Rockies Release Jose Urena
The Rockies have released starter José Ureña, according to the transactions log at MLB.com. That was the anticipated outcome when Colorado designated the right-hander for assignment on Tuesday.
Ureña had been off to a very rough start to the season. Through five outings, he’d tossed 18 1/3 innings of 22-run ball. He walked 14 while recording just nine strikeouts and generating swinging strikes at a career-worst 7.2% clip. He and Ken Waldichuk are tied for the major league lead with nine home runs allowed.
That’s obviously not the caliber of production the Colorado front office had in mind when signing Ureña to a $3.5MM free agent deal last winter. It was a return to Coors Field for the sinkerballer, who spent the final four months of last season in Denver. Ureña posted a 5.14 ERA through 89 1/3 innings last season. While not overwhelming production, it was serviceable enough for a Rockies team that’s light on rotation depth. Ureña hadn’t come close to replicating those numbers through this season’s first month and Colorado moved on rather quickly.
Ureña is still due around $2.5MM in salary through season’s end, plus a $500K buyout on a 2024 club option. No team is going to take that off Colorado’s hands, so it’s a near certainty he’ll go unclaimed on release waivers. At that point, the 31-year-old hurler will be free to explore other opportunities. Any team that carries Ureña on its MLB roster would only owe him the prorated portion of the $720K minimum salary, which would be subtracted from Colorado’s obligations. Given the extent of his early-season struggles, he seems likely to be limited to minor league offers.
There should be some interest around the league in adding him to a Triple-A rotation. Ureña has never posted impressive strikeout or walk rates but he’s consistently kept the ball on the ground at a higher than average clip. He has 813 big league innings over parts of nine seasons, carrying a career 4.92 ERA.
Germán Márquez To Get MRI For Triceps Injury
3:10pm: Márquez provided reporters with updates after the game, as relayed by Harding and Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. He says his pain is in his triceps, not in the forearm like the previous issue that sent him to the injured list. Initial testing didn’t show significant damage but he’ll get an MRI in Denver tomorrow.
2:10pm: Rockies’ right-hander Germán Márquez departed today’s game, with Thomas Harding of MLB.com among those to relay the details. Márquez was visibly distraught on the mound, leading to a visit from the training staff and Márquez departing without hesitation after having thrown 58 pitches.
A pitcher leaving a game as a precautionary measure is quite common, but this instance is noteworthy on a few fronts. For one thing, Márquez just came off the injured list today, having spent the past 15 days there for forearm discomfort. It appeared he avoided significant injury based on his minimal absence, but it now seems possible the injury has been re-aggravated or was perhaps more serious than previously thought.
This is all still speculative at this point, but it would be a blow to the Rockies if Márquez ends up needing to miss more time as he’s been their best starting pitcher for the past few years. In just over 1,000 career innings coming into today, he had a 4.40 career ERA, no small feat for a pitcher who throws half of his innings at Coors Field. He’s struck out 22.9% of batters faced, walked just 7% and kept the ball on the ground at a 48.6% clip.
No team wants to lose its best starter for any amount of time but that’s especially true for a Colorado club that hasn’t had strong rotations in recent years. Right now, Kyle Freeland has a serviceable 4.28 ERA but with his strikeout rate down at 15.9%, a few ticks below his career norm. Austin Gomber has a 9.28 ERA on the campaign. Ryan Feltner has a 4.68 ERA despite a 12.7% walk rate. Noah Davis has a tiny 0.93 ERA this year but in just two starts and only one inning of prior major league experience. José Ureña was sitting on 9.82 before he was designated for assignment to make room on the roster for the return of Marquez.
If Márquez needs to miss some time, they have Connor Seabold and Peter Lambert on the 40-man roster, both of whom have career ERAs north of 7.00 in the big leagues and are currently above 5.00 in Triple-A this year. Antonio Senzatela will be an option eventually but is still working his way back from last year’s torn ACL. He recently pitched in extended Spring Training but is likely still a few weeks away at least.
For Márquez personally, he’s in the final guaranteed season of the $43MM extension he signed with the club in April of 2019, making $15MM this year. The club has a $16MM option for 2024 that comes with a $2.5MM buyout, making it a net $13.5MM decision. It would be a fairly easy decision for them to trigger that and keep Márquez around for his age-29 season if he were healthy, though that calculus could change if he needed to miss significant time.
The Rockies are currently 8-17 and generally aren’t expected to be in contention this summer. That would theoretically make Márquez a trade candidate, given the looming end of his contract. However, the Rockies have often been surprisingly unwilling to part with their players in deadline deals, even when it makes speculative sense. Recent years have seen them cling to players like Trevor Story, Jon Gray and Daniel Bard even when outside observers thought a trade could be on the table.
Rockies Designate Jose Urena For Assignment
The Rockies have designated starter José Ureña for assignment, tweets Suzie Hunter of DNVR Sports. The move creates a spot on the active roster for the expected reinstatement of Germán Márquez from the 15-day injured list tomorrow. Colorado’s 40-man roster tally dips to 39.
Ureña has spent parts of two seasons in Colorado. He first signed a minor league contract with the Rox last May. The club added him to the major league roster in early July. The sinkerballer started 17 big league games last season, pitching to a 5.14 ERA across 89 1/3 innings. While Ureña only punched out 15.2% of opposing hitters, he kept the ball on the ground on over half the batted balls he surrendered.
It wasn’t a resoundingly successful effort, though the 31-year-old showed enough for the Colorado front office. The Rockies re-signed him on a one-year, $3.5MM free agent contract at the start of the offseason. That deal, which also included a team option for the ’24 campaign, ensured he’d get another crack in the season-opening rotation.
Things haven’t played out the way the organization would have hoped. Ureña has been tagged 22 runs over 18 1/3 frames through his first five starts. He has a ghastly 9:14 strikeout-to-walk ratio and is inducing swinging strikes on a career-worst 7.2% of his offerings. This year’s 44.3% grounder rate is also down a few points from his typical level. He hasn’t made it past five innings in any of his five outings, all of which Colorado has lost.
The struggles were pronounced enough for the Rockies to move on from Ureña just a few weeks into the season. He has more than enough service time to refuse an optional assignment to the minor leagues. The only way to take him off the MLB roster was a DFA, which’ll almost certainly involve eating the remainder of the contract.
Other clubs are unlikely to trade for or claim Ureña and assume the roughly $3MM remaining on his deal. He’s a virtual lock to hit free agency — either by release or rejection of an outright assignment — within the next week. In all likelihood, he’ll be looking at minor league offers at that point.
The Rox will welcome Márquez back to front a rotation that also includes Kyle Freeland, Austin Gomber and Ryan Feltner. Righty Noah Davis has filled in for Márquez while he’s been on the shelf with a minor forearm strain. Antonio Senzatela, who has been out since last summer with an ACL tear, began a rehab stint with Triple-A Albuquerque this evening and should be back in the majors within the next couple weeks.
Rockies Option Elehuris Montero
The Rockies announced today that they have recalled outfielder Brenton Doyle, a promotion that was reported yesterday to be imminent. The corresponding move is that infielder Elehuris Montero has been optioned to Triple-A Albuquerque.
Doyle was called up as a couple of Colorado outfielders are dealing with some day-to-day injuries. Kris Bryant is experiencing pain in the sacroiliac joint and glute on his left side, while Yonathan Daza was hit by a pitch on his hand yesterday. It had been speculated that perhaps one of them would be headed to the injured list, but the club has instead demoted a player who was their regular third baseman until recently.
Montero, 24, was one of five players that came over to the Rockies in the Nolan Arenado trade, which continues to look like a major misstep for the organization. Montero and left-hander Austin Gomber were the two most notable players coming the other way and neither has provided much value to the Rockies thus far. Gomber has an even 5.00 ERA through 360 1/3 innings and recently got candid about how the pressure of trying to live up to that trade was affecting him.
As for Montero, his prospect hype was at its peak going into 2019, when Baseball America ranked him the #81 prospect in the entire league. His stock faded a bit over the next two years, but the Rockies still liked him enough to make him a key piece of their return for Arenado. He has continued to play well since the trade, but only in the minors. He spent 2021 between Double-A and Triple-A, hitting .278/.360/.529 for a wRC+ of 132. He continued hitting well in the minors last year, getting called up to make his major league debut. But in 69 major league games thus far, he’s hit just .238/.276/.419 for a wRC+ of 77. He’s struck out in 33.9% of his plate appearances while walking in just 4.2% of them.
Montero is primarily a third baseman but has been blocked there by Ryan McMahon. This spring, second baseman Brendan Rodgers dislocated his shoulder and required surgery that could be season-ending. The club decided to deal with that issue by moving McMahon to second and giving Montero a crack at the third base job. Unfortunately, that plan didn’t work out, as Montero has continued struggling at the plate and also in the field. All three of Defensive Runs Saved, Outs Above Average and Ultimate Zone Rating have given him negative reviews for his glovework in the early going this year.
Montero is just 24 and certainly could still take steps forward at the plate and in the field, but there may be an inflection point not too far over the horizon as he has just one option year remaining. Once he spends 20 days in the minors, 2023 will officially burn that final option. Unless he’s quickly recalled in the next couple of weeks and stays in the majors the rest of the way, he will be out of options next year. McMahon is under contract through 2027, which perhaps means Montero should spent more time at first base, where he’s also seen some action. C.J. Cron is an impending free agent, perhaps opening up that spot next year, though Montero would have competition from Michael Toglia. For now, Montero will continue his development in Albuquerque and try to work his way back up to the big leagues.
Rockies To Promote Brenton Doyle
The Rockies are expected to call up outfielder Brenton Doyle from Triple-A Albuquerque prior to Monday’s game with the Guardians, according to Blake Street Banter (Twitter link). Doyle is already on Colorado’s 40-man roster, so the Rockies will have to just make one corresponding move tomorrow to create space for Doyle on the 26-man active roster.
This will be the first trip to the big leagues for the 24-year-old Doyle, who was a fourth-round selection for the Rockies in the 2019 draft. The Rox added him to their 40-man roster in advance of last winter’s Rule 5 Draft, wanting to protect the outfielder in the wake of a solid 2022 season that saw him hit .256/.300/.473 with 26 home runs and 23 steals (in 26 chances) over 548 combined plate appearances at Double-A and Triple-A. Only 41 of those PA came at the Triple-A level in 2022, but Doyle has looked great in a slightly longer audition in Albuquerque this year, as he has mashed his way to a .306/.404/.633 slash line over 57 PA.
MLB Pipeline ranks Doyle as the 16th-best prospect in Colorado’s minor league system, while Baseball America ranks him 21st amongst Rockies farmhands. Given plus grades for his defense and throwing arm, Doyle is already big league-capable from a glovework standpoint, able to play center field or (owing to his strong arm) right field. He also has plus speed, which has translated to success on the basepaths, and some raw power that has led to his power numbers.
Plate discipline is an ongoing question, as Doyle’s strikeout rates have been higher than 30% at each level beyond rookie ball. Pipeline’s scouting report did note that Doyle made a bit more contact after making some adjustments last season, indicating that Doyle might still be able to reach another level as a hitter.
The Rockies will see if Doyle can unlock some of that potential in the majors, but the fact that the Rox are calling up an outfielder might related to a pair of injury concerns. Kris Bryant left Saturday’s game after feeling pain in his sacroiliac joint, while Yonathan Daza left today’s game after being hit in the hand by a Zack Wheeler fastball. X-rays were negative on Daza and other players are day-to-day for now, but either a 10-day injured list placement could be coming Monday or Colorado might just be adding Doyle as outfield depth since neither Bryant or Daza may be available to face the Guardians.
Kris Bryant Leaves Game Due To SI Joint/Glute Injury
5:34PM: Rockies manager Bud Black told reporters (including ESPN) that Bryant is day-to-day. The injury isn’t specifically to Bryant’s back, but rather to the sacroiliac joint and glute on the left side of Bryant’s body. “When he put his foot down and landed, there was a little bit of pain,” Black said.
3:21PM: Bryant left the game due to tightness in his lower back, according to Danielle Allentuck of the Denver Post (Twitter link).
2:49PM: The Rockies have removed Kris Bryant in the third inning of their match against the Phillies. Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post reports that “it appeared” Bryant rolled his ankle on a first inning strikeout.
Although it’s not yet known the severity of any injury here, Bryant has struggled in that department since joining the Rockies on a seven-year, $182MM deal last year, landing on the IL on three separate occasions in 2022 and appearing in just 42 games.
The 42 games he did play were hugely valuable to the Rockies, as Bryant slashed .306/.376/.475 with five home runs. He’s off to a similarly strong start to the year in 2023, putting up a .291/.364/.456 line with three home runs through his first 88 plate appearances entering play today.
The Rockies are off to a disappointing start, sitting at 6-15 in the NL West, and any missed time for Bryant would be a significant blow to the team moving forward.
Rockies Notes: McMahon, Montero, Trejo, Gomber, Senzatela
The Rockies reshuffled their infield during Spring Training. After losing Gold Glove second baseman Brendan Rodgers to a potential season-ending shoulder injury, Colorado announced plans to kick Ryan McMahon over from third to second base. McMahon’s versatility freed the hot corner for Elehuris Montero, but the Rox are considering pulling the plug on that experiment after a rough first few weeks.
Manager Bud Black announced yesterday that Colorado was “going to take a step back and take a look at our situation at third” (link via Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post). McMahon has gotten the nod there in each of the last two games after starting his first 16 contests at the keystone. That has pushed utilityman Alan Trejo into the lineup at second base and relegated Montero to the bench.
The moves come in response to defensive struggles for the 24-year-old Montero. He’s been charged with three errors while recording only 13 assists in 88 innings at the hot corner. Statcast has pegged his glove as two plays below average in that limited sample. Defense has long been a question mark for Montero, who developed a reputation as a bat-first corner infielder as a prospect. Saunders writes that Colorado could consider optioning him back to Triple-A Albuquerque to get more consistent work on defense.
McMahon is one of the sport’s best defensive third basemen. There’s no question he’s a sizable upgrade with the glove over Montero. The move subtracts one of Colorado’s more interesting young hitters from the lineup, though. Trejo, who could stand to receive the biggest uptick in playing time, is a stable glove-first infielder but doesn’t bring much to the table offensively.
Montero initially joined the organization a little over two years ago in the Nolan Arenado trade. He and left-hander Austin Gomber were the top talents in a return that was widely panned from Colorado’s perspective. While Arenado has performed at an MVP level in St. Louis, the Rockies haven’t yet gotten much big league production from Montero.
Gomber at least provided the Rox with back-of-the-rotation innings in 2021. He worked to a 4.53 ERA — a respectable figure for a pitcher calling Coors Field home — through 115 1/3 innings during his first season with the club. He had a harder time last year, struggling to a 5.56 ERA while getting kicked to the bullpen midseason. The former fourth round pick has returned to the starting five this year but gotten off to a very tough start..
After giving up nine runs in a loss to the Pirates this afternoon, Gomber owns a 12.12 ERA through four outings. He’s allowed five home runs in 16 1/3 innings of work. The 6’5″ hurler candidly acknowledged after today’s appearance he’s having a hard time maintaining confidence through these struggles (link via Danielle Allentuck of the Denver Gazette).
Gomber took responsibility for his disappointing performance and pointed to his subpar command in the early going, but he also noted he’s felt some pressure given the monumental trade in which he was acquired. “I’m not trying to be (Arenado),” Gomber said. “I’m just trying to be myself, but I feel like I’m having a hard time staying in that lane right now.”
It’d obviously be unreasonable to expect Gomber (or any player in that deal) to offer the kind of value Arenado brings to the table. Yet the Rockies are certainly expecting more than the southpaw has shown so far. They’ve been desperate for reliable rotation work. Rockies starters entered play Wednesday 28th in the majors with a 5.40 ERA; they’ll end the night with the league’s second-worst mark.
While the rotation figures to be problematic all season, Colorado should at least get a boost whenever Antonio Senzatela gets back on the mound. The righty has been targeting a May return from last summer’s ACL tear. According to the MLB.com injury tracker, he’s expected to begin a minor league rehab stint with Double-A Hartford on Sunday.
Rockies Activate Daniel Bard
The Rockies have reinstated closer Daniel Bard from the injured list and optioned righty Peter Lambert to Triple-A Albuquerque in a corresponding move, per a team announcement.
Bard hasn’t pitched yet this season, as he opened the year on the injured list due to anxiety issues that have plagued him throughout his career. Bard was candid and forthcoming about his ongoing battle with anxiety, telling Danielle Allentuck of the Denver Gazette back in late March: “It’s a hard thing to admit, but I’ve been through this before. I have enough going on outside the game to realize what’s important … I’m extremely grateful to be in an organization that understands these things and is accepting.”
Anxiety all but ended Bard’s career at one point. From 2013-19, he pitched just one big league inning. His successful age-35 comeback with the Rockies in 2020 following a six-year absence from the Major Leagues was one of the most remarkable returns in recent memory. That he not only made it back to the Majors but returned to his status as an elite reliever in 2022 is all the more incredible.
Bard’s 2022 campaign was nothing short of a triumph; he piled up 60 1/3 innings of 1.79 ERA ball, recording a career-high 34 saves while punching out 28.2% of his opponents against a 10.2% walk rate. Bard, who averaged 97.9 mph on his fastball last year, was dominant to the point that the Rockies opted to sign him to a two-year, $19MM extension just prior to last year’s trade deadline rather than field trade offers. He had otherwise been slated to reach free agency at season’s end.
Bard’s 2023 struggles began in the World Baseball Classic, when he lost command of the strike zone in the United States’ matchup against Venezuela, issuing a pair of walks, throwing a wild pitch and plunking Jose Altuve with a 96 mph sinker that wound up fracturing the second baseman’s thumb. Bard pitched with the Rockies during the Cactus League following that nightmarish WBC outing but ultimately decided it was best for his own health and for the team that he begin the season on the IL.
Though he’s been on the injured list, Bard remained with the team throughout that stint, continued throwing side sessions, and recently embarked on a brief minor league rehab stint. It was just one inning, but Bard allowed only a single to Fernando Tatis Jr. and struck out the other three batters he faced. Seventeen of his 23 pitches were strikes — an encouraging sign for both him and the team.
The Rockies haven’t stated whether Bard will jump right back into the closer’s role or will ease back into that setting. Pierce Johnson leads the team with three saves but has walked six of his 33 opponents while pitching to a 5.40 ERA. He’s also fanned 11 of 33 hitters and allowed just one home run, and the bulk of the damage against Johnson came in one blown save against the Cardinals.
Rockies Notes: Marquez, Grichuk, Bard, Senzatela
The Rockies provided updates to MLB.com’s Thomas Harding (Twitter links) and other reporters about several injured players, including right-hander German Marquez. After Marquez was placed on the 15-day injured list last Wednesday due to forearm inflammation, the initial diagnosis was Marquez had avoided any serious injury and might be back in relatively short order. A good step was taken in that direction today as Marquez started throwing for the first time since his IL placement, engaging in a game of catch prior to the Rockies’ game with the Mariners.
It remains to be seen how long Marquez might be sidelined, as even with a minor forearm issue, the Rox aren’t going to rush the hurler back into action. Marquez’s first three starts in the year resulted in a 4.41 ERA over 16 1/3 innings, and while it’s a small sample size, early points of interest include some improved control (a very good 3.2% walk rate) and a marked increase in Marquez’s usage of his slider. The righty is still allowing a lot of hard contact and is striking out batters at a subpar rate, but that was also often the case for Marquez in his better seasons.
Randal Grichuk and Daniel Bard both started rehab assignments at Triple-A today, after first working in games during extended Spring Training. Neither player has yet made their season debut — Grichuk underwent surgery in early February to correct a bilateral sports hernia, while Bard was placed on the 15-day IL just prior to Opening Day due to anxiety issues. Grichuk naturally has a more set recovery timeline, as he was initially expected to be back by mid-April, and it looks like he’ll return to Colorado’s lineup only slightly after that projected date. Bard’s timeline is more fluid due to the uncertainty of anxiety issues, but the start of a rehab assignment indicates that he might be closing in on a return to the Rockies’ bullpen.
Antonio Senzatela‘s return is still a ways away, as the righty is recovering from a torn ACL suffered last August. However, Senzatela did pitch two innings in an extended Spring Training game on Friday, and he’ll pitch in another extended camp game on Tuesday. Depending on how Senzatela comes out of Tuesday’s outing, the Rockies might then set a course for his rehab plan. The initial expectation was that Senzatela might be back in the majors by May, and Colorado starting the season with Senzatela on the 15-day IL (instead of the 60-day IL) is indicative of their hope that the right-hander don’t miss too much more time.
West Notes: Tepera, Davis, Davies, Gray
Ryan Tepera left today’s game with a shoulder issue and will receive further examination, Angels manager Phil Nevin told MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger and other reporters. Tepera needed 33 pitches to get through two-thirds of an inning against the Red Sox today, with two hits, a walk, and two catcher’s interference calls on Matt Thaiss resulting in three runs (one earned).
Losing Tepera to injury wouldn’t help an Anaheim bullpen that has already had its share of struggles in the early going, though Tepera has been part of those struggles with a 13.50 ERA over 3 1/3 innings of work. The veteran reliever signed a two-year, $14MM free agent deal with Los Angeles during the 2021-22 offseason and was pretty solid in 2022, posting a 3.61 ERA over 57 1/3 innings with some elite soft-contact rates. [UPDATE: the Angels placed Tepera on the 15-day IL due to shoulder inflammation on Sunday. Tepera doesn’t think the injury is too serious, as he told Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register and other reporters that he plans to start throwing again after a few days off.]
More from around both the AL and NL West divisions as Jackie Robinson Day comes to a close….
- The Rockies will call up right-hander Noah Davis from Triple-A to start Sunday’s game against the Mariners. (The Denver Gazette’s Danielle Allentuck was among those who reported the news.) With German Marquez now on the 15-day IL, Davis was seen as a logical candidate to take Marquez’s spot in the rotation, as Davis is already on Colorado’s 40-man roster and has plenty of experience as a starter during his time in the Rockies’ and Reds’ farm systems. Davis is just a week away from his 26th birthday, and he made his MLB debut in the form of one inning of relief work with the Rockies last season.
- Zach Davies was placed on the 15-day injured list due a strained left oblique last weekend, and Diamondbacks Torey Lovullo told reporters (including the Arizona Republic’s Nick Piecoro) that Davies will need “several weeks” to recover. Lovullo was a little vague about the nature of Davies’ injury, stopping short of calling it a Grade 2 oblique strain, but also saying it was “more than” a Grade 1 strain. Regardless, Davies now looks to miss some significant time, so Drey Jameson might get a long look at the replacement in Arizona’s rotation.
- X-rays were negative on Rangers right-hander Jon Gray after Gray was hit on the elbow by a Yanier Diaz line drive in tonight’s game. Texas manager Bruce Bochy even told MLB.com’s Kennedi Landry and other reporters that Gray isn’t expected to miss his next turn in the rotation. An upcoming off-day on Thursday will give Gray an extra day to rest and recover, and while plans could change if his elbow/forearm area continues to be sore, it still counts as some real good fortune for Gray in avoiding what looked like a potentially serious injury. Counting today’s abbreviated two-inning outing, Gray has a 3.21 ERA over three starts and 14 innings thus far in 2023.