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Rockies Release Jacob Stallings

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The Rockies announced a series of roster moves today. Infielder Ryan Ritter has been selected to the roster, catcher Braxton Fulford has been recalled and right-hander Zach Agnos has been reinstated from the bereavement list. Right-hander Angel Chivilli was optioned after yesterday’s game. To open two more spots, the club has placed shortstop Ezequiel Tovar on the 10-day injured list with a left oblique strain, retroactive to June 3rd, while catcher Jacob Stallings has been unconditionally released.

Stallings, 35, had a solid season for the Rockies last year but he’s been dreadful this year. Going into 2024, he signed a $2MM deal and went on to hit .263/.357/.453 for a 114 wRC+ in 82 games for Colorado. The defensive reviews were mixed but the Rockies clearly liked him, as it was reported in September of last year that they wanted to bring him back. The two sides eventually reunited on a one-year deal for 2025 with a $2.5MM guarantee, in the form of a $2MM salary and $500K buyout on a $2MM mutual option for 2026.

Unfortunately, his performance has dropped off significantly so far this year. Through 93 plate appearances, he has a .143/.217/.179 line. A drop from last year’s .324 batting average on balls in play to this year’s .226 doesn’t help but that’s not the only thing going on here. He has struck out in a third of his plate appearances, a huge jump from last year’s 23.1% clip. His walk rate has dropped from last year’s 9.6% pace to this year’s 5.4%.

While Stallings has been doing that, Hunter Goodman has been taking over the catcher position. Goodman has ten home runs in 241 plate appearances, helping him produce a .281/.328/.491 line and 114 wRC+. His defensive marks aren’t great but it’s understandable that the Rockies have leaned towards that stronger offensive output. Fulford has been playing well in the minors so he’ll get to come up and join the big league catching ranks, while Stallings has been let go.

Once Stallings clears release waivers, he’ll be able to sign with any club. The Rockies will remain on the hook for the remainder of his salary. If any other club gives him a spot, they would only have to pay him the prorated portion of the league minimum salary for any time spent on the roster.

It’s unclear how long Tovar will be out of action but oblique strains can be difficult, with minor strains sometimes taking weeks or months to recover from. That opens the shortstop position and Thomas Harding of MLB.com suggests that Ritter should get regular playing time, though Orlando Arcia, Tyler Freeman and Kyle Farmer all have some experience at the position.

Ritter, 24, was a fourth-round selection of the Rockies in the 2022 draft. He has since climbed the minor league ladder and is having a good season in Triple-A. He has a .305/.413/.635 line and 149 wRC+ in 52 games for the Isotopes. He already has 16 home runs while drawing walks at a 13.9% clip and keeping his strikeouts down to a 20.4% rate.

Prospect evaluators have often worried about his chase tendencies but he has continued to lower his strikeout rate. He was punched out 29% of the time in 2023 but got that down to 23.6% last year and he’s dropped it even more this year. His defensive reviews are mixed but he’s capable of swiping 20 bags annually. Baseball America now lists him as the #4 prospect in the club’s system.

Even the best prospects can sometimes flounder when first reaching the majors, so time will tell how Ritter handles the jump. If he doesn’t succeed right away, he could be optioned back down to Albuquerque when Tovar is healthy. If he succeeds, he has played some second base in the minors and could perhaps kick over to the other side of the bag, depending on how Thairo Estrada is performing.

Photo courtesy of Robert Edwards, Imagn Images

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 Place Kris Bryant On Injured List

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The Rockies announced that they have placed Kris Bryant on the 10-day injured list due to lumbar degenerative disc disease. Catcher Braxton Fulford had his contract selected to take Bryant’s place on the roster. Right-hander Jeff Criswell was transferred to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man spot for Fulford. Criswell had Tommy John surgery last month and will miss the entire season. Thomas Harding of MLB.com reported the Bryant and Fulford moves prior to the official announcement.

Injuries have been the defining feature of Bryant’s time in Colorado. He is now in his fourth season as a member of the Rockies but hasn’t surpassed 80 games in any of those campaigns. His first season in the mountains, 2022, he hit well but only got into 42 contests. Since then, he has not only been frequently sidelined but also ineffective when in the lineup. He has a .222/.307/.335 batting line over the 2023-25 seasons and is out to a brutal .154/.195/.205 start so far in 2025.

His injury absences have been due to various ailments, including a heel bruise, finger fracture and rib contusion, but back problems have been an ongoing feature as well. In 2022, he spent over a month on the IL due to a lower back strain. A back strain also kept him out of action for almost two months at the end of the 2024 campaign.

Whether those various back problems are all interconnected or not is unknown. The club also hasn’t provided much information on this current diagnosis or what they expect in terms of prognosis. More information will surely emerge tonight or in the coming days.

Either way, it just further compounds the point that Bryant has been an awful investment for the club. Prior to coming to Colorado, he had done it all. He was a Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player, All-Star and World Series champion. He had a .278/.376/.504 batting line through 2021. He hit free agency and landed a seven-year, $182MM deal with the Rockies.

Even at the time, it was a bit of a head-scratcher. The Rockies had just wrapped up their third straight losing season and near-term contention didn’t seem highly likely. Some were calling for a rebuild at that time, but they went in another direction by making this big investment. As mentioned, it hasn’t worked out, and the club hasn’t gotten any better. They lost 94 games in 2022 and got to triple digits in each of the past two seasons. They are the worst team in baseball so far this season with a 3-12 record.

Bryant had largely been serving as the designated hitter, so the club will have some options now in who they give those at-bats to. The fact that they have called up a catcher perhaps indicates that Hunter Goodman might move out from behind the plate more often. He has been splitting the catching duties with Jacob Stallings but now perhaps could take the DH slot or move to the outfield, where he has some experience.

Fulford, 26, was a sixth-round pick of the Rockies in 2021. Back in January, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs gave him an honorable mention on his list of the top prospects in the system, noting that he has poor defense and contact hitting but good power. In his 1,219 minor league plate appearances, he has hit .265/.375/.455 with 40 home runs. He struck out at a 25.1% clip last year and is at 27.3% so far this year. Given his bat-first tendencies, perhaps Goodman will stay in the catching mix while Fulford takes some DH time.

Photo courtesy of Isaiah J. Downing, Imagn Images

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