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Charlie Blackmon To Undergo Knee Surgery

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7:00pm: Kelsey Wingert-Linch of AT&T SportsNet has reported that Blackmon’s injury happened last week as he rounded a bag at Coors Field and that he tried to play through it. Blackmon is set to undergo surgery on Monday in Denver and should be healthy for Spring Training.

6:05pm: The Colorado Rockies have reinstated infielder José Iglesias from the 10-day injured list. In a corresponding move, the Rockies have placed outfielder Charlie Blackmon on the 10-day injured list with a torn meniscus in his left knee.

Iglesias returns to the active roster just over three weeks after his initial placement on the 10-day IL with a right-hand contusion. Before his injury, the 32-year-old Iglesias was in the midst of a strong season, slashing .300/.337/.392, good for a .729 OPS, with an extremely low 12.0% strikeout rate but paired with a below-average 3.8% walk rate. Additionally, Iglesias provided serviceable defense at shortstop, with a .981 fielding percentage and 0 Outs Above Average, as measured by StatCast.

After a strong showing with the Red Sox late in 2021 after being DFA’d by the Angels, Iglesias joined the Rockies as they moved on from the Trevor Story-era, signing a one-year, $5MM contract. With the recent promotion of prospect Ezequiel Tovar, ranked as the Rockies’ second-best prospect by MLB.com, Iglesias’s time in Colorado may soon be over. However, after a solid season with the Rockies, Iglesias will likely command a Major League contract in the offseason.

As for Blackmon, his 2022 season has been forced to end prematurely. Since signing a six-year, $108MM extension in 2018, Blackmon has posted a .287/.348/.478/.826 slash line with a WRC+ of 107, 7% better than league-average, park-adjusted, and two All-Star appearances. The 2022 season has not been as kind to the 36-year-old, with Blackmon amidst one of his weaker seasons in recent memory of .264/.314/.419/.733. The long-time Rockie has a player option for the 2023 season, with a value of $15MM, and is likely to accept it. Blackmon is expected to be healthy for Spring Training, per Wingert-Linch.

Kris Bryant Won’t Play Again In 2022

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It wasn’t looking likely that Kris Bryant would get back onto the field before the season was over, and the Rockies slugger confirmed to MLB.com’s Thomas Harding that his 2022 season is indeed done.  Bryant’s first season in Colorado concludes with only 42 games played, and a .306/.376/.475 slash line over 181 plate appearances.

Three separate stints on the injured list spoiled Bryant’s year, including two absences related to lower-back problems.  Bryant hasn’t played since July 31 due to foot injuries, including both a bone bruise and plantar fasciitis in his right foot.  With the Rockies already out of contention by August, Bryant said he received a platelet-rich plasma injection on August 24, and “if we were in the playoff hunt, I probably would have pushed through and got a cortisone shot.  The PRP is more healing, while cortisone masks the pain.”

The decision puts Bryant in better position to be fully ready for 2023, and he indicated that he is ahead of schedule in his recovery.  “I wanted to get as close to being able to play a game as I could, because then I can formulate an offseason approach that’s better,” Bryant said.

Though injuries have been an increasing factor for Bryant in recent years, 2022 represents far and away the lowest game total of his seven regulation-length Major League seasons.  (Bryant’s 42 games with Colorado barely topped his 34 appearances in the shortened 2020 campaign.)  Unsurprisingly, Bryant described his season as “a little depressing, just not playing baseball….Every year from February to October, I’m used to playing baseball.  And for the most part this year, I’ve been watching.”

Bryant and the Rockies can only hope for better things in 2023 and beyond, as Bryant still has six seasons remaining on his seven-year, $182MM free agent deal from last winter.  On the plus side, Bryant hit well when he was healthy this year, though he hit much better on the road (.996 OPS in 70 PA) than he did at Coors Field (.761 OPS in 111 PA).  The sample sizes are probably too small to draw any major conclusions, of course, but naturally the Rockies are hoping for more consistent production from Bryant at his new home ballpark.

Rockies Plan To Retain Bud Black As Manager For 2023 Season

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The Rockies are wrapping their fouth straight losing season, yet the organization hasn’t felt compelled to make a change in the dugout.  General manager Bill Schmidt told reporters (including The Athletic’s Nick Groke) today that manager Bud Black will return for the 2023 season, saying that “Buddy came here right when we were ready to be good.  He led us to some playoffs.  He’s very capable of doing it again.  It’s not for lack of effort.”

Black’s first two seasons in Colorado indeed resulted in postseason appearances.  The Rockies earned wild-card berths in both 2017 and 2018, and in the latter season defeated the Cubs in the Wild Card Game to advanced to the NLDS (where the Brewers eliminated the Rox in a sweep).  Since those two playoff berths, however, the Rockies have yet to reach the .500 mark, and Black has a 414-445 overall record as he approaches the end of his sixth season as Colorado’s skipper.

The two wild-card berths earned Black a contract extension prior to the 2019 season, a three-year deal that ran from 2020-22.  The Rockies added another year of control in another contract extension last February, with Black extended for a one-year deal that runs through the 2023 campaign.  The relatively limited nature of that extension seemed to indicate that Black was on a slightly shorter leash, yet it doesn’t appear to have hampered his job security.

In fact, Groke notes that Black is “on a rolling year-to-year contract” that would seemingly give both sides the flexibility to walk away after any season, not that such a scenario seems likely in the near future.  It would seem like Black’s arrangement could be similar to the so-called handshake deal that the Rockies had with former manager Jim Tracy, wherein Tracy had the freedom to leave at the end of any season.

Rockies owner Dick Monfort is known to value loyalty and continuity within his organization, which has proven to be a double-edged sword considering that the Rockies are often criticized for being too insular.  The change from Jeff Bridich to Schmidt (another long-time front office employee) in the GM chair last season didn’t do anything to get Colorado on track in 2022, and a lot of work will need to be done to make the team a winner in 2023.  Virtually every member of the Rox roster had an underwhelming season either at the plate or on the mound, and prized free agent signing Kris Bryant ended up spending most of the year on the injured list.

With all this in mind, it is somewhat difficult to really evaluate Black’s win-loss record.  For as much as Monfort and company perpetually feel that the Rockies are on the verge of contention, Black doesn’t seem to be receiving much of the blame for not winning with these flawed rosters.  While it can also be argued that Black isn’t necessarily part of a solution to the Rockies’ woes, Colorado’s bigger-picture issues in evaluating, developing, and acquiring talent seem like much larger obstacles to success than Black’s work as manager.

Rockies Promote Ezequiel Tovar, Place Brendan Rodgers on Injured List

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Sep. 22: The Rockies have officially announced Tovar’s promotion. In a corresponding move, infielder Brendan Rodgers will be placed on the 10-day IL with a left hamstring strain, retroactive to September 19. With only 13 games left in Colorado’s schedule, Rodgers may be sidelined for the rest of 2022.

Sep. 21: The Rockies are going to promote shortstop prospect Ezequiel Tovar, according to Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase. Tovar is already on the club’s 40-man roster, though the Rockies will need to open a spot for him on the active roster.

Tovar, 21, signed with the Rockies as an international amateur in 2017. He was certainly a notable signing at the time, agreeing to a bonus of $800K, the highest given out by the club that year. But the youngster has increased his stock tremendously in recent years.

Through the end of the 2019 season, he had shown some decent plate discipline but little power. He hit only two long balls over 118 games in rookie ball and A-ball in 2018 and 2019. However, as Baseball America notes in their scouting report on Tovar, he bulked up during the pandemic shutdown in 2020 and has been on a meteoric rise up prospect lists ever since. He began this year in Double-A and played 66 games for the Hartford Yard Goats. In that time, he hit 13 home runs, stole 17 bases and hit .318/.386/.545 for a wRC+ of 153. He was recently promoted to Triple-A but only got into four games before being launched up to the big time.

Tovar already had a strong reputation for his speed, bat-to-ball skills and shortstop defense, which means the development of his power at the plate has the potential to turn him into an all-around superstar. Based on his tremendous breakout, he’s shot up to the #13 slot on Baseball America’s list of top prospects in the league, #28 at MLB Pipeline, #36 at FanGraphs, #25 on Keith Law’s list at The Athletic and #40 at ESPN.

For the Rockies, they have a legitimate opening at shortstop for the first time in a long time. Troy Tulowitzki manned the position from 2006 until his trade in 2015. That was followed by the Trevor Story era, which lasted until he reached free agency just under a year ago. This year, the club signed Jose Iglesias to take over, but only on a one-year deal. He’s been on the IL the past few weeks, with utility player Alan Trejo taking over. Tovar will have the last few weeks of the season to show the Colorado brass how he handles the big leagues, with the possibility of cementing himself as the shortstop of the future. Though the club is well out of contention at this point of the season, the chance to see what Tovar can bring to the table will give Colorado fans something to watch as the season winds down.

If Tovar can indeed earn himself a permanent spot with the big league club, there could be some domino effects. There’s not enough time remaining in the season for Tovar to get to 130 at-bats, meaning he will hang onto rookie/prospect status into the offseason. Under the new collective bargaining agreement, players with less than 60 days of service who appear among two preseason Top 100 lists at Baseball America, ESPN or MLB Pipeline can net their team a bonus amateur draft choice based on their early-career finishes in awards voting, so long as their club carries them on the MLB roster for a full service year. If Tovar can get himself a Rookie of the Year award or some MVP votes during his first couple of full seasons, he could net the club an extra draft pick.

Rockies Select Gavin Hollowell

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The Rockies announced that they have selected the contract of right-handed pitcher Gavin Hollowell, while fellow righty Alex Colomé will go to the bereavement list in a corresponding move. The club already had a vacancy on their 40-man roster.

Hollowell, 24, was selected by the Rockies in the sixth round of the 2019 draft. He made an appearance in rookie ball that year before the minor leagues were canceled by the pandemic in 2020. He returned to official games in 2021, though was limited by injury to just 24 innings. He fared well in that limited action, largely in A-ball, putting up a 2.25 ERA with a 34.4% strikeout rate and 7.3% walk rate.

This year, he’s finally been able to have a normal season, throwing 48 2/3 innings out of the bullpen for the Double-A Hartford Yard Goats. In that time, he’s registered a 3.14 ERA with an excellent 34% strikeout rate and a strong 7.4% walk rate. Baseball America had Hollowell on their list of top 30 Colorado prospects both last year and coming into this year, complimenting his 95 MPH fastball and mid-80s power slurve. He’s also currently #40 on the Rockies’ list at FanGraphs.

With the Rox well out of contention and just over two weeks left on the schedule, the club can use that time to take a look at how Hollowell’s stuff plays in the big leagues. He’ll be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game.

Thomas Harding of MLB.com tweeted the roster moves prior to the official announcement.

Kris Bryant Injury Update

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  • The Rockies have still yet to officially shut down third baseman Kris Bryant for the season. However, there’s still no timetable for Bryant’s return to the field. In a chat with reporters (including The Athletic’s Patrick Mooney) this afternoon, Bryant stated that the Rockies want him “to feel really good going into the offseason” and that he wants an “offseason that’s as close to normal as possible.” With those sentiments, it appears likely that the 30-year-old will not take the field again this season with the Rockies destined to miss the playoffs for the fourth season in a row. Overall, Bryant is in the first year of a seven-year, $182MM contract, but has only appeared in 42 games with the Rockies while being placed on the injured list three times for a strained lower back and plantar fasciitis in his left foot. Nevertheless, when healthy he performed at a high standard, slashing .306/.376/.475 for a .851 OPS, albeit in a hitter-friendly environment.

Rockies Release Jhoulys Chacin

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The Rockies announced Thursday that they’ve released veteran right-hander Jhoulys Chacin. A corresponding transaction was not announced, but Chacin had been on the 28-man roster, so the Rox will bring someone to the big league squad tomorrow, following Thursday’s off-day. Colorado’s 40-man roster now sits at 39 players.

Originally signed and developed by the Rockies, Chacin returned to Colorado in 2021, seeking a rebound after a poor 2019-20 showing. He enjoyed a solid enough year out of the Colorado ’pen, logging 64 1/3 innings of 4.34 ERA ball but with sub-par strikeout and walk rates (17.5% and 10.4%, respectively). Chacin did induce plenty of weak contact, but he rarely caused hitters to swing and miss or even chase pitches off the plate — all while benefiting from a .242 average on balls in play.

The Rox re-signed him to a one-year deal worth a guaranteed $1.25MM, and Chacin appeared in enough games to unlock an additional $125K bonus prior to today’s release. The results when he took the mound, however, weren’t pretty. In 47 1/3 frames, Chacin was torched for a 7.61 ERA. He managed to scale back his walk rate slightly, to 9.6%, but his strikeout rate also dipped half a percentage point, to 16.9%.

Chacin’s BABIP regressed toward his career .299 mark this season, clocking in at a slightly elevated .316 — due largely to the dramatic improvement of batted-ball quality from his opponents. The right-hander’s ground-ball rate fell by seven percentage points as hitters began to not only elevate the ball more frequently but do so with considerably more force. Chacin’s hard-hit rate jumped from 35.1% in 2021 to 41.5% this season, and his average exit velocity spiked from 86.4 mph to 89.7 mph.

It’s now been four mostly rough years since Chacin was last a quality big league hurler, but there’s definitely plenty of success on his track record. From 2010-18, Chacin racked up 1204 2/3 innings of 3.86 ERA ball, punching out 18.6% of his opponents against a 9.3% walk rate (with much of that performance coming at a time when strikeouts weren’t nearly as prevalent as they’ve been for the past few years).

Chacin was an above-average innings eater with the 2017 Padres and 2018 Brewers, topping 180 frames with a sub-4.00 ERA in each season. Fans can file this one away in their trivia bank: Chasin’s 2018 campaign with the Brewers might mark the last time you’ll ever see a traditional starting pitcher start 35 games in a season. He and David Price (2016) are the only two pitchers to accomplish that feat in the past decade.

Solid as his broader track record may be, it’s also been nearly a half decade since Chacin pitched near his peak level. He’ll probably garner some interest on a minor league deal over the winter, but he’ll quite likely have to compete for a job in Spring Training.

Latest On Kris Bryant

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  • Kris Bryant hasn’t played since July 31 due to plantar fasciitis, and Rockies manager Bud Black wasn’t sure if the slugger would be able to return before the season is over.  “There is time but I don’t know if it’s going to happen…He hasn’t had a bat in his hand for a while, but he’s feeling much better,” Black told reporters, including The Denver Post’s Patrick Saunders.  Bryant has been able to play catch and lift weights now that he is no longer in a walking boot, though it remains to be seen when (or if) he’d be able to take part in fuller baseball activities.  Between the platar fasciitis and two separate IL stints due to back injuries, Bryant’s first year with the Rockies has essentially been a lost season, with only 42 games played.  The one bright spot is that Bryant at least hit well when he was able to play, contributing a .306/.376/.475 slash line and five homers in 181 plate appearances.

Injury Notes: García, Oller, Iglesias

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The Marlins activated outfielder Avisaíl García from the injured list today, per Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald, after missing over a month due to a hamstring strain. Fellow outfielder Peyton Burdick was optioned in a corresponding move.

It’s been a disappointing season for García, the first of a four-year, $53MM deal he signed with with the Marlins. The Fish were surely hoping García could add some thump to their lineup after he hit 29 homers with the Brewers last year and slashed .262/.330/.490 for a wRC+ of 115. But he’s hit just seven long balls in 88 games this year, producing an overall line of .232/.269/.322, wRC+ of 68.

The Marlins are 17 1/2 games out of a playoff spot now and won’t be playing for much down the stretch. But García will look to get back into a groove and finish the season strong, going into the winter with some momentum and optimism for 2023.

Some other injury notes from around the league…

  • The Athletics announced a series of roster moves today, one of which was placing righty Adam Oller on the 15-day injured list. Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle relays that Oller’s IL placement is due to “right rib costochondritis.” The club hasn’t provided a timeline for the hurler, but he’ll miss at least the next couple of weeks. Since there’s only about four weeks remaining on the schedule, it’s possible that he’s done for the year. Acquired from the Mets in the Chris Bassitt trade, Oller made his MLB debut this year, tossing 73 1/3 innings with a 6.01 ERA, 13.4% strikeout rate, 11.2% walk rate and 31.7% ground ball rate.
  • The Rockies placed infielder José Iglesias on the 10-day injured list today due to a right hand contusion. Iglesias signed a one-year, $5MM deal with the Rockies in the offseason and became the first shortstop atop Colorado’s depth chart not named “Tulowitzki” or “Story” since 2006. He’s having another season typical of his career, providing solid defense while hitting a bit below league average. His batting line for the year is .300/.337/.392, producing a wRC+ of 92. Though that’s 8% below league average, his defensive contributions have allowed him to rack up 1.4 fWAR on the year. This offseason will feature another batch of superstar shortstops, including Dansby Swanson, Trea Turner, Carlos Correa and Xander Bogaerts, assuming those latter two opt out of their respective contracts. Iglesias isn’t quite at their level but will be in the next tier down, next to players like Elvis Andrus. With Iglesias out of the lineup the past three days, Alan Trejo has been slotted into the shortstop position.

Rockies Shut Down Lucas Gilbreath For Season

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  • Rockies reliever Lucas Gilbreath is being shut down for the season, reports Danielle Allentuck of the Colorado Springs Gazette (Twitter link). The left-hander is on the injured list with a flexor strain in his throwing elbow, and he’s headed for a platelet-rich plasma injection. Allentuck adds that Gilbreath’s offseason work will be delayed by the issue, but the expectation is that he’ll avoid surgery and should be ready for Spring Training. Gilbreath has been a trusted relief option for skipper Bud Black this year, getting into 47 games and working 43 innings. He posted a 4.19 ERA with above-average strikeout (26.2%) and ground-ball (46.7%) marks, but he battled some control inconsistency.
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