The Rockies announced they’ve selected reliever Seth Halvorsen onto the MLB roster. He joins the bullpen in place of Noah Davis, who was optioned to Triple-A Albuquerque. The Rox had an opening on the 40-man roster after passing left-hander Antoine Kelly through outright waivers yesterday.
Halvorsen, 24, will be making his big league debut. The 6’2″ righty spent two years at the University of Missouri before transferring to Tennessee for his junior season. He turned in a 3.81 ERA over 52 innings for the Vols. The Rockies selected him in the seventh round of last year’s draft.
Colorado got Halvorsen to Double-A by the end of his draft year. He has split this season between Double-A Hartford and Albuquerque. Halvorsen turned in a 4.84 ERA in 35 1/3 Double-A frames, striking out nearly 26% of opponents while walking 12% of batters faced. While he only has nine Triple-A appearances under his belt, he has already punched out 15 at the top minor league level.
In April, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs ranked Halvorsen the #14 prospect in the Colorado system. Longenhagen credited him with an upper-90s fastball, as well as an above-average slider and splitter duo. He doesn’t have great control, potentially pushing him into a middle relief role. The Rox are desperate for reliable contributors in the bullpen. There’s plenty of room for Halvorsen to establish himself quickly.
More create-a-players for the Rox.
Halvorsen throws 101 consistently now.
So?
They must not be worried about a 40-man roster crunch over the winter if they are willing to add this guy now. He’s a long way from being Rule 5 eligible. Seems like he could wait until next year since he isn’t exactly beating down the door and the Rockies season is long down the tubes.
I was thinking similar to that. Except I honestly wouldn’t mind seeing most of the bullpen completely gone after the year. The only returnees I really want are Vodnik, Chivilli, and Peralta at this point. Criswell, Gilbreath and Molina are maybe/maybe not type guys. I am basically done with Bird, Lawrence, Kinley, Lambert, and Davis at this point. Time to move on and try some new arms and hopefully a couple of strong veteran arms off the FA market.
Hopefully, sanity will prevail and they won’t sign Bard.
Yeah I forgot about Bard. Part of me wouldn’t mind if he was brought back on a cheap deal as a mentor to the pen arms, but not as a high leverage guy. At least he has been successful in a Rockies uniform before unlike most of pen arms. But yeah, it’s probably best just to have an amicable parting of the ways. Or for Bard to head back into retirement.
Agree with you about giving up on most of those, although I’d give Kinley a chance since he was coming back from a long injury layoff this year (as was Gilbreath). Molina was a Rule 5 pick so they can put him in AAA next season to see how he develops. Chivilli seems like a talented young guy who might benefit from more seasoning at AAA as well since he skipped that level.
But congrats to Halvorsen — one pitch and one ground ball out so for the moment he has a big-league ERA of 0.00.
Zach Agnos and Collin Baumgartner have pitched really well this season in the minors. They could easily replace Lawrence and Kinley next year.
I know the Rockies got burned not long ago by Wade Davis and Bryan Shaw, but I’d rather see a couple of actual big league arms in the pen. Guys that make more than the league minimum and weren’t picked up on the waiver wire. I know most people don’t expect much out of the Rockies in 2025, but I really hope the Rockies front office are not in that group. They need to make somewhat of an effort this offseason to get better.
I don’t think they will be able to contend next year. Chase Dollander, and Sean Sullivan look like future aces though. Charlie Condon has been struggling though. Hopefully he isn’t a bust.
Isn’t a bust? The guy was drafted less than two months ago. What exactly were your expectations? An immediate All Star? We need to stop putting unrealistic expectations on these kids and just let them develop.
They won’t be able to contend next year as long they accept that to be the case. And they can accept that to be the case as long as fans accept it. There is zero reason for any team to punt any season in the future. All they need to do is spend money and take a chance. And fans need to stop accepting mediocrity now just because 4 years down the road they think it might get better. It is fine to trade away pending free agents in July in a year you are just not winning. It is irresponsible not to. But after the past few years of teams turning around 100 loss team quickly, there is no reason to ever expect less.
“Ace” has a different meaning when referring to Rockies’ pitchers.
If they do sign a hitter, hopefully they don’t make another bad signing they did with Kris Bryant. The only way I see the Rockies contending in 2025 is if they sign Juan Soto, sign 2 quality relief pitchers, and Chase Dollander and Sean Sullivan pitch like top rotation guys after being called up.
I can’t see Juan Soto signing with the Rockies.
I don’t want Juan Soto. I think he is one of the most overrated players in the game. Age is his best quality right now. In three years I think he will basically be Jason Heyward with the Cubs.
They definitely need an actual closer, not a committee. Reuniting with Carlos Estevez makes some sense. Getting another one time Rockies in Kahnle and/or Ottavino makes sense as well. Or even Brent Suter if the Reds turn down his club option (not likely). I’m not just for reunions for nostalgia, but you know how each of those players have performed in Coors on a regular basis. It’s not a gamble like with Bryan Shaw.
For the rotation, I would like to see the team sign a handful of vets to minor league deals for depth. They almost never do that and it shows come June. You cannot get by with just 5 starters.
As far as offense goes, I am pretty happy with what we have. Maybe re-sign Stallings or pick another veteran catcher to back up Romo so you don’t have 2 rookie catchers on the team. Maybe take a flyer on a vet outfielder (or resign Blackmon) for the bench/DH or in case of injury to Jones, Doyle, or Beck. Or keep Cave, I like that guy. The infield I am happy with and I am OK with Schunk as a backup for three spots
Link is to a wrong Noah Davis.
Wrong Noah Davis linked in the article.
Will/ should Blackmon be back with the Rockies next season, or is this it?
Certainly not at this year’s salary. Maybe if he’s willing to play for something like 5 million. Being the Rockies, they’ll probably offer him 15 for what is close to replacement level production at this point in his career.
Might also depend on whether they think Veen and/or Fernandez are ready. And whether Bryant is going to have a DH/OF role since Toglia seems to have grabbed the 1B job.
Blackmon has been a great Rockie. and I hope that the Rockies retire his number someday. But it would be better now to move on from him after this sesson, resulting in a win- win. Perhaps he could latch on with a playoff team for one last hurrah, while the Rockies use the freed- up money to sign a veteran reliever.