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Austin Gomber Will Begin Season On Rockies’ Injured List

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Rockies left-hander Austin Gomber will be placed on the 15-day injured list prior to Opening Day, Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post reports.  It might just be a fairly minimal stint, but the placement reflects the left shoulder soreness that has held Gomber back for the last two weeks.

The southpaw threw two scoreless innings in his only Cactus League appearance of the spring, though Gomber’s velocity was slightly down and his shoulder continued to feel sore in the lead-up to his next planned outing, which ended up being scratched.  Rox manager Bud Black told reporters (including Patrick Lyons of Just Baseball Media) last Monday that Gomber received an injection to deal with the discomfort.  Gomber is back on the mound, with MLB.com’s Rockies injury report noting that Gomber is planned to throw two innings in a minor league game today, and then three innings in a Cactus League game on Saturday.

While Gomber is slated to be part of Colorado’s rotation, the team has off-days on both April 1 and 7.  As Lyons noted, the Rockies were already considering just using four starters in the early going, since by using just one game as a bullpen day, a proper fifth starter won’t be needed until the third week of the season.  This would give Gomber time to recover while missing barely any time.

Gomber had a 5.08 ERA over 544 innings with the Rockies over the last four seasons, including a 4.75 ERA in a career-high 165 frames last year.  While the overall results haven’t been great, Gomber’s ability to eat innings has been valuable to a Rockies team that has had to deal with a ton of pitching injuries in recent years.  Gomber himself hasn’t been immune, as he missed time with back issues in both 2021 and 2023.

Kyle Freeland, German Marquez, Antonio Senzatela, and Ryan Feltner are lined up to join Gomber in the rotation when everyone is healthy.  The Rockies finished at or near the bottom of most pitching categories in 2024, but the hope is that Marquez and Senzatela can provide some help now that they’re hopefully recovered from long-term injury absences.

Rockies’ Prospect Charlie Condon Sustains Non-Displaced Wrist Fracture

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Rockies prospect Charlie Condon suffered a non-displaced fracture in his left wrist, reports Manny Randhawa of MLB.com. He’ll be in a splint for a month and will not resume baseball activities for six weeks. Condon will not require surgery, but this will delay his season debut until at least May.

Colorado drafted Condon third overall last summer. The righty-hitting outfielder/third baseman was a candidate to go at #1 after a monster junior season at Georgia. Condon slugged 37 homers with a .433/.556/1.009 line against SEC pitching. Baseball America, ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel and Keith Law of The Athletic all ranked Condon as the top prospect in the class leading up to the draft. It registered as a slight surprise that he even got to the Rox at three. Cleveland took hit-first second baseman Travis Bazzana first, while the Reds went with righty Chase Burns with the #2 pick.

Condon’s professional career hasn’t begun as hoped. The Rockies assigned him to High-A Spokane. Condon hit .180 with 34 strikeouts and four walks in 25 games. He managed only one home run in 109 plate appearances. GM Bill Schmidt said last month that Condon was playing through a thumb injury. It’s a small enough sample that it’s not cause for too much concern, though the Rockies clearly anticipated he’d perform better after he obliterated the top college pitching in the country. Condon still ranks among the sport’s top 50 overall prospects at Baseball America, The Athletic, ESPN and MLB Pipeline.

The wrist injury gets his first full minor league season off to a tough start. Thomas Harding of MLB.com writes that the injury occurred when he dove for a fly ball in a minor league Spring Training contest on Tuesday.

Rockies Option Drew Romo, Adael Amador

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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.

Mike Moustakas To Retire

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The Royals announced that they will have a ceremony on May 31st to honor Mike Moustakas as he retires as a Royal. Presumably, he will sign a ceremonial one-day contract to retire with the club with whom he spent most of his career.

Mike MoustakasMoustakas, now 36, was selected second overall in the 2007 draft. Taken out of Chatsworth High School, Moustakas was one of several high-profile draft picks that the Royals made as part of an aggressive rebuild. In an era prior to the draft lottery, the Royals had nine straight losing seasons from 2004 to 2012, with at least 100 losses in the first three of those seasons. That allowed them to have an desirable draft position for a long stretch of time, getting guys like Alex Gordon, Eric Hosmer, Moustakas and others in that span.

The hope was that this aggressive rebuild would allow them to build a stockpile of young talent that could eventually slingshot them to future success. Since Moustakas was drafted as an 18-year-old, it took him a few years to get to the majors, debuting in 2011.

He didn’t hit the ground running. By the end of the 2014 campaign, Moustakas had stepped to the plate 1,993 times at the club’s regular third baseman. However, he had hit just .236/.290/.379 in that time for a wRC+ of 82. Though it was taking “Moose” some time to fully acclimate to big league pitching, the club’s fortunes had turned around as hoped. They had made it to the playoffs in 2014 and progressed all the way to the World Series, though they lost a seventh-game heartbreaker to the Giants. Moustakas clubbed five homers in 15 games during that postseason run.

From there, he did find sustained success. Moustakas hit 22 home runs in 2015 and slashed .284/.348/.470 for a wRC+ of 123, easily his best offensive performance to that point. The Royals returned to the postseason and got the job done this time. Moustakas only hit .215/.257/.277 in the 2015 playoffs but the Royals made it back to the World Series, this time defeating the Mets in five games.

Over 2016 and 2017, Moustakas continued to perform as a solid big leaguer. He hit a combined .267/.312/.517 over those two seasons, which translated to a 113 wRC+, though the Royals fell from their heights. They were exactly .500 in 2016 and then finished 80-82 the following year.

Moustakas reached free agency going into 2018 and rejected a $17.4MM qualifying offer with the expectation of finding a robust market. MLBTR predicted he could secure a five-year, $85MM deal that winter. Unfortunately, he didn’t find the interest he was hoping for and lingered on the market unsigned into March. He and the Royals eventually reunited on a one-year, $6.5MM deal, far less than the QO he turned down.

In 2018, he had another solid but not outstanding season, split with the Brewers after a midseason trade. He hit .251/.315/.459 between the two clubs for a 105 wRC+. MLBTR made a far more modest prediction of $16MM over two years going into the next offseason. He returned to the Brewers on a one-year deal but with a slightly better average annual value of $10MM. Milwaukee planned to move Moustakas from third base to second base in deference to Travis Shaw.

With the Brewers that year, his second base defense was graded as close to average, adding some nice versatility to his profile. He hit 35 home runs that year, though his batting average and on-base abilities continued to be less impressive. His .254/.329/.516 batting line translated to a 113 wRC+. MLBTR felt he still had enough juice to get a two-year, $20MM deal but the new position seemed to unlock an extra gear for his earning power. The Reds, who had Joey Votto at first base and Eugenio Suárez at the corners, gave Moustakas a four-year, $64MM deal with the plan to install him at the keystone.

In the shortened 2020 season, Moustakas had another decent campaign. He hit eight home runs and slashed .230/.331/.468 for a wRC+ of 105. That helped the Reds to make the playoffs, their only postseason appearance of the past decade, but they were quickly dispatched without scoring a run in a two-game sweep at the hands of Atlanta.

His production tailed off from there and never really recovered. He put up a line of .227/.291/.372 from 2021 onwards as various injuries limited his ability to take the field. He played less than 80 games in both 2021 and 2022, getting designated for assignment after the latter of those two seasons. He was released and signed with the Rockies. He got into 47 games with them and seemed to be bouncing back, hitting .270/.360/.435, before getting flipped to the Angels. But he then hit just .236/.256/.371 in 65 games for the Halos. Going into 2024, he signed a minor league deal with the White Sox but hit .195/.283/.317 during the spring and was released at the end of camp.

Though he didn’t start or end his career with a bang, he had a strong run for a few years as an above-average player. Overall, he got into 1,427 major league games and stepped to the plate 5,577 times. He hit .247/.307/.431 for a 96 wRC+ and generated 15.1 wins above replacement, per the calculations of FanGraphs. He hit 215 home runs, scored 595 times and drove in 683. From 2015 to 2020, he slashed .262/.326/.490 for a 113 wRC+ and tallied 12.2 fWAR. He made three All-Star clubs in there and won a World Series ring. We at MLB Trade Rumors congratulate Moustakas on his career and wish him the best in whatever comes next.

Pirates Claim Justin Lawrence

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The Pirates have claimed right-hander Justin Lawrence off waivers from the Rockies, reports Thomas Harding of MLB.com. Colorado placed Lawrence on waivers over the weekend. The Bucs haven’t formally announced the claim and will need to make a 40-man roster move to accommodate Lawrence once the transaction becomes official.

Lawrence, 30, agreed to a $975K salary earlier this offseason when he avoided arbitration. The Pirates will take on that salary and hope to coax a rebound effort out of the right-hander. Lawrence was roughed up for a brutal 6.49 earned run average in 2024 but was a quality late-inning arm for the Rox in 2023, saving 11 games and picking up 11 holds en route to a 3.72 ERA.

The 6’3″ Lawrence has shown the ability to miss bats and generate grounders in the past, though command has long been an issue. He fanned 24% of his opponents and posted a 48.5% ground-ball rate for Colorado during that strong 2023 season while sitting 95.4 mph on his sinker and 83.8 mph on his slider. Both pitches lost 0.8 mph in 2024, however, and Lawrence saw his strikeout rate plummet to 16.1% while his already problematic 11% walk rate crept up to 11.8%.

Lawrence did post a career-high 53.1% ground-ball rate, and he was far better on the road than at Coors Field, as most would expect. He was tagged for a disastrous 8.49 ERA in Denver compared to a more palatable 4.50 mark on the road. He had pronounced home-road splits in 2023 as well: 5.40 at Coors Field and 1.62 when the Rockies were away. Over the past two seasons, Lawrence has a 6.69 ERA at Coors Field and a 2.98 mark on the road.

The Pirates won’t be able to send Lawrence to Triple-A. He’s out of minor league options. As such, he’s now a virtual lock to make the Opening Day bullpen, barring an injury. With last year’s poor results and several other arms ahead of him on the bullpen pecking order, Lawrence probably won’t jump right into high-leverage work. He could certainly pitch his way into that role, as he did in ’23, but Pittsburgh will likely hope for a David Bednar rebound in the ninth inning with Colin Holderman, Dennis Santana and Carmen Mlodzinski all setting up. Lefties Caleb Ferguson and Tim Mayza, both signed as free agents, give skipper Derek Shelton at least two southpaw options. Joey Wentz, Kyle Nicolas, Chase Shugart and Peter Strzelecki are all on the 40-man roster as well. Wentz and Strzelecki are out of options. Notable non-roster invitees to camp include Ryan Borucki, Tanner Rainey, Burch Smith and Hunter Stratton.

Austin Gomber Scratched Due To Shoulder Soreness

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  • Austin Gomber was scratched from a scheduled start today due to some soreness in his throwing shoulder, MLB.com’s Thomas Harding writes.  Testing revealed no structural damage, though Rockies manager Bud Black wasn’t sure when Gomber might be back on the mound.  While Gomber isn’t a high-velocity pitcher, his fastball was also down a tick during his first Spring Training start last week, so the matter didn’t solely arise today.  Gomber viewed the situation as “a reset” rather than anything too serious, saying “maybe I would have tried to push it a little bit more if we were in a different spot on the calendar.  But it being so early in the year, I just felt like I wanted to take a few days to try to get a touch better and not have something that’s like nagging throughout the year.”  The veteran southpaw has been part of Colorado’s rotation for the last four seasons, and he posted a 4.75 ERA in 165 innings in 2024.

Jeff Criswell To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Right-hander Jeff Criswell is set to undergo Tommy John surgery, per an announcement from the Rockies. Criswell will miss the entire 2025 season, and the timing of the injury puts at least the beginning of his 2026 season in doubt as well.

Criswell, 26 next week, made his big league debut with the Rockies just last season. A second-round pick by the Athletics in the 2020 draft, Criswell was traded to the Rockies in December 2022 in a deal that brought reliever Chad Smith to Oakland. At the time, Criswell was a starting pitcher, but the right-hander struggled badly in his first season with the Rockies at the Triple-A level and was torched to the tune of a 7.51 ERA in 121 innings of work. That led the Rockies to move him to the bullpen for 2024, and the results were mixed but largely trended positive.

Criswell’s top level production numbers at Triple-A last year remained unimpressive, even after his move to the bullpen. He surrendered an ugly 6.24 ERA in 57 2/3 innings of work with the club’s Albuquerque affiliate, but a look under the hood reveals a fantastic 30% strikeout rate against a middling but not unmanageable 10.1% walk rate. That largely translated over to his 19 2/3 innings of work in the majors, only with much better results. At the big league level last year, Criswell punched out 31% of opponents while walking 10.3%, leaving him with a sterling 2.75 ERA across 13 appearances.

The right-hander’s biggest bugaboo last year, both in the majors and minors, was the home run ball. Criswell allowed more than two home runs per nine innings in the minor leagues last year, and even in Colorado he surrendered four homers in his aforementioned 19 2/3 frames of work. That 23.5% home run to fly ball ratio is perhaps unsustainable and could lead to positive regression in the future, but a hefty 12% barrel rate leaves plenty of room for concern that Criswell’s more homer-happy nature could be a matter of performance rather than purely luck-based.

Even with those question marks, Criswell appeared likely to be strongly in consideration for a bullpen job with the Rockies this year, particularly after their decision to place right-hander Justin Lawrence on waivers yesterday. Those plans are scuttled now, however, and Criswell will instead return to action at some point in the 2026 campaign and look to pick up where he left off in 2024. In the meantime, the club will have to turn to other options in the bullpen such as Angel Chivilli, Luis Peralta, and Jake Bird.

Rockies Reportedly Place Justin Lawrence On Waivers

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The Rockies have placed right-hander Justin Lawrence on waivers, according to a report from Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Notably, that does not mean the righty has been designated for assignment, and Lawrence can continue to workout with the Rockies and pitch in spring games while the waiver process runs its course. With that being said, Lawrence’s placement on waivers is irrevocable, meaning the right-hander will land with a new team in the coming days if any rival clubs put in a claim on his services.

Lawrence, 30, has parts of four MLB seasons under his belt since he debuted with the Rockies back in 2021. After struggling badly in a brief cup of coffee with the club during the 2021 campaign, Lawrence posted lackluster results in 2022 despite solid peripherals. While his 5.70 ERA that year was well below-average, a 3.39 FIP, a 3.54 xERA, and a 3.63 SIERA all suggested Lawrence had pitched much better than his surface level production would’ve suggested. He was a victim of a low 63.7% strand rate and an inflated .350 BABIP, but his strong 25.1% strikeout rate combined with a 50.8% groundball rate made clear the bones of a quality MLB reliever were present.

The right-hander then proved to be exactly that sort of quality MLB reliever the very next year, as he enjoyed a breakout season in 2023 at the age of 28. In 75 innings of work, Lawrence posted a 3.72 ERA with a matching 3.76 FIP while picking up 11 saves during a season where he shared the closer role with struggling veteran Pierce Johnson. Lawrence’s ERA that season may not jump off the page, but when factoring in the inflated offensive environment Rockies pitchers face at Coors Field he was actually well above average as demonstrated by his 134 ERA+. Lawrence’s peripherals more or less matched his work in the 2022 campaign, with a 23.9% strikeout rate, an 11% walk rate, and a 48.5% groundball rate. Entering 2024, it seemed as though the right-hander had a solid foundation for MLB success from which he could build off of going forward.

Unfortunately, that’s not how things worked out. Lawrence had the worst season of his career in 2024 as he surrendered a 6.49 ERA in 59 2/3 innings of work while his peripheral numbers regressed nearly across the board. Lawrence saw his walk rate tick up to 11.8% last year, while his strikeout rate plummeted to just 16.1%. Just four pitchers in the majors last year had a lower K-BB% than Lawrence, and in conjunction with the BABIP and strand rate related issues that are common for pitchers calling Coors Field home, it’s hardly a surprise that the right-hander struggled badly with metrics that mostly supported his poor performance including a 5.63 FIP, a 6.25 xERA, and a 4.73 SIERA.

In his first few outings this spring, Lawrence hasn’t looked much better. Spring results always need to be taken with a grain of salt, but the right-hander has looked wild with three walks and two hit batters against two strikeouts across three innings of work. That seems to have been enough for the Rockies, who expressed a desire to deal Lawrence this winter, to pull the plug. In doing so, the club opens up playing time for younger relief arms like Angel Chivilli and Jeff Criswell amid an noncompetitive season and could save the sum of Lawrence’s $975K arbitration salary if he’s plucked off waivers by another organization.

From when Lawrence is officially placed on waivers, rival clubs will have 48 hours to place a claim for his services. If he goes unclaimed, he’ll remain with the Rockies. The righty could be outrighted off the club’s 40-man roster at that point and stashed in the minors as depth, but Colorado would not necessarily have to do so and could just keep him in their big league bullpen going forward as well.

This Date In Transactions History: Nolan Arenado’s 2019 Extension

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Today marks six years since the signing of the largest contract in Rockies history. On February 26, 2019, Colorado signed Nolan Arenado to a seven-year extension that guaranteed $234MM. It kept the star third baseman from reaching the open market the following offseason. The franchise-record deal also included a full no-trade clause and the right to opt out after the 2021 season.

It looked to cement the defensive stalwart as the face of the franchise for the upcoming decade. Arenado was coming off his fourth consecutive finish among the top 10 in MVP balloting. He’d landed in the top five three years running. Over the preceding four seasons, Arenado was sixth among position players in FanGraphs Wins Above Replacement — trailing Mike Trout, Mookie Betts, Jose Altuve, Kris Bryant and Francisco Lindor. The Rockies had made the playoffs in consecutive seasons and were coming off a 91-win campaign that included a Wild Card game victory over the Cubs.

A relatively small-market franchise extending a player of that caliber one year from free agency was cause for excitement among Colorado fans. That optimism was dashed as the relationship went south incredibly quickly. Arenado had arguably the best season of his career in year one, hitting .315/.379/.583 with 41 homers to earn a sixth-place MVP finish. Yet the team won 20 fewer games than they had in ’18, kicking off an ongoing stretch of at least six straight losing seasons.

By the following offseason, a rift had emerged between Arenado and then-GM Jeff Bridich. Arenado was reportedly displeased with Colorado’s lack of moves to put a competitive roster around him. He was the subject of trade rumors by the 2019-20 offseason. Bridich publicly shot down trade possibilities that winter. Arenado remained in Colorado for the shortened season. It was an underwhelming year for player and team alike that did nothing to improve the relationship.

Two years after signing the extension, the Rockies found themselves attempting to offload as much money as possible owed to their disgruntled star. It wasn’t an easy contract to move. The no-trade gave Arenado the ability to pick his destination. The deal contained six years and $199MM in remaining guarantees with the potential for Arenado to opt out after one season.

The trade Colorado found was a disappointment even in that context. The Cardinals landed Arenado that February for a five-player return led by back-end starter Austin Gomber. He’s a capable fifth starter. None of the other four players — Elehuris Montero, Mateo Gil, Jake Sommers and Tony Locey — remain in the organization. Montero is the only member of that group who even reached the majors and he was a sub-replacement performer.

Colorado kicked in $51MM to facilitate the deal, while Arenado agreed to a restructured contract that deferred part of his 2022-26 salaries while adding a $15MM salary for 2027. Bridich was out as GM three months later. One year after dumping $148MM of the Arenado contract, the Rox signed Bryant to his ill-fated $182MM free agent deal.

The sequence served as a precursor to this winter’s series of trade rumors. Arenado played at a superstar level for his first two seasons in St. Louis, helping the team to consecutive playoff berths. His production over the past two years has been more solid than exceptional. The Cards have missed the playoffs in both and are looking more toward the future than short-term contention. They spent all offseason trying to move Arenado to a contender while moving most of the remaining money. The no-trade clause again allowed him to be particular regarding the teams to which he’d approve a deal.

After he famously nixed a move to the Astros in December, Arenado is expected to play what’ll be his fifth season in St. Louis. He’s into the final two seasons of the deal he’d initially signed with Colorado. He’s due $32MM and $27MM respectively over the next two years, though he agreed to defer $6MM annually to facilitate the trade to St. Louis. The Rockies are still paying down $5MM in each of those seasons. St. Louis is fully responsible for the tacked-on $15MM salary in ’27, which is not deferred.

Rockies Outright Aaron Schunk

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The Rockies announced that infielder Aaron Schunk has passed through waivers unclaimed and been sent outright to Triple-A. He was designated for assignment earlier this week when the club signed left-hander Scott Alexander. He stays in big league camp but now as a non-roster invitee.

Schunk, 27, was selected to the club’s roster in June. He got to make his major league debut last year, stepping to the plate 98 times across 39 games. He put up a line of .234/.265/.330 in those, walking just 4.1% of the time and striking out at a 31.6% clip. Defensively, he split his time between second base, third base and shortstop.

His offense has been better in the minors. Over the past three seasons, he has 1,304 plate appearances on the farm, drawing walks in 7.6% of those and getting punched out 22.2% of the time. He hit a combined .278/.335/.450 for a 98 wRC+ over those seasons.

That wasn’t enough for any club to put in a claim. Since this is Schunk’s first career outright and he has less than three years of major league service time, he doesn’t have the right to elect free agency. He’ll stick with the Rockies and provide them with some infield depth but without taking up a roster spot.

The Rockies have Ryan McMahon locked in at third base and Ezequiel Tovar at shortstop. Second base is a bit more open after the club moved on from Brendan Rodgers. Prospect Adael Amador is perhaps the long-term plan, though he’s played just ten games above the Double-A level thus far and still has options. Thairo Estrada should hold down the position for now, with Kyle Farmer on the roster as a bench/utility infielder.

The Rox have guys like Owen Miller and Keston Hiura in camp as non-roster invitees, with Schunk now joining them in that category. If Schunk gets added back to the roster at any point, he has a full slate of options and less than a year of service time.

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