Ryan Rolison

Rockies Place Kyle Freeland On Injured List

By Anthony Franco | July 14, 2023 at 4:16pm CDT

The Rockies placed starter Kyle Freeland on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to July 11, with a subluxation in his non-throwing shoulder. Colorado also selected the contract of reliever Tommy Doyle, as reported this afternoon, and recalled Michael Toglia. To clear a spot on the 40-man roster for Doyle, lefty Ryan Rolison landed on the 60-day IL.

Freeland suffered the injury during his final start before the All-Star Break. He disclosed the shoulder and suffered a slight tear in the labrum, writes Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. Fortunately, Freeland won’t require surgery and is expected to pitch again at some point in 2023.

The 30-year-old southpaw has been Colorado’s most reliable pitcher this season. Over 19 starts, he’s worked 103 innings of 4.72 ERA ball. He’s striking out fewer than 15% of opponents but has kept his walk rate to a quality 7.7% clip. Freeland and Austin Gomber are the only Colorado starters to work over 60 innings; the former is the only pitcher on the team to keep an ERA below 5.00 while working more than 20 frames.

Rolison, a former first round pick, could have had an opportunity to carve out a spot with that pitching staff in flux. The 26-year-old southpaw has unfortunately had serious injury concerns over the past two seasons. He missed all of last year, undergoing a season-ending shoulder procedure in June. Rolison returned from the IL at the end of May but quickly experienced renewed shoulder discomfort.

There’s now a serious question if Rolison will be able to return this season. The IL placement will prevent him from making his MLB debut until mid-September at the earliest. The only silver lining is that he’ll collect MLB service and be paid at the prorated $720K big league minimum rate for time he spends rehabbing from here forward.

Rockies Notes: Blackmon, Bryant, Rolison

By Anthony Franco | June 12, 2023 at 9:21pm CDT

The Rockies put designated hitter Charlie Blackmon on the 10-day injured list yesterday after x-rays revealed a fracture in his right hand. That injury is expected to keep him out of action for four to six weeks, writes Manny Randhawa of MLB.com.

Blackmon was first hurt a week ago when he was hit by a pitch on June 3. He played through the issue for a few days before the break became clear over the weekend. Unsurprisingly, the intervening week was a struggle for the veteran hitter, who collected just three hits in 21 trips to the dish from June 4 onwards.

Prior to being hit by the pitch, Blackmon carried a .277/.356/.447 batting line over 216 trips to the plate. That’s slightly above-average offense even after accounting for his hitter-friendly home park. That marked a decent step up relative to last year’s .264/.314/.419 showing, largely thanks to a strikeout rate that he’d cut from 18.9% to 13.4%.

While he’s certainly not back to his peak, Blackmon had been one of the better hitters in a middling Colorado lineup. He’ll now be out past the All-Star Break and potentially into August, leaving the Rox down another of their veteran players. Colorado has already been without Kris Bryant for nearly two weeks thanks to a bruised left heel.

Foot issues have plagued Bryant off and on since he signed a seven-year free agent deal over the 2021-22 offseason. Plantar fasciitis in his left foot cost him a good chunk of the ’22 season, cutting his year short by the end of July. Bryant acknowledged he’s not entirely past that issue, telling reporters yesterday the plantar fasciitis still “comes and goes” (link via Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post).

Bryant indicated he has yet to begin baseball activities and is without a clear timetable for a return. He said this year’s issue hasn’t inhibited him to the extent that last year’s problems had, though it’s still concerning that the foot has given him continued trouble. It’s possible it’s had a deleterious effect on Bryant’s performance, as he hasn’t made his typical level of impact as a Rockie.

The former MVP is hitting .263/.346/.374 in 50 games this season. He carries a .283/.358/.420 slash in just under 400 trips to the dish in a Colorado uniform. Bryant’s strike zone discipline has remained strong, but he’s had surprisingly light power numbers (ten homers, .137 ISO) despite playing half his games at altitude.

Colorado has been hit with the injury bug on the pitching side as well. Things have been particularly tough for former first round draftee Ryan Rolison. The Ole Miss product likely would’ve made his MLB debut by now if not for shoulder surgery that cost him all of 2022 and the first couple months of this season. The Rox reinstated Rolison from the 60-day injured list at the end of May, seemingly opening the door for him to factor in this summer.

While that might still be the case, the 25-year-old is again dealing with shoulder concerns. He left a Triple-A start on June 2 after just one inning because of discomfort. General manager Bill Schmidt said today that Rolison has returned to the club’s Arizona complex to rehab (via MLB.com injury tracker). It’s not clear how long this latest setback is expected to keep him out of game action, but it represents another obstacle for a pitcher trying to crack the back of a flexible Colorado rotation.

Rockies Reinstate Ryan Rolison, Transfer Ryan Feltner To 60-Day IL

By Anthony Franco | May 29, 2023 at 2:45pm CDT

The Rockies reinstated left-hander Ryan Rolison from the 60-day injured list this afternoon. Colorado optioned the former first round pick to Triple-A Albuquerque, so he won’t make his major league debut quite yet. In order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster, the Rox transferred righty Ryan Feltner from the 15-day to the 60-day IL. Colorado also placed Charlie Blackmon on the bereavement list and recalled Elehuris Montero before today’s game against the Diamondbacks.

Rolison has been out for almost a year. The Ole Miss product underwent shoulder surgery last June. Had he been healthy, he might’ve reached the majors last season. Rolison was already on the 40-man roster and had reached Triple-A in the second half of the 2021 campaign. Instead, the shoulder problem cost him all of 2022 and the first couple months of this season.

Colorado sent Rolison on a minor league rehab stint a couple weeks ago. He logged six innings over two starts in Low-A before tossing four innings of five-run ball for Albuquerque on Saturday. He’ll remain with the Isotopes and continue building up but could find himself in the mix for a big league look before long. The 25-year-old only has a 6.34 ERA in 49 2/3 innings in Triple-A but he’s punched out roughly a quarter of batters faced in his minor league career.

The Rockies have battled rotation uncertainty all season. Germán Márquez underwent Tommy John surgery and Antonio Senzatela suffered an elbow sprain. Feltner, meanwhile, was struck in the head by a Nick Castellanos line drive on May 14. He was eventually diagnosed with a skull fracture. Feltner told reporters over the weekend he hoped to make it back to the majors this season but understandably indicated his present focus is on getting back to normal after battling concussion symptoms. Today’s IL transfer officially rules him out of action through the All-Star Break.

Rockies Notes: Kauffmann, Rolison, Anderson

By Steve Adams | May 17, 2023 at 10:44am CDT

The Rockies don’t have a starting pitcher listed for Friday’s game against the Rangers yet, as the team’s rotation has been decimated by injuries through the first quarter of the season. MLB.com’s Thomas Harding tweets that 25-year-old righty Karl Kauffmann was scratched from his most recent Triple-A start, however, and is expected to make his big league debut Friday. He’d need to be added to the 40-man roster, though the Rockies could easily accommodate that by moving German Marquez to the 60-day injured list.

Colorado entered the 2023 season with one of the weakest starting pitching groups in all of baseball, and they’ve quickly been stretched even thinner. Marquez is done for the year after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Antonio Senzatela returned from last year’s ACL tear but pitched just 7 2/3 innings before heading back to the IL with an elbow strain. The Rox are also without Ryan Feltner, who suffered a concussion and small fracture in his skull over the weekend when he was hit in the head by a comebacker. Righty Noah Davis is on the shelf with elbow inflammation, and the Rockies already released one member of their Opening Day rotation, Jose Urena, after a dismal start to the season.

That sequence has already prompted the Rockies to claim Chase Anderson following his DFA with the Rays — Anderson was excellent in last night’s team debut — and it’ll now ostensibly set the stage for Kauffmann’s MLB debut. He’ll join Anderson, Kyle Freeland, Austin Gomber and Connor Seabold if he indeed is called up and given a legitimate run in the rotation.

Kauffmann was the Rockies’ Competitive Balance (Round B) pick in the 2019 draft, coming off the board with the No. 77 overall selection. The right-hander had a decent showing in Double-A last year, posting a 4.06 ERA with more impressive strikeout and ground-ball rates (25.6% and 46.3%, respectively), but he’s been hit hard since moving up to Triple-A midway through that ’22 campaign. In 101 Triple-A frames dating back to last year, Kauffmann has a 6.68 ERA with an 18% strikeout rate against an 11.9% walk rate. The Rockies’ Albuquerque affiliate plays in a notoriously hitter-friendly setting, but it’s still been a rough showing.

That said, Kauffmann’s most recent start was sharp (six innings, seven hits, two runs, no walks, five punchouts), and the Rockies are thin on alternatives. General manager Bill Schmidt recently told Danielle Allentuck of the Denver Gazette that the team tried to add more rotation depth throughout the offseason but was generally unsuccessful in those pursuits. Pitching at Coors Field, of course, is no pitcher’s first choice, and even minor league depth options might bristle at the notion of playing home games in Albuquerque (and the Pacific Coast League at large).

The Rockies could soon have some reinforcement on the way, as left-hander Ryan Rolison embarked on a rehab assignment this week and tossed three shutout innings with three strikeouts and a walk for the Rockies’ Class-A affiliate. While the 25-year-old Rolison has never pitched in the Majors, he climbed to Triple-A in 2021 and likely would’ve been an option in 2022 had it not been for a torn labrum that required surgery and wiped out his entire season.

Rolison was the Rockies’ first-round pick back in 2018, going with the No. 22 overall selection. He’s been limited to just 234 2/3 professional innings thanks primarily to the canceled 2020 minor league season and last year’s shoulder surgery. In that time, he’s pitched to a 4.30 ERA with more encouraging ratios: 24.8% strikeout rate, 7.2% walk rate, 45% ground-ball rate.

Baseball America ranked Rolison second, third and fourth among Rockies prospects from 2020-22, respectively, calling him a potential “steady, reliable starter at the back of the rotation” in their 2022 report. How Rolison recovers from last year’s surgery is an open question, and his workload will likely be monitored this year — but that’s precisely the type of arm the Rockies could use with their starting staff currently in shambles. One would imagine that Rolison could be an option before too long if he can avoid any setbacks in his recovery.

In the meantime, it seems the Rockies will continue to give Anderson opportunities in the rotation, which is no surprise after he blanked the Reds — who traded him to the Rays for cash last month — and allowed just one hit through five innings in his team debut. Anderson told Allentuck that the Rockies “want me to start here” and added that he’s grateful for the opportunity to step back into a big league rotation. Interestingly, Anderson told Harding that both the Rockies and Reds hoped to claim him following his DFA with the Rays, but the Rockies had higher priority given their inferior record. At least for the time being, it seems the 35-year-old veteran will be leaned on to stabilize the starting staff.

Rockies Notes: Rotation, Senzatela, Rolison

By Anthony Franco | April 12, 2023 at 10:41pm CDT

The Rockies were dealt a hit to their rotation this week. Germán Márquez left Monday’s start with a forearm strain that necessitated a 15-day injured list placement. While he and the club have downplayed their concern based on an MRI that didn’t reveal any significant structural issues, they’ll have to plug a short-term vacancy in the starting five.

Manager Bud Black addressed the situation with reporters this afternoon (relayed by Patrick Lyons of DNVR). Black pointed to righties Noah Davis, Peter Lambert and Karl Kauffmann as candidates to assume the vacant spot. All three are currently in Triple-A Albuquerque. Lambert and Davis were optioned there to start the season, while Kauffmann was assigned there as a player who is not currently on the 40-man roster.

Davis made his MLB debut last season with one relief outing. He spent the bulk of the year starting for Double-A Hartford, where he put up a 5.54 ERA over 26 starts. The 25-year-old struggled with walks and home runs but punched out more than a quarter of opponents at the level. He’s walked seven and struck out six over three starts in Albuquerque.

Lambert, also 25, logged 95 big league innings between 2019-21. The former second round pick was once a reasonably promising prospect. He struggled to a 7.48 ERA in his first 21 MLB starts, though, and injuries have robbed him of most of the last three seasons. Lambert has allowed three runs with three strikeouts and walks apiece in 4 1/3 Triple-A innings this year.

Kauffmann has yet to make his big league debut. He split last year between Hartford and Albuquerque, pitching to a solid 4.06 ERA over 15 starts at the former stop. He allowed more than six earned runs per nine innings over 13 outings upon being bumped up to the top minor league level. The 25-year-old has allowed eight runs in nine frames there this year.

Rotation depth has been a concern for the Rockies since the season opened. Beyond Márquez, only Kyle Freeland was an established member of the season-opening starting five. José Ureña and Austin Gomber posted middling numbers last year, while the Rockies turned to Ryan Feltner in the fifth spot. That’s in part because Antonio Senzatela is still rehabbing from the ACL tear he suffered last summer, though he’ll take a notable step forward this week.

Danielle Allentuck of the Denver Gazette tweets that Senzatela will make his first rehab start on Friday. He’s scheduled to toss two innings in a complex league game. The Rockies have maintained they expect Senzatela back on the Coors Field mound sometime in May and it seems he’s still on track for that target.

Meanwhile, left-hander Ryan Rolison threw a side session yesterday without issue, as reflected on the MLB.com injury tracker. He’s progressing towards game action. Colorado’s first round draftee in 2018, the southpaw is on the 40-man roster but hasn’t yet reached the majors. Rolison underwent shoulder surgery last June. He could be in line for his MLB debut at some point this season after starting ten games in Triple-A last year.

NL West Notes: Rockies, Conforto, Padres

By Steve Adams | March 3, 2023 at 10:54am CDT

As the Rockies brace for potentially unwelcome news on both second baseman Brendan Rodgers and lefty Lucas Gilbreath, they’re perhaps already giving fans a preview of one contingency plan. With Rodgers out indefinitely and possibly facing season-ending surgery, Colorado is deploying third baseman Ryan McMahon at second base today and giving former top prospect Elehuris Montero the start at third base. This is obviously just one permutation that the lineup could take if Rodgers is indeed lost for the season, as there are alternate options at both third base (Kris Bryant, Nolan Jones) and at second base (Alan Trejo). Non-roster invitee Harold Castro can play both spots (though defensive metrics view his glovework at both positions in a negative light). Rodgers was going for a second opinion on his shoulder yesterday after reportedly receiving an initial recommendation of surgery. The Rox should have further updates on his status before long.

Injury Notes: Acuña, Clevinger, Rockies

By Drew Silva | January 22, 2023 at 12:13pm CDT

Ronald Acuña Jr. had a relatively disappointing showing at the plate in 2022, coming off his season-ending right ACL tear in July 2021, but the dynamic three-time All-Star believes he will be back at full strength leading into 2023. “I’m feeling 100 percent and I’m ready to go back to normal, and I definitely don’t want to play DH anymore,” Acuña told Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Saturday.

Acuña delivered a combined .925 OPS in his first 1,764 major league plate appearances between 2018-2021 before sinking to a .764 OPS in 533 plate appearances last year. He made 27 starts at DH for the Braves in 2022, after logging — or requiring? — only one total DH start across his entire four previous MLB seasons. In general, he’s averaged 38 home runs and 34 stolen bases for every 162 games played as a big leaguer. Last year: 15 homers, 29 steals in 119 games. As he moves further and further away from that knee injury, the reigning NL East champs should become all the more dangerous.

Acuña is going to DH in the Venezuelan Winter League finals, per Toscano, and he has also stated a desire to represent his native country in the Winter Baseball Classic. But the 25-year-old outfielder noted to David O’Brien of The Athletic that the Braves’ medical staff is unlikely to clear him to play in the upcoming WBC because it is more of a time and physical commitment than Winter League. Essentially, they just really want him to stay in camp.

Mike Clevinger signed a one-year, $12MM contract with the White Sox earlier this winter. Soon after, he received a platelet-rich plasma injection to aid in the healing of a knee injury that hampered him down the stretch with the Padres last season and led to a disappointing overall 4.33 ERA. With his knee on the mend, and his November 2020 Tommy John surgery fully in the rearview, the White Sox believe the 32-year-old right-hander can get back to being his old top-of-the-rotation self. “We broke down some biomechanics stuff after we signed him to kind of show him the differences,” pitching coach Ethan Katz told James Fegan of The Athletic. “Where he was different in all aspects of his delivery, which was probably in correlation to the knee … Now that he is healthy, he is working on it. His bullpens and the videos that I have seen, there’s been no kind of restrictions or anything that’s slowed him down from being able to be aggressive on that back leg.”
Ryan Rolison, the Rockies’ top selection in the 2018 MLB Draft and perhaps a big rotation piece for their future, is said to be 100 percent recovered from the left shoulder surgery that knocked his pro career off track last season. He did not pitch in MLB-affiliated ball at all in 2022 and ultimately went under the knife in June. “We are better than we were a year ago,” Rockies GM Bill Schmidt said to Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post in a recent chat, making note of Rolison’s rebounded health. “We have created some competition for some guys,” Schmidt added. “And, overall, our organizational depth is better.” Germán Márquez, Kyle Freeland, and José Ureña would seem to be locked into the top three rotation spots for Colorado. Rolison could perhaps battle with Austin Gomber and Connor Seabold at the back end. Peter Lambert (elbow) is also expected to be healthy heading into camp and might get another look for MLB starts at some point in 2023.

Rockies’ Ryan Rolison, Colton Welker Expected To Undergo Shoulder Surgery

By Anthony Franco | June 3, 2022 at 6:27pm CDT

The Rockies will lose two players — left-hander Ryan Rolison and third baseman Colton Welker — to shoulder surgery, reports Nick Groke of the Athletic. According to Danielle Allentuck of the Colorado Springs Gazette (Twitter link), both players will be out for the rest of the season.

Rolison may be the more well-known of the duo, even though he’s yet to make his major league debut. Colorado selected him with the 22nd overall pick in the 2018 draft, and he’s been one of the more highly-regarded arms in the organization for the past few years. The Ole Miss product’s stock has dipped a bit recently, however, as he’s not had a ton of reps since the end of the 2019 campaign.

After the pandemic resulted in the cancelation of the 2020 minor league season, Rolison was limited to 14 starts last year. He underwent an appendix procedure and missed two months between June and August. Even when healthy, Rolison struggled to a 5.91 ERA through ten Triple-A starts — albeit in a very hitter-friendly environment in Albuquerque. Baseball America nevertheless ranked him the #4 prospect in the system over the offseason, writing that he could be a back-end starter, but he’ll now lose a full season of reps.

Colorado added Rolison to the 40-man roster over the winter, but he’s spent the entire season on the 60-day injured list. He’ll collect a full year of MLB service time and a $700K salary while rehabbing.

Welker is also on the 40-man, counting against the roster while on the minor league injured list. Colorado could recall him and put him on the MLB 60-day IL to free a spot, although they’d have to pay him the prorated portion of the league minimum for any time on that list.

The 24-year-old infielder appeared in ten games with the Isotopes, hitting .324/.422/.514. He’ll lose virtually all of the season, his third straight limited campaign. After the 2020 season cancelation, Welker missed most of last year serving an 80-game suspension following a positive test for a performance-enhancing substance. He made his big league debut last September, appearing in 19 games.

Rockies Select Ty Blach

By Anthony Franco | April 4, 2022 at 6:32pm CDT

The Rockies announced this afternoon they’ve selected left-hander Ty Blach. The Denver native returns to the majors for the first time in three years, doing so with his hometown club. To create space on the 40-man roster, Colorado placed southpaw Ryan Rolison on the 60-day injured list.

Blach pitched in the majors each season from 2016-19. He spent the majority of that time in the NL West, suiting up with the Giants. Blach soaked up 163 2/3 innings for San Francisco in 2017, posting a 4.78 ERA. He never missed many bats, but the Creighton product filled up the strike zone and posted better than average ground-ball numbers.

After a capable first few seasons in the majors, Blach had a rough showing in 2019. He served up ten runs in his first 6 1/3 frames as a Giant that year, leading the club to designate him for assignment. Baltimore claimed him off waivers, and he made five starts for the Orioles down the stretch. Blach’s results weren’t any better there either, as he served up an 11.32 ERA. The O’s designated him that September, and he cleared waivers.

Blach returned to the Orioles as a non-roster invitee to 2020 Summer Camp, but he suffered an elbow injury that necessitated Tommy John surgery. He returned late in 2021 to toss 15 Low-A innings on a rehab assignment, but for all intents and purposes, the procedure cost him the last two seasons.

After qualifying for minor league free agency, Blach signed a minors deal with the Rox. He’ll break camp with the big league team, presumably in a long relief capacity. While he has experience as a starter, Colorado is set to open the year with a rotation of Germán Márquez, Kyle Freeland, Antonio Senzatela, Austin Gomber and Chad Kuhl. The depth behind that group is pretty thin, however, meaning Blach could get a look in the event of an injury to any of the starting five.

Rolison was among the depth options, but he’ll miss at least the first two months of the season with what the team is calling a shoulder strain. Thomas Harding of MLB.com reported this afternoon (Twitter link) that he’ll be shut down for two weeks after receiving an anti-inflammatory injection. He’ll need a fair bit of time thereafter to gradually ramp back up, so it’s not a huge surprise the club is ruling him out until at least early June.

A former first-round pick, Rolison has yet to make his big league debut. He made ten starts with Triple-A Albuquerque last season, pitching to a disappointing 5.91 ERA in 45 2/3 innings. Despite those struggles, Baseball America slotted him fourth in the Rockies farm system this winter. According to BA, his plus curveball and command could give Rolison a chance to emerge as a back-of-the-rotation option, but he’ll first need to get healthy.

Rockies Select Three Players

By Steve Adams | November 19, 2021 at 2:12pm CDT

The Rockies on Friday announced three players have been selected to the 40-man roster: lefty Ryan Rolison, righty Noah Davis and infielder Ezequiel Tovar. All three are now protected from this offseason’s Rule 5 Draft. Colorado’s 40-man roster is up to a total of 39 players.

Rolison, 24, had a rough season in Triple-A this year but is still regarded as one of the better pitching prospects in a thin Rockies system. The 2018 first-rounder was clobbered for a 5.91 ERA in 45 2/3 frames with the Rockies’ top affiliate. An appendectomy operation interrupted his 2021 season and kept him on the shelf for a notable chunk of the summer, but the lefty pitched well prior to that surgery. He’s generally regarded as a potential big league starter with a full four-pitch mix — the type of prospect the Rockies are lacking in the upper minors.

Davis, an 11th-round pick by the Reds in 2018, came to the Rockies in their deadline Mychal Givens swap. He’s yet to advance to the Double-A level but did notch a 3.60 ERA with a 25.2% strikeout rate and 10.2% walk rate in 106 innings at Class-A Advanced between the two organizations. Ranked 18th among Rockies prospects at MLB.com, he’s seen as a potential fifth starter.

Tovar, a slick-fielding shortstop, split the 2021 season between the Rockies’ two Class-A levels and posted a .287/.322/.475 batting line. Most of his damage came in Low-A, and scouting reports on Tovar question how much he’ll ever hit against more advanced pitching. Tovar’s 2021 numbers were sound, however, and if he can continue to defy expectations at the plate he could factor into the big league equation by the 2023 season.

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