The Rockies made a pair of bullpen moves before tonight’s matchup with the Phillies. Colorado selected righties John Curtiss and Matt Carasiti onto the MLB roster. In corresponding moves, they optioned right-hander Peter Lambert to Triple-A Albuquerque and designated Matt Koch for assignment. To open the second necessary 40-man roster spot, the Rox transferred Kyle Freeland to the 60-day injured list.
Colorado played consecutive extra-inning games against the A’s on Wednesday and Thursday. The Rox won the former in 12 innings but dropped yesterday’s 11-inning contest in disappointing fashion. The bullpen blew leads in the ninth, tenth and eleventh frames — surrendering five runs in the final inning to get walked off after scoring four in the top half.
Koch and Lambert were the last two arms out of Bud Black’s relief corps yesterday. Koch didn’t record an out, allowing hits to Max Schuemann and Abraham Toro before serving up a game-tying homer to JJ Bleday. Lambert managed two outs before walking Tyler Soderstrom with the bases loaded to end the game. That likely took both players out of the picture for tonight and ultimately squeezed them each off the MLB roster.
The 33-year-old Koch signed an offseason minor league deal and was just selected to the big league roster over the weekend. Yesterday’s outing was his second of the season. The righty worked to a 5.12 ERA over 38 2/3 innings for Colorado a year ago. The Rox will likely put him on waivers in the next few days.
Curtiss, 31, inked a minor league deal in January. He has been hit hard for a 6.75 ERA over 21 1/3 innings with the Isotopes. The 6’5″ righty had solid results with the Rays and Marlins between 2020-21 before undergoing Tommy John surgery. He returned to the majors with the Mets a year ago, allowing 4.58 earned runs per nine with a modest 19.8% strikeout rate through 30 appearances. Curtiss is out of options, so the Rox would need to designate him for assignment if they don’t keep him in the MLB bullpen.
Carasiti still has one option remaining, so the Rockies could move him between Denver and Albuquerque. He’s in his second season in the organization and threw 24 1/3 MLB frames a year ago. Carasiti turned in a 6.29 ERA with nearly as many walks as strikeouts in the majors. He has been tagged for 5.91 ERA in the Pacific Coast League this year, but he’s punching out nearly 27% of opposing hitters at that level.
Freeland’s 60-day minimum is retroactive to his original IL placement on April 16. The veteran left-hander suffered an elbow strain after four starts. He’s throwing off a mound but hasn’t begun a rehab assignment. Freeland can pitch in the minors before his 60 days are up; he’ll be eligible for a return to MLB action in the second week of June.
Forkballs!
Koch rocking that 12.000 WHIP.
It’s a shame it was only two members of the pen that got shipped off. Colorado got burned a few years back with Wade Davis, Bryan Shaw, and Jake McGee. But trying to build a major league caliber bullpen off the waiver wire is not going to work. They need to sign or trade for at least one or two quality ML relievers to head the group of cast offs.
The Rockies are not as bad as their record. The defense is among the best in the game. The starters have been lights out for a few weeks now. And the offense is finally showing signs of life. But the pen, despite being good in April when everything else was awful, is killing them. They are not a playoff team of course, but they are really not a 100 loss bad team either.
Good luck getting any ML caliber arm to sign there
They have before. All you gotta do is offer money.
Carasiti is actually in his third year with the Rockies because it is his second go around with the team. He had a short stint back in 2016 before resurfacing with them in 2023.
Curtiss seems like Curtis was spelled wrong on a birth certificate and they decided what the hell, we will keep it so people remember it.
Probablyy
That’s crazyy talkk.
It’s amazing Catasiti still has options.
This team is a steaming bowl of diarrhea. I can’t wait until they demand a new stadium. Sending out pamphlets to voters acting like their dog dump team brings anything to the region with how apathetic they are when it comes to actually being a part of the city and delivering a product the city/state actually enjoy.
Dick Monfort is a scumbag and I hope he gets hit by a bus. Then that bus goes on a revenge tour searching for the rest of his garbage family.
Get help buddy. A lot of it.
I’m sorry a Charles Bronson Death Wish-style scenario of a sentient bus that happens to be a huge Rockies fan that hunts down the family that destroyed the team doesn’t pique your interest. I won’t be sending you the script.
Rockies have a sick mascot though. I will give them that.
It seems like Matt Koch has gotten quite a few looks over the years, and hasn’t really done well with any of them.