Rockies second baseman Brendan Rodgers dislocated his left shoulder during today’s Cactus League matchup with the Rangers, manager Bud Black told reporters (including Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post). The injury occurred in the first inning when Rodgers dove to knock down a Robbie Grossman grounder.
While a trainer popped the shoulder back into place on the field, Rodgers was immediately replaced by Cole Tucker. The severity of the injury isn’t yet known, though it’s clear he’ll miss at least a notable chunk of Spring Training. “We’ll likely know more what his status is in the coming day,” Black told reporters after the game. “The degree of trauma in the joint will determine how long he’s out. Hopefully, the trauma to the shoulder capsule is not too bad and he’s only out a few weeks.”
That an absence of a few weeks seems to be the best-case scenario puts Rodgers’ availability for Opening Day in jeopardy. Black likened the injury to one suffered by Colorado center fielder Yonathan Daza last summer. Daza was placed on the injured list on August 12 and reinstated on September 6. If Rodgers only misses a similar three-to-four week stretch, he could avoid an IL stint to start the season. That’d seemingly require a smooth recovery process without any serious damage, and even an ideal situation involves Rodgers missing a number of planned at-bats as players spend the next month getting reacclimated to game speed.
To the extent there’s a silver lining, it’s that the injury occurred to his non-throwing shoulder. During his 2019 rookie season, Rodgers underwent season-ending surgery to repair a labrum tear in his right shoulder. He also lost a few weeks during the abbreviated 2020 campaign to a capsular strain in his right shoulder. Today’s injury, at least, wasn’t to that previously troublesome joint.
It’s nevertheless a disappointing start to the upcoming season for the 26-year-old. He’s had stints on the IL in all four of his big league campaigns thus far thanks to right shoulder and hamstring concerns. Rodgers did appear in a personal-high 137 games last season, hitting .266/.325/.408 with 13 home runs, 30 doubles and a career-low 17.4% strikeout rate. After some initial struggles against big league pitching, he’s hit at a near average level the past couple seasons. Rodgers also rated favorably for his defense last year, with Defensive Runs Saved pegging him a massive 22 runs above average at second base. Statcast and Ultimate Zone Rating weren’t enamored to the same extent but all three metrics agreed he was better than par.
If Rodgers were forced to start the year on the IL, the club could choose from a handful of utility types to step in as his replacement. Alan Trejo might have the leg up considering he’s already on the 40-man roster. Tucker and former Tiger Harold Castro are in camp as non-roster players. Presumptive starting third baseman Ryan McMahon also has ample experience at second base and could move back to the keystone if Colorado wanted to pencil in Nolan Jones or Elehuris Montero at the hot corner. McMahon is an elite defensive third baseman, though, so the Rox might be reluctant to move him off that position for anything more than spot duty.
Bummer, but Rockies will be fine offensively. Plenty of hitting depth. That pitching staff though…
I hope that Brenton Doyle makes the team as a backup.
Yeah, they’re not “fine offensively”. McMahon is a good player, but that’s because of his glove, not his bat. Tovar has potential, but also looks more like another great-field, meh-hit type. Kris Bryant could probably still be good, but has been declining and is coming off a lost season, and CJ Cron is dependable but mediocre. Beyond that, you’ve got a lot of hitters who probably should not be on a major league roster, and losing Rogers is gonna make that problem worse. The Rockies look like they’ll be really, really bad on both sides of the ball this season.
The Rockies have been AWFUL offensively for the past 5 years or so. Even when they were in the playoffs, the offense was usually limited to Arenado, Blackmon, and Story. Last year, they were horrible offensively. I would downgrade it even more if you excluded Cron’s first half.
The biggest problem with perception for the Rox is that if you just watch ESPN highlights they look like a great offensive team. But for every 475 foot home run, you have 10-15 strikeouts. Poor contact hitting and very poor on base skills.
There’s also the fact that they play at Coors Field, which inflates their numbers and gives the perception that each hitter is better than they really are.
The Coors Field factor is meaningless when you don’t make contact. Besides, the perception of the Coors Field factor is more overinflated than the numbers.
Yes, also coors hitters struggle on the road because they are not used to sea level pitch movement.
Hank, do you mean like Arenado and Holiday?
What are you talking about? AWFUL? The Rockies have ranked 8th in runs scored over the last 5 years, 13th over the 2 years, and were 16th last year. Last year, they were 4th in Contact%, and were 14th in OBP. Not great numbers minus the Contact% last year, but not awful numbers by any means.
Ah, Rhyde1990, you must be unfamiliar with the offense factory that is Coors Field. For a team playing in the neutral park those numbers would be okay but not great, sure. But the Rox play in the most prolific offensive environment in the history of baseball. For them to finish 13th over two years, and 16th last year is truly AWFUL. Any lineup that finishes outside the top 10 in runs while playing at Coors is a strong contender for the worst offense in the game. Here’s a fun a fact for you: no Rockies team have EVER made the playoffs without being at least #2 in runs. 2018 Rockies: #2 in runs, 2017 #1 in runs, 2009 #2 in runs, 2007 #2 in runs, 1995 #1 in runs. They’ve never had even a near-.500 or winning record in any season they didn’t finish at least #3 in runs. Given the context, if the Rockies don’t finish in the top three in runs they are a bad offense. If they’re not at least in the top five in runs they’re a truly AWFUL offense.
Not quite as bad Lux.
Speedy recovery, Brendan!
Not a good time to be playing for an NL West team…
Hit .212 and 3 HR last year away from Coors. It’s possible he is terrible.
It’s also possible your analytic skills could use some broadening.
McMahon is also an elite defensive 2B, so moving him there from third could make sense in that regard. Especially if they think Montero is ready to hit at the MLB level.
But with luck it won’t be an issue for more than a couple of weeks into the season.
Weird that he will miss weeks…Mel Gibson went right back to work two seconds later, and he popped the shoulder in himself.
See nobody is gonna get your Lethal Weapon reference because young people watch crappy movies. But I’ll give you a thumbs up.
I just wanna chime in and say Everything Everywhere All at Once is the worst movie I’ve seen in 10 years. What a total clusterf@#$ of a movie.
You’re being too kind. It’s impossible to get through the entire movie – I’ve tried several times.
Man, I’m looking forward to watching Lethal Weapon 5 and Bevery Hills Cop 4. They’re both probably going to be bad but I’m in it for the feels.
Australian. Built different.
I was thinking the same thing Clip before I saw your post.
Great minds think alike!
Let. Jones. Cook.
That sucks. Another step towards a 100 loss season before it even started.
Some guys are locks and some are best penciled in….