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Alan Trejo

Rangers Sign Alan Trejo, Billy McKinney To Minor League Deals

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The Rangers signed Alan Trejo and Billy McKinney to minor league contracts. Both moves were initially reflected on the MiLB.com transaction log, and they’ve each already appeared for Triple-A Round Rock.

It’s the second Texas stint of the season for Trejo. The glove-first utility player signed with the Rangers over the offseason. He spent a month in Round Rock before the Rockies expressed interest in calling him up. Texas dealt him to Colorado for cash considerations to facilitate the promotion. Trejo spent a few weeks on the Rox’s MLB roster while they navigated injuries to Ezequiel Tovar and Tyler Freeman. He appeared in 13 games and hit .175 with a pair of doubles.

A former 16th-round draft choice, Trejo has appeared in parts of five MLB seasons. All of that time has come in Colorado. He’s a lifetime .224/.269/.325 hitter against big league pitching. Trejo has spent time in the Dodgers system plus his brief early-season stint in Round Rock but hasn’t gotten to the majors with any team besides the Rockies. He’s hitting .211/.247/.352 in 19 Triple-A games this year. He won’t provide much at the plate but can competently cover any infield position.

McKinney, 30, was released from a minor league deal with the Mets last week. He’s a left-handed hitting first baseman/corner outfielder who has played at the big league level with seven different clubs. McKinney carries a .209/.284/.386 batting line in a little under 1000 MLB plate appearances. He’d been out to a rough start for the Mets’ top farm team, hitting .184/.285/.307 with 34 strikeouts over 33 games. McKinney has a much more solid .266/.354/.487 slash in parts of eight Triple-A seasons. He’ll try to find that form in the Pacific Coast League.

Alan Trejo Elects Free Agency

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The Rockies sent infielder Alan Trejo outright to Triple-A Albuquerque but he has exercised his right to elect free agency, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment last week. The log also indicates that infielder Owen Miller was outrighted after last week’s DFA. He also has the right to free agency, but there’s no indication he has done so.

Trejo, 29 this month, got a brief run on Colorado’s roster. The Rockies acquired him from the Rangers in a cash deal at the end of April. He was sent to the plate 43 times but produced a dismal line of .175/.190/.225.

That’s an extreme low in a small sample but it continues his glove-first trajectory. He now has a .224/.269/.325 batting line and 49 wRC+ in 512 big league plate appearances. He has played the three infield positions to the left of first base, with at least 183 innings at each of those spots. His work at shortstop has been subpar but passable, while he’s been above average at both second and third base.

The Rockies acquired Trejo and selected Miller to fill in during a time when infielders Ezequiel Tovar, Tyler Freeman and Aaron Schunk were all on the IL, though all three were reinstated last week. Trejo and Miller are both out of options, leaving the Rockies little choice but to cut them from the 40-man entirely. As players with previous career outrights, they have the right to reject further outright assignments in favor of free agency.

Trejo’s entire big league career has been with the Rockies, though he has signed minor league deals with the Dodgers and Rangers. Perhaps he and the Rockies will reunite on a fresh minor league deal in the coming days but he will have the chance to talk to the other 29 clubs as well.

Miller was acquired from Milwaukee in a minor trade over the offseason. Colorado called him up despite a modest .244/.322/.372 slash line in Triple-A. He didn’t play much in the big leagues, going 2-14 while starting four games at second base. Assuming he doesn’t elect free agency, he’ll remain in the system as non-roster infield depth.

Photo courtesy of Eakin Howard, Imagn Images

Rockies Select Carson Palmquist

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The Rockies announced that they have selected left-hander Carson Palmquist to their roster. Thomas Harding of MLB.com reported yesterday that Palmquist was likely to be promoted and to make his major league debut starting tonight’s game. They also reinstated infielders Ezequiel Tovar, Tyler Freeman and Aaron Schunk from the 10-day injured list. To make room for those four, outfielder Sean Bouchard and right-hander Anthony Molina have been optioned to Triple-A Albuquerque while infielders Owen Miller and Alan Trejo have been designated for assignment.

Palmquist, now 24, was selected by the Rockies in the third round of the 2022 draft. Since then, he has been climbing the minor league ladder, putting up some good strikeout numbers but also giving out a fairly high number of free passes.

Overall, he has 246 1/3 minor league innings under his belt with a 3.91 earned run average. He has punched out 31.1% of opponents but also given out a walk 117 times, an 11.2% clip. He has also plunked 21 batters, only adding to the number of free bases he’s given out.

That includes 70 2/3 Triple-A innings, starting in August of last year and continuing through the present. For the Isotopes, who play in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, Palmquist has a 4.84 ERA, 24.1% strikeout rate and 14.3% walk rate.

Coming into 2025, Baseball America ranked Palmquist as the #8 prospect in the Rockies’ system. They note that the sidearming lefty doesn’t have overpowering stuff, with his fastball generally sitting in the low-90s, but with his angle and extension helping him get results from it. He’s been able to generate a lot of whiffs with his slider while also mixing in a cutter and a changeup. FanGraphs ranked him #6 in the system with a fairly similar report.

Both outlets feel Palmquist has a shot to be a serviceable back-end starter. There’s not much stopping the Rockies from letting him begin that journey now. The team has a dreadful 7-36 record, easily the worst in the majors. Since Ryan Feltner landed on the injured list a couple of weeks ago, they have had a four-man rotation core of Germán Márquez, Kyle Freeland, Antonio Senzatela and Chase Dollander, while also giving spot starts to Bradley Blalock and Tanner Gordon.

Both Blalock and Gordon are currently on optional assignment in the minors. Each of Márquez, Freeland, Senzatela and Dollander has an ERA above 6.00. The Rockies are about to play 13 straight games, starting tonight. Perhaps this will just be a spot start for Palmquist, though he could also get three turns if he stays up for the rest of this 13-game stretch.

Even if Palmquist doesn’t get an extended rotation look right away, there’s a long-term path. Márquez is an impending free agent, as is Austin Gomber, who is currently on the IL. Senzatela and Freeland are both only signed through 2026. Senzatela’s pact has a $14MM club option for 2027 though it’s hard to see that being picked up right now. Freeland can unlock a $17MM player option for 2027 by pitching 170 innings in 2026, though he has only hit that number twice in his career. Even if he’s trending towards hitting it next season, the Rockies would probably be wise to reduce his workload and not allow him to, unless he is having far better results between now and then. In that scenario, he might turn down his option and head to free agency.

Regardless of how those options play out, there should be room for young guys like Dollander, Palmquist and Blalock to take over rotation jobs in the long run, though the difficulties of pitching at Coors Field make that a tricky task even for the most talented pitching prospects.

On the position player side, Tovar, Freeman and Schunk are all back in the infield mix. That squeezes out Trejo and Miller, each of whom are out of minor league options. Trejo returned to the organization last month in a trade with Texas. He hit .175 in 14 games. Miller, acquired in a minor league deal with Milwaukee over the offseason, was promoted around the same time. He went 2-14 over nine contests. Both players figure to land on waivers in the next few days.

Rockies Designate Lucas Gilbreath For Assignment

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The Rockies announced a series of roster moves this morning, including their previously reported trade for infielder Alan Trejo. Trejo has been selected to the roster, with catcher Braxton Fulford having been optioned to make room for Trejo on the active roster. Southpaw Lucas Gilbreath was designated for assignment to clear space for Trejo on the 40-man roster. Additionally, right-hander Jaden Hill was optioned to the minors while righty Bradley Blalock was recalled to the big league roster.

Trejo, 29 next month, returns to the organization for whom he was a 16th-round pick in 2017 draft. The infielder debuted with the club in 2021 and has appeared in 173 major league games since then, all of which came as a member of the Rockies. He’s hit just .228/.276/.334 in that time, though he’s been a serviceable depth option for the club’s bench over the years thanks to strong defense all around the infield. Still, Trejo’s lack of offense led the Rockies to designate him for assignment in June of last year. He promptly cleared waivers and elected free agency. Since then, he’s played for the Dodgers and Rangers in the minor leagues but will now make his return to both the Rockies and the majors in general as an infield bench option now that Kyle Farmer has been pushed into an everyday role by an injury to Ezequiel Tovar.

Making room for Trejo on the 40-man roster is Gilbreath, a seventh-rounder selected by Colorado as part of the same draft class as Trejo. The southpaw also made his big league debut during the 2021 season, and he enjoyed a solid rookie campaign out of the bullpen with a 3.38 ERA in 42 2/3 innings of work. That’s a particularly impressive figure for the player who calls Coors Field home, though he walked a worrisome 12.4% of his opponents while striking out 23.8%, leaving him with a less impressive 4.32 FIP. Even so, he was able to build on his success in 2022 and deliver another solid year of work when he pitched to a 4.19 ERA (111 ERA+) with a much stronger 3.53 FIP in 43 frames, though his strikeouts and walks were largely unchanged from the year prior.

Despite the shaky command, Gilbreath looked like a bullpen piece with real potential for the Rockies headed into the 2023 season. Unfortunately, he underwent Tommy John surgery and wound up not only missing the whole year, but nearly the entire 2024 season due to his rehab. Gilbreath returned to the majors in August of last year but was torched to the tune of a 54.00 ERA across three appearances that totaled just one inning of work. He remained with the Rockies after signing a pre-tender deal back in November, but he’ll depart the roster without making a big league appearance this year. In seven appearances at Triple-A this year, Gilbreath has posted a solid 2.70 ERA but has struck out just 14.7% of his opponents while walking 11.8%.

Making room for Trejo on the active roster is Fulford, who made his big league debut earlier this month. He went 1-for-8 with a home run and five strikeouts in his four-game cup of coffee in the majors and is now ticketed for Triple-A, where he’ll serve as optionable catching depth for the time being. Joining him in the minors is Hill, who has looked solid with a 3.38 ERA in three appearances for the Rockies this year, while Blalock rejoins the pen after surrendering two runs in three innings of work earlier this year.

Rockies Acquire Alan Trejo, Plan To Select His Contract Sunday

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The Rockies have acquired utility infielder Alan Trejo in a trade with the Rangers. Texas receives cash considerations in return. According to Thomas Harding of MLB.com, the Rockies plan to add Trejo to their active roster ahead of Sunday’s series finale with the Reds. They will need to free up space for him on both the 26 and 40-man rosters.

This trade reunites Trejo with the team that drafted him in 2017. He made his MLB debut for the Rockies in 2021 and played in 174 games for Colorado between 2021-24. In that time, he slashed .228/.276/.334, good for just a 54 wRC+ given the harsh park adjustments for the hitter-friendly Coors Field. While Trejo never offered much with the bat, he was a versatile defender, capable of playing second base, third base, and shortstop.

After he was designated for assignment last summer, Trejo became a free agent for the first time in his career and inked a minor league pact with the Dodgers. He spent the final three months of the 2024 season with Triple-A Oklahoma City. He then elected free agency again in November and latched on with the Rangers over the offseason. While he earned an invitation to big league camp, he failed to make Texas’s Opening Day roster.

Trejo got off to a rough start in 2025 for the Round Rock Express, the Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate. Through 19 games, he hit just .211 with a .599 OPS and a 45 wRC+. Nonetheless, the Rockies clearly missed his versatile glove on their bench, so they’re bringing him back into the fold. With Ezequiel Tovar, Thairo Estrada, and Tyler Freeman on the injured list, the Rockies were short enough on infielders before Aaron Schunk hit the 10-day IL with a groin strain earlier today. Trejo will provide some much-needed depth. Presumably, he will take third-string catcher Braxton Fulford’s spot on the active roster. The Rockies called Fulford back up on Saturday when Schunk was placed on the IL, just a day after Fulford was optioned to Triple-A.

Rangers Sign Alan Trejo To Minor League Contract

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The Rangers announced the signing of infielder Alan Trejo to a minor league deal with a Spring Training invite. Texas also re-signed catcher Cooper Johnson and added reliever Nolan Hoffman as non-roster invitees.

Of that trio, Trejo is the only one with MLB experience. The righty-hitting utilityman has suited up for the Rockies in each of the last four seasons. He has hit .228/.276/.334 across 469 plate appearances in the big leagues. Colorado cut him loose in June. Trejo landed a minor league contract with the Dodgers. He finished the year with Triple-A Oklahoma City, where he hit .265/.346/.408 with six homers across 241 plate appearances.

Trejo isn’t going to provide much offensive upside. He can play anywhere on the infield, though, with solid grades for his second base defense in particular. He should open next season at Triple-A Round Rock. Trejo is out of options, so the Rangers would need to keep him on the MLB roster or run him through waivers if they call him up at any point.

Johnson is a 26-year-old catcher who played this year with Texas’ Double-A affiliate. The Ole Miss product hit .235/.355/.474 with 14 home runs in the Texas League. Hoffman, a 27-year-old righty, has pitched in the Seattle and Baltimore systems. He spent the ’24 campaign in Triple-A with the Orioles. Hoffman pitched to a 3.88 ERA while striking out 28% of opponents across 58 innings.

Dodgers Sign Alan Trejo To Minor League Deal

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The Dodgers signed infielder Alan Trejo to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Oklahoma City, tweets Triple-A broadcaster Alex Freedman. Dodgers Daily first reported last night (on X) that the L.A. native had agreed to a minor league contract with Los Angeles.

Trejo, 28, became a free agent after being designated for assignment by the Rockies last week. A former 16th round pick by Colorado out of San Diego State, he changes organizations for the first time in his career. Trejo cracked the MLB roster for the first time early in the 2021 season. He has appeared in each of the last four seasons, working mostly in a utility capacity. He logged his most significant action a year ago, hitting .232/.288/.343 over 82 contests.

A right-handed hitter, Trejo has never been a huge offensive threat. He owns a .228/.276/.334 line in 469 MLB plate appearances. That includes a .143/.182/.143 slash with 15 strikeouts and two walks through 28 games this year. He has slightly above-average grades for his defensive work at second and third base, however. Trejo also has 263 1/3 frames of shortstop experience, where public metrics have rated him a bit below average.

The ability to play competent or better defense throughout the infield appeals to a Dodger team that’s currently without Mookie Betts and Max Muncy. The Dodgers have pushed Miguel Rojas into regular shortstop work. Cavan Biggio, Chris Taylor and Enrique Hernández are multi-positional options who are picking up work at third base. Gavin Lux remains the starter at second base despite a .221/.270/.301 showing on the year. Trejo doesn’t provide much more of an offensive ceiling, but he’s an experienced option who can cover at all three positions.

Alan Trejo Elects Free Agency

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The Rockies announced this afternoon that infielder Alan Trejo has cleared outright waivers and opted to elect free agency rather than accept an outright assignment to the minor leagues. While Trejo does not have the requisite three year of service time typically necessary to reject the assignment, he was nonetheless able to do so after being outrighted previously back in January.

Trejo, 28, was a 16th-round pick by Colorado in the 2017 draft but didn’t make his big league debut until 2021, when he served as an up-and-down utility depth option for the Rockies around the infield. Trejo hit just .217/.260/.326 (36 wRC+) in 50 trips to the plate spread across 28 games that saw him split time between second base and shortstop. He enjoyed a bit more action the following year and had a career season at the plate, hitting a roughly league average .271/.312/.424 (92 wRC+) in 135 plate appearances, once again as a bench player. Much of that playing time came when Trejo was made one of the club’s September call-ups that year, and he slashed .291/.341/.468 in 24 games.

That hot September (combined with an early-season injury to Brendan Rodgers) earned Trejo a larger role for the 2023 season, but he found himself unable to capitalize on it as his offense came crashing back to Earth fairly quickly. While he received 227 plate appearances across 83 games that year, Trejo posted a lackluster slash line of .232/.288/.343 (56 wRC+). The infielder’s struggles reached the point where the Rockies decided to option him to the minors in early June of last year, and while he returned in July to post a slightly improved .221/.306/.379 slash line across his final 41 games, 2024 proved to be his worst performance yet as the 28-year-old hit just .142 with a .182 on-base percentage and zero extra-base hits across 67 plate appearances for the Rockies.

That brutal performance in 2024 was enough for Colorado to decide to part ways with Trejo, and the club designated him for assignment yesterday in order to make room for infielder Aaron Schunk on the club’s roster. The Rockies’ second-rounder from the 2019 draft, Schunk figures to fill a similar role on the roster as Trejo did, sacrificing the ability to play shortstop for stronger offensive numbers. That left the Rockies to place Trejo on waivers, where he went unclaimed by all 29 other clubs. Now a free agent for the first time in his career, Trejo figures to search for a minor league deal in an organization light on middle infield depth. While the infielder has never hit much in the majors, his glovework has generally been well-received by defensive metrics, as indicated by his +2 Outs Above Average in part time duty with the Rockies last year.

Rockies Designate Alan Trejo For Assignment

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The Rockies have designated utilityman Alan Trejo for assignment, per a team announcement. His spot on the roster will go to fellow infielder Aaron Schunk, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Albuquerque. Colorado also recalled right-hander Riley Pint from Triple-A. The team had a vacant spot on the active roster after placing reliever Jake Bird on the injured list Thursday.

Trejo, 28, has played in parts of the past four seasons with the Rockies but never provided much offense outside a 35-game showing in 2022, when his .271/.312/.424 line clocked in just slightly below league-average. He’s a career .228/.276/.324 hitter, and the 2024 campaign has been a particular struggle — evidenced by a grim .143/.182/.143 batting line in 67 trips to the plate.

Trejo has never been on the roster for his bat, however. He’s a versatile infielder who can handle every position to the left of first base. He’s drawn particularly strong ratings at second base and third base. He doesn’t run particularly well, but Trejo has shown solid range and sure hands at multiple infield positions.

Because Trejo has exhausted all three of his minor league option years, the Rockies had to designate him for assignment rather than simply option him to Albuquerque. They’ll trade him or place him on outright waivers within the next five days (and waivers themselves would be another two days if he’s eventually placed).

Schunk, 27 next month, was the Rockies’ second-round pick back in 2019. The former Georgia Bulldog ranked among the organization’s 12 best prospects each year from 2020-22, per Baseball America, but an ugly 2021 season in High-A followed by a year of pedestrian offensive output at Double-A in 2022 caused him to fall down the system’s rankings. He hit .290/.350/.461 in Triple-A last season and is at a very similar .291/.339/.469 this year while repeating the level — this time with a far 17.7% strikeout rate that’s far lower than last year’s 24% mark. That said, while Schunk’s rate stats look strong, his overall offensive production is about 7% worse than league-average in the supercharged offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League.

Like Trejo, Schunk is a utility infield option who bats from the right side of the plate and is best suited for work at third base and second base (though he’s played sparingly at shortstop and first base as well). At his best, he ranked fifth in Colorado’s system, per BA, drawing praise for a plus arm, above-average contact skills and average power. The Rox will presumably hope that Schunk can fill the same bench role Trejo held but do so with some more offensive contributions.

Rockies Outright Warming Bernabel

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March 30: Bernabel went unclaimed on waivers and has been assigned outright to Double-A Hartford, per the Rockies’ transaction log at MLB.com. He’ll remain with the organization.

March 28: The Rockies announced Thursday that they’ve selected the contract of utilityman Alan Trejo and opened a spot on the roster by designating third base prospect Warming Bernabel for assignment. Colorado also placed relievers Daniel Bard and Lucas Gilbreath on the 15-day IL, as expected. The former is recovering from spring knee surgery and the latter from 2023 Tommy John surgery.

Bernabel, 21, ranked seventh among Rockies prospects at Baseball America this time last year but has seen his stock drop considerably after a rough 2023 season. After a standout 2021 campaign in which he slashed .313/.370/.499 between Low-A and High-A, Bernabel batted only .225/.282/.367 in 83 Double-A games. A back injury cost him more than a month of the season and quite possibly impacted his performance at the plate as well. BA dropped Bernabel to 27th in a poorly ranked Rockies farm system for the 2024 campaign, noting concerns about his below-average raw power and poor exit velocities.

Bernabel has played third base in all but one game of his pro career, when he logged a brief two-inning stint at second base. Scouting reports credit him with an average arm and enough range to handle the hot corner, but he’s not regarded as a plus defender at this time. He only spent one season on the Rockies’ 40-man roster before being designated for assignment, meaning he has two minor league option years remaining. That, paired with his youth and pre-2023 reputation could create interest from other clubs.

The Rockies will have a week to trade Bernabel or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. He doesn’t have the prior outright assignment or service time needed to reject an outright assignment, so if he goes unclaimed, Colorado can retain him and send him back to the minors (presumably, a second stint at Double-A) without needing to dedicate a 40-man roster spot to him.

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