The Colorado Rockies have opted to pull Jorge De La Rosa from the starting rotation and place him in the bullpen, the team announced yesterday.
“We just wanted to give Jorge time to get right,” Walt Weiss told Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. “We’ll try to get some things ironed out. Looking where he’s at right now, (pitching) seven innings is probably a big mountain right now.”
De La Rosa has not been able to put it together all season long, owning a record of 1-4 with an ERA of 11.41.
The move seemed to be an obvious one, as it’s hard to justify putting De La Rosa in the starting rotation based on his performance, both in the majors and minors. But that doesn’t mean the organization has given up on the franchise’s all-time wins leader.
The move to the bullpen was a smart one.
In innings 1-3, De La Rosa has an ERA of 7.41, the lowest in any three-inning span this season (which shows you how bad the rest have been).
Although the number is not great, the Rockies are going to have to rely on De La Rosa’s first three innings as a start translating favorably into an inning or two of relief. At this point, we don’t know if De La Rosa will look to switch to a long-relief role or be strictly a one- to two-inning guy; either way, the team needs to make it work.
The Rockies gave Jorge De La Rosa the benefit of the doubt coming of a rehabilitation assignment, but general manager Jeff Bridich said the two-month struggle was far too long to deal with, which resulted in the team opting to make the move.
“It is was it is,” Bridich said. “It’s now two months of struggle, whether it’s been up here or down in the minors for rehabilitation. He’s had one good game, right? One good game that you could say is representative of what we know about Jorge De La Rosa. That’s just not good enough right now.”
Now, De La Rosa won’t have to prepare to face a team’s lineup three or four times through; he can, rather, clear his mind, knowing he may only need to retire three or four batters.
His third-inning ERA in 2016 is 1.80, the lowest of any inning he has pitched in twice this season.
If De La Rosa can mange to extract the success he has experienced in the third innings of games and turn that into a quality inning out of the pen, he would be helping himself and the club in a big way.
De La Rosa’s numbers are also better when he has pitched on shorter rest this season, too, something he will do often out of the pen.
On four days rest, De La Rosa owns an ERA of 9.95, which is significantly better than his ERA of over 13 when on six days or more of rest — again, it’s all been bad, so it’s the little things we have to hold on to.
While they aren’t flattering numbers, all signs show that if De La Rosa is going to rehabilitate his career, it’s going to be as a reliever, not a starter.