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.
Kris Bryant is hurt and can’t play lol.
I remember when Bryant first came into the big leagues he so hyped then had three solid years and started to fade.
He is still a great player…when healthy. Unfortunately that addendum is just dragging him down. It’s a shame because he has as much talent as anyone in the league right now, but his body is letting him down.
It was that service time manipulation case. He let his anger get the best of him and it seeped throughout his meridians and fractured his chakras. Tale as old as time.
Bryant’s swing caused him to have shoulder issues and spend time on the DL during his time with the Cubs. Bryant was known to chase everything out of the zone while his swing looked like he was golfing rather than trying to hit a baseball.
Yeah. I’m talking the root cause, you’re talking the effects leading to secondary problems. If you got fractured meridians and wonky chakras because you lost a hearing against your employer, your swing is going to be out of whack.
I knew this CPA, Randy, he was in this long court battle with his employer. His stats across the board dropped in beer league. Pitching and batting. Bryant sounds similar.
He should eat more fruit pits. Specifically the pit. It has the nutrients and poisons you can absorb or defend against.
From my understanding and the rumors that circulated in Chicago, the Cubs did offer Bryant an extension to stay with them. Rumors were the offer was for seven years at or around $100 million contract after the 2017 season. Bryant thought that was an insult since it was around $14 to $15 million a years where he betted on himself and thought he could have gotten a lot more in the free agent market. Bryant’s swing due to trying to always hit home runs to his stints in the DL caused his value to drop when the Cubs traded him to the Giants and when he hit the free agent market. Seemed like the Rockies were the only team that took a chance on Bryant and have been regretting it so far. Bryant’s MLB career has been a tragedy yet a comedy!
The shoulder issue was an actual injury though, when he slide into 3rd. The foot thing is more of an ongoing issue, like some players with their backs.
The Cubs offered $220-$225 over 8 years. Bryant famously denied the offer was made. Then said, “I haven’t seen a $200M offer”,then said, “Well, yeah, but it wasn’t waaay over $200M”
Rizzo got the $14.5M offer. He wanted Goldschmidt money and said he was insulted by the Cubs offer regardless of whether it was the starting point of negotiating.
Rockies are now the only major sports franchise in Denver without a championship. I tend to doubt I will see one in my lifetime (since I’m about the same age as the Monfort brothers).
I am about 20 years young than them and I have my doubts about ever seeing a championship as well.
They won’t even sniff a division series on their current trajectory and organizational philosophy. There’s just too much acceptance of mediocrity by the franchise.
The way plantar fasciitis is spoken of as if it’s a disease gets rather old. It’s both highly preventable and highly treatable.
It doesn’t speak well of sports medicine that we have players on the IL for long stretches for seemingly minor injuries and conditions. I honestly don’t recall players in the 70s, 80s, and 90s getting injured with this kind of frequency and spending so much time on the shelf. And it’s just a given that nearly every pitcher is going to have TJS at least once, and now we have TOS. With the ever worsening epidemic of MLB injuries you’d think there would be a task force or something to identify why it’s happening.
I’d love to see what this game looked like if every team had a full roster of their top 26 guys for the duration of the season. I think that would be both fascinating and fun. Sometimes I feel like I’m watching a short-track speed race in which three of the four skaters get taken out by a collision. And one of them is Apolo Ono. I don’t know. That’s sport I guess, but it’s just not entirely satisfying when accidents and injuries have such a big impact on outcomes. Also, I mean, wouldn’t the season be that much better if DeGrom, Verlander, etc. all played a full season?
it’d be more fun for sure but I doubt it would change outcomes that much. Good organizations have depth. The Rockies could trot out their best 9 all season and would sadly still be a last place team.
I don’t think their home environment does them any favors. It has to b beyond frustrating for pitchers to b pitching at that disadvantage and I’d imagine it gets in their heads. From their they re likely second guessing and occasionally making adjustments which carries I’d assume carries over on road in better environments.
As for batters it must be a huge confidence boost playing at home. But again I’d imagine going on the road they at times get frustrated as they don’t feel they are hitting the ball as well. The mental aspect of baseball can quickly take its toll when one is slumping.
The Cubs were always concerned about Bryants ability to stay at 3B. Because he’s 6’6″ they feared his back would give out from the constant bending. Then he started having foot and shoulder problems so they made the decision to not throw the bank at him. Likewise they knew Rizzo had back problems that weren’t going to get any better so they made him an offer. He said he was insulted. Then he turned around and re signed for the exact same money the Cubs insulted him with the Yankees. They’re both class guys but Bryant was over payed and Rizzo got what he should of gotten all along. Baseball Karma wins out. I’m still amazed that the Rockies dumped Arenado and signed Bryant. Still makes absolutely no sense to me. They should of just payed Arenado.
Yeah but Arenado is starting to look mortal as well. His glove has been rapidly fading since becoming a Card, but this year he doesn’t even look like the same guy. At times he looks reminiscent of Chuck Knoblauch getting the fielding Yips. His bat however hasn’t lost a beat. He’s a little older and a little streaker, but he’s still an elite bat. The problem Nolan had with the Rox was they promised him they’d spend and build around him to win a championship. He resigned. Then they not only did not do that, but instead cut to afford his contract which infuriated him, and he demanded a trade. Then they trade him for spare parts for salary relief. They got that relief, then ran out and signed Bryant to quell disillusioned fans. Clearly the Rox FO have absolutely no clue what they’re doing.
Unclemike1526
6 hours ago
The Cubs were always concerned about Bryants ability to stay at 3B. ….I’m still amazed that the Rockies dumped Arenado and signed Bryant. Still makes absolutely no sense to me. They should of just payed Arenado.
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The Rockies MO, as far as I can see, it to try to stay close to .500 so as not to antagonize and fans.
IRT the concern about Bryant not playing 3rd. it is exactly why the Rockies were crazy to pay him all that money to a good, but not great, hitting LF with minimal fielding skills.
IRT Arenado, I think the Rox have less long-term vision than any team in BB. They shouldn’t have extended Arenado unless they had a plan for extending Story. If they couldn’t have both, they shouldn’t have kept either. They could have then traded both for real prospects.
Instead they kept one, lost the other for nothing, traded the former at a huge loss, and then doubled down by signing yet one more bad contract to replace the bad contract that they took a huge loss on.
I proposed that, on the day they signed him, that they should’ve traded him to the RS and paid them $52M to take that contract off their hands.
Cubs fans often complain about how the FO let the core of the 2016 team walk, but when you look at what those guys are doing now, they made the right decisions. Contreras admitted yesterday that he’s lost his confidence at the plate, and it shows. STL signed him and almost immediately seemed to regret it. The Cubs are definitely no world beaters this year, but at least they don’t have huge contracts dragging them down for years and getting almost no value out of them.
There was absolutely no way that the Cubs would have won another title with those guys if they would of kept them together. The pitching was old, The core would of cost a fortune and it just wasn’t even a real choice. The Cubs made the right call. It isn’t even arguable.
They did pay Arenado, but then wouldn’t pay anyone else. He claimed they had told him otherwise. He lost faith in ownership and had to go.
Exactly. They got salary relief, then got Bryant who spends more time riding pine, which made the entire process completely pointless.
Bryant is a notoriusly slow healer. My definition of a “soft player”. the antithesis of Cal Ripken.