Rockies’ De La Rosa headed for Tommy John surgery
The season is over for Colorado Rockies starter Jorge De La Rosa, who suffered a complete tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow. De La Rosa is likely to miss the rest of this season and part of next with Tommy John surgery.
De La Rosa, who signed a two-year, $21.5 million contract with the Rockies in the offseason, was 5-2 with a 3.51 ERA in 10 starts this season for the Rockies. The deal also included a player option for 2013, which if exercised, gives the club on option for 2014.
With Greg Reynolds already scheduled to start Saturday because of Tuesday’s double-header and a day off scheduled for June 2, the Rockies will not need a starter for De La Rosa’s spot until June 7. However, Aaron Cook is eligible to return from the disabled list next week and is likely to slide in to De La Rosa’s spot.
Clayton Mortensen or Greg Reynolds will likely occupy the fifth spot for the foreseeable future, but other candidates as the season goes on include Esmil Rogers, who is currently on the disabled list; John Maine, who is out with shoulder inflammation at Triple-A Colorado Springs; Juan Nicasio, one of the Rockies’ top pitching prospects who is 5-1 with a 2.22 ERA at Double-A Tulsa; and Christian Friedrich, a former first-round pick who is 3-3 with 4.95 ERA at Tulsa and has pitched well of late.
Reynolds relieved De La Rosa on Tuesday and is now unavailable as a reliever as he stays on schedule for his Saturday start. The Rockies will likely call up a reliever to take De La Rosa’s roster spot. Left-hander Rex Brothers is expected to earn a call soon and would be the most likely candidate.
At least this happened after he earned his big contract. Maybe the team can rally behind this news, but you have to think any chance at the world series has just gone down the drain. DLR has been the ace of the staff. Hopefully he comes back soon.
Prayers go out to DLR, he will be sorely missed and here is hoping he has a quick and complete recovery.
Does this make Chacin the “ace” of the staff by default? Cook better be the Cook of his all-star year, we’ll need him. I wonder what phone calls DOD is making.
This hurts like crazy.
I am very anxious to see what the management does here. Will they go the route they normally do and stick with what they have in AAA/Aaron Cook? Or do they take a risk and make a move bringing an established #3 or better in?
While I wouldn’t mind seeing Jeff Francis back, I think the move needs to be bigger than that.
Wow. Tough break for Jorge. He was having a very good year so far. This is just horrible. Hope we pick up a top of the rotation starter.
Horrible news. Prog, my bet is that the team makes do with what it has for a while. The team will want to see how Cook pitches (I’m not overly optimistic) and how the other guys that Steve mentioned pitch.
Can Nicasio make the jump to the majors? We may get to see sooner than we thought we would. Maybe this will be the kick in the pants that Friedrich needs to pitch up to his potential.
The team can’t figure out how to fill a hole at third base, and now it needs a starting pitcher. Really a tough break.
On the brighter side the club now has an excuse for underachieving if they miss the post season.
That’s a huge loss.
Prog won’t like it because he hates stats and prefers to either drink a six pack if things are going well or cry in a six pack if they aren’t, but here’s the stat-head take on it:
De La Rosa was worth probably about 2.5 wins above a replacement level pitcher (Greg Reynolds, Clay Mortensen, etc.) over the rest of the season. So knock 2 or 3 wins off whatever you projected this team to win this year. My best estimate — they were headed for an 87 or 88 win season. (That’s .550 ball the rest of the way, which is what they projected at to start the season.) So that takes us down to 84-86 wins. And that’s out of contention.
So either you take a flyer on a high-upside guy like Nicasio and hope that he can be this year’s Chacin, or you bring in another 3 WAR pitcher to replace DLR, or you significantly upgrade somewhere else (2B/3B pretty much jump out at you), or you throw in the towel.
D’OOOOOHHHHH!!!!
This is the worst thing that could have happened to the Rox right now. And how did I know that someone would make a comment about the possibility of Francis coming back?
LOL. I don’t mind THOSE stats. The thing to lament is that we’ve already given away many more than 3 games. So if we’re going to be searching for a player(s) to make up 3 games PLUS what we’ve already given up.
My own advanced and so complicated they can’t be explained calculations led me to expect 94 wins this year.
That would be 26-20 or 27-19. Since we are on pace to win 84/85 games I think they need to find a combination of players that have a prorated WAR of 9!!!! LOL.
Of course, the reality is that the combined WAR of every player on the current roster needs to increase beyond the “2″ that they currently have.
Crap!
Yep. I used way too many words to say “we need help and we need it now.” Even if they were playing up to expectations the current roster is probably not good enough to stick in playoff contention unless they get really really lucky.
Very disappointing, as he was continuing to get better with just about every start. My thoughts are with him as he goes through the surgery and the recovery process.
I’m sure the Rox will fill the slot from within. After all, they don’t see Cook as a AAA guy; he’s a major part of their plans and he’s just about ready. And anyway, when is the last time they traded for a big-name starting pitcher in the middle of the season? Not their style.
I guess that solves the Mortensen problem.
Well, it’s official, we need Ubaldo to return to form, or we can essentially cash it in (minus a big-time trade and I don’t see the Rocks doing that). The NL West is just too strong with pitching not to have two legit aces, and if Ubaldo can turn the corner, which it looks like he can, we have a shot. If you have Ubaldo and Chacin at the top of your order, followed by a Hammel/Cook/Mortenson rotation, you’ve got a shot.
That being said, this loss was devastating. The only silver lining that I can hope for out of this is that it might increase JDLR’s chances of picking up his player option in two years, which would allow the Rocks to pick up their option the year after that. And if JDLR didn’t get hurt, I think he would have had to cash in on the free agent market, which would price the Rockies out of the picture.
Although, I would much rather have a healthy JDLR this season since I really believed that we had a chance to win it all this year. Still not throwing in the towel, but just think about having to face San Francisco and the Phillies rotations without JDLR!
Painful loss. DLR is a force and losing him is a big factor on the staff. What this does is move up back-end pitchers. Cook is a number 4 if healthy, but likely a 5-6 inning no. 5. Hammel is a no. 5. Reynolds? A no. 5, at best but likely better in the pen. Mortensen? Likely a reliever who is just on a high that will end. Rogers? Definitely a reliever. Colorado needs help. Nicasio will get a look likely. Hope they don’t rush him.
Man this is bad news. Hate to jump kids from Tulsa this soon in the year. We are now really shy of LH arms. Prayers for a full recovery for Jorge.
Ideally you’d like a lefty starter. Friedrich is the only one in the organization, and he hasn’t exactly shown that he’s ready. Actually Jeff Francis coming back isn’t a terrible idea. The Royals should be happy to flip him for another good prospect. But I’m guessing they won’t unless the price is way too high.
Nicasio is 24 (25 in August). In other words, older than Chacin. So what’s to lose by bringing him up? He might not be ready, but he might surprise us. This situation calls for some bold moves, not for Greg Reynolds Act III.
Is Morales available?
Well it seems like the big guns; Tulo, Cargo, Ubaldo will have to play… well… like big guns and carry the team!
OMG! Was watching at Charlie Browns w/ no sound + saw. The whole thing go down, but since no sound had no idea! This is tragic! Cookie is going to need to step + live-up to his fat contract + I believe this Nicasio dude is good to go. My hopes + prayers go out to DLR. He is a stud. Damn.
On BT – they were just discussing the Cards success despite losing Wainwright before the season started and Carpenter having a rough start.
Sounds a little familiar. Agree that the U needs to get going but it would really help if Cookie was our Jamie Garcia and the bats picked up the pitchers on a somewhat consistent basis.
Rubber hits road before Memorial Day … who would have thought
What is it about the ROX,pitchers,and large/longterm contracts?Damn it-had DLR penned in for 18-20 wins.
Whoever came up with the Wins above Replacement stat should be put in jail. Not what I wanted to say but it’s a family site. LOL
Those in the Nicasio/Friedrich camp, which I think includes me, might recall that a guy named Franklin Morales was called up in mid-2007 and did a better than average job, at least at that point in time. Here’s some irony: If the Rox still had Morales he might be a candidate for the lefty starter role (pass the aspirin, please).
I do not see Jeff Francis coming back this year. He has been only so-so and is not the solution unless you are prepared to put JAA (just-about-anyone) into the lefty starter slot.
In any case, this injury is like a punch to the stomach at a time when the Rox needed a pat on the back. Ouch.
Jimmy, Chacin, Hammels, Mortenson, and Cook. Not bad but not great. As poor as this month has been we are only 3 games back, and could easily be up by 3 or 4 with the 6 blow saves and the 0-4 by Paulino. Farm is bare for now. Time for a block buster trade and get a starter from someone unless everyone is in the same boat as us.
Let’s be DOD for a moment. Time for a trade? To get a left-handed starter that could step in and be similar to Hammel would take three of the following:
EY2, Blackmon, Nelson, Pacheco, Matzek, Spilborghs, Fowler, Smith, one or two others.
I’m assuming (and certainly hoping) Nicasio and Brothers are completely not touchable.
Would you do it? I wouldn’t, at least until I was sure that we don’t have two serviceable starters between Cook/Mortensen/Reynolds/Nicasio. While they try to find 2 from the 4, its time to keep Smith and Herrera in the lineup, see if by being the regular 3rd baseman Wiggington will hit regularly and for power, and try whatever to wake up Tulo from his slump. Don’t give away the store yet.
DRH, for 3 of those players (depending on the combination), I would expect a whole lot more than Hammel (no offense to Hammel, who I like). I would expect a solid number 3 (which Hammel isn’t, no offense again)
Thats seems like overpayment for a Hammel quality pitcher. Spilborghs doesn’t really fit in that list either. I mean if you include Spilly in that list you may as well include Lopez. So if you propose Lopez, Spilly, and 1 prospect then maybe you have a deal. But if they wanted 3 prospects such as Pacheco, EYJ, and Matzek I think you hang up the phone.
The sad thing here is that we needed a move BEFORE the Jorge injury. Now we could be viewed upon by other teams as desperate and they’ll try to take advantage of us.
IMO Dan O’Dowd has made a reputation for himself as over valuing his players and then waiting for them to collapse and then never being able to get anything for them. He has also made a name for himself as not being able to select wisely in the draft, so his drafted players have a bit of taint on them from that. He also now has a reputation of accepting people’s garbage pitchers.
All these things work against the Rockies when it comes to trade proposals. I guess overpaying will probably need to happen.
I don’t mean to digress, but I’m curious – does anyone know if the Rockies have insurance to cover DLR’s salary? $10 million plus could make a huge difference in the grand scheme of things with Ubaldo likely getting a Tulo-Cargo type contract next year, assuming he returns to form.
I agree with DRH that before we make a trade out of desperation and get fleeced we should see what we have and to what extent we can fill out a starting rotation from the internatal candidates.
I also agree with Prog that we hold on to players too long. We should be quicker at being able to evaluate whether players will be able to perform and to trade them when other teams still think that they have some value or potential to improve.
I also agree with Prog that the inability to select well in the draft has really hurt this team.
I think the whole “family” atmosphere with the Rockies has its good and bad points. It makes the players all warm and fuzzy and secure, but it leads also to having the likes of Manny(oops, I meant Manual) Corpas, Frankie Morales, Garret Atkins etc… around way past thier expiration dates. I see the same thing happening with Ian Stewart. I hope I’m wrong.
GOOD question JimK. I was wondering about that too.
JimK and Miketober, Steve answered that yesterday in the thread about DLR leaving game with elbow stiffness. 12 posts and his was about the 8th I think.
Unless the big three perform well from here on out, losing DLR won’t matter. If they do, the rest of the rotation should be OK, sans more injuries. There is no big trade possible as the Cards found out when they lost Wainwright – July is probably the earliest that trade expectations can include big names. I think that bringing up Nicasio in July or August might be a good move – if the team is still in it and if Nicasio is needed. Friedrich has the stuff but is not ready except in desperation. Cook as the DLR replacement backed up by Reynolds is the answer for the time being with Mortensen continuing to start. John Maine has not shown much when able; that could change.
To me, no one can expect anything good from this team unless Cargo, Tulo, and Ubaldo take over; all three.
I agree with all of you. Just saying, what team this time of year will give up a top-quality starting pitcher? They would have to be overwhelmed. Three good prospects might overwhelm, less won’t. I would also hang up the phone unless it were Spilly, Lopez and 1 prospect, but I don’t think that will be the offer. We can dream, but that’s all it is.
Out of John Danks, Mike Pelfrey, Kevin Slowey, Paul Maholm, Jeff Francis, or Edwin Jackson who would you want the Rockies to acquire?
DRH if you give up that much I would expect an All-Star Talent type pitcher in return.
Just read Rencks article in which Dick Monfort admits not taking out insurance on DLR…
The guy has a history of injury and not only do you role the dice to sign him for 3 years but you don’t spend the extra money to insure him.
Personally, I have a hard time believing that. Has to be pretty tempting to pocket the insurance proceeds and tell the fans, “whoops, we can’t afford his replacement”. Just saying… $30mil contract is a bit silly to not insure.