Rockies remove Greg Smith from 40-man roster
The Colorado Rockies outrighted Greg Smith to Colorado Springs on Thursday. The move takes the left-handed pitcher off the team’s 40-man roster.
Smith started the season in the Rockies rotation and made eight starts, going 1-2 with a 6.23 ERA before being optioned to Triple-A. In 13 starts for the Sky Sox, Smith is 1-5 with a 6.96 ERA and has missed time with left elbow soreness. He returned to the Sky Sox staff on Monday and pitched three shutout innings after missing a month.
The move essentially eliminates any chance Smith had of returning to the Rockies when the rosters expand in September.
Anyone have a theory as to why Smith has gone from a rookie who pitched 190 innings with a 4.16 ERA in the always tough American League, to a guy who has nearly a 7.00 ERA in AAA? I know he’s been injured, but that’s pretty dramatic. I wonder if he’s lost quite a bit of confidence.
Looks like the Rox are clearing space on the 40-man roster for potential Sept call ups.
Eric, Greg Smith just never was very good. His rookie year ERA was superficially solid, but his fielding independent (FIP) ERA (4.84) wasn’t, and his xFIP (adjusting for a normal HR rate based on the number of fly balls he gave up) was even worse at 5.32.
The A’s knew they weren’t giving up much when he was a throw-in in the Holliday deal, and the Rockies seemed to know they weren’t getting much. It would’ve been nice to see him be at least an acceptable stop-gap starter, but he wasn’t. The trade was always going to be judged by how CarGo developed, and I don’t think any of us have any complaints about that.