A potential comeback story popped up out of the blue in February when the Rockies signed former star hurler Ubaldo Jimenez to a minor league deal. In a plot twist last week, the Rox opted not to include the 36-year-old right-hander in their 60-man player pool. Not to be deterred from weaving one more tale on the mound, Jimenez tells Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post that he’s still hoping to find another shot with another organization.
“No, I’m not thinking about retirement yet,” Jimenez tells Saunders. “I’ve been blessed with a healthy arm, and I still have a lot of passion for the game.”
Jimenez, a renowned nice-guy in the locker room, adds that he was “caught off-guard” by his omission from the 60-man pool. It seems the Rockies included him on every Zoom meeting with the pitching staff during the shutdown and kept tabs on his throwing program. The righty had hoped for a chance to resume his quest for an unlikely MLB return but found himself without a Summer Camp invitation.
While he had some harsh words for the Rockies, Jimenez also said he’s trying not to take it personally. “I resigned myself to accepting that it’s just their kind of way of acting and operating their business,” he said of the surprise non-invitation. But Jimenez adds that he’s at peace and doesn’t harbor any “hard feelings” towards his former outfit.
We’ll have to wait and see whether any other organization thinks there’s enough left in the tank to give Jimenez another look. He has had many good seasons in his dozen MLB campaigns, including 851 innings of 3.66 ERA in a Colorado uniform, but hasn’t appeared in the majors since 2017 and wasn’t very effective in his final two seasons of action. Jimenez did get strong results in an eight-start run in the Dominican Winter League this past year, turning in a 3.03 ERA with 8.2 K/9 against 3.9 BB/9.
