepony… Maybe your hyperbole and tad bit of exaggeration is based on how he looks? It’s ok to be honest.
Nothing to do with how he looks.. he was a high draft pick big big expectations and he ended up failing and it was frustrating to watch
I never understood all the hype from this guy.
He had a lot of potential ruined by injuries.
I dont think it was injuries, he just had enormous holes in his swing that he could not adjust to. Once the book was out on him, he was done for.
As we approach trade deadline in about 6 weeks, that is the folly of fanbases every year declaring “no way we are trading this BA such and such ranked prospect!”as part of a deal for a really good SP or position player as if they are destined for Cooperstown by showing other minor leaguers who’s boss.
Coby Mayo, Kjerstad, Spencer Jones, Clint Frazier….the list is endless for every team.
“I don’t think it was”…Don’t rain on their parade. There’s a lot of people that literally think every top prospect would be a great player if it were not because of “injuries”.
9th overall pick, .951 career AAA OPS and 138 OPS+ as a 22 y.o. rookie. Who wouldn’t be hyped?
So you’re saying he was a stud?
@StudWinfield
Sure, but in AAA he had a 28% K-rate and moving to the majors doesn’t improve. They generally say that players from AAA to majors see about a 15% decline in skill level, maybe less decline for better players. A 28% K-rate is about 33% in the majors, which is pretty much on par with his actual numbers in the majors. That’s just one example.
It seems teams put too much value in his power numbers and HRs and he got exposed.
I saw him play in college quite a bit and liked his contact skills. He had solid bat speed and sprayed the ball all over the yard.
I have a bias towards contact hitters and he was one at UC Irvine and as he climbed the minor league ladder.
That’s the part that made me so sad about Hiura as a Brewers fan. He showed those contact skills as a rookie, but after that he started swinging for the fences with much worse results. To this day, I still don’t understand why the change.
He didn’t help that the Brewers with Counsel and the moronic analytics that said to take massive amount of strikeouts for a few homers destroyed his swing and his career.
He was outstanding before Counsel and his “numbers” screwed him up.
He never could hit left-handed pitching for some reason.
Truly the reason the Rockies have been held back this year, season starts NOW
Maybe there should be a Colorado spending bill in which voters/taxpayers designate Monfort for retirement. It might have be a bond measure that ensure ticket and beer prices will not increase to fund a publicly owned model.
I don’t think Colorado voters dislike him as much as you think. Sure Rockies fans aren’t a fan, but that is a SMALL percentage of voters. The Rockies are a distant #4 in Denver behind the Broncos, Nuggets, and Avs. They are ahead of the MLS Rapids for now, but who knows in the next few years. Those voters love that Monfort has turned LoDo into a major tourist destination. That is why the crowds usually have more visiting fans than Rockies fans. The Rockies have a hardcore fan base, myself included, but not as big of one as attendance makes it seem. It’s basically the Marlins if the Marlins had a much better stadium that people wanted to see.
“Marlins with a much better stadium” isn’t exactly the flex you’d want to describe your team, but alright.
Yes I am completely aware of the meaning of the statement I made, but thank you for the clarification anyway.
Steinbrenner is flexing his keyboard warrior skills today. We’re all lucky enough to read his drivel, until we mute him.
He used the word “flex” when he wasn’t talking about muscles. That tells me all I need to know about him.
Yikes. Time to head overseas..
“Head overseas”…Once teams overseas find out that the Rockies & Whitesox had no interest, their interest will quickly wane.
How about a Saudi Royal fund buys them up?
I’ve always thought that the #1 indicator of flash-in-the-pan prospects was K:BB ratio.
His have always been bad.
If that is the case, Michael Toglia is not much of an upgrade and the Brewers might want to trade Jackson Chourio.
Keaton Hiura still plays ?
@Logjammer D’Baggagecling
Beer league, yes.
Maybe not…
Looks like His good will is wearing out! I always tough he could have been an Ok DH. He will hit Homeruns but got a ugly BA and strikeouts!
He was a great story in these parts while playing at UCI. I really hoped he would pan out.
Once teams found a couple holes in his swing they exploited them and he was unable to adjust. It didn’t happen until he reached the top of the mountain, though.
Another data point that proves just how elite MLB pitchers are.
To be DFA’d by the Rockies is as bad as it gets. They are worse than most AAA teams.
Perhaps Keston should consider an Independent League team or maybe coaching at the community College level.
Typical 4 A player his only option now would be to sign on to KBO team.
Any relation to Charlton Keston?
Apes!!!
Soylent Green. It’s people!!!
I don’t know why teams never paid attention to his splits. He was a so-so right-handed bat, so everyone thought they would just platoon him. But they platooned him against left-handed pitchers. His lifetime OPS vs. LH is .597 and his lifetime OPS vs. RH is .821
This was evident right from the start. His rookie splits were 1.021 vR and .673 vL. He should have been used as a reverse platoon bat. Over 1,000 plate appearances is not a small sample.