Colorado Rockies infielder Brendan Rodgers will miss at least a month with a hamstring injury, according to Nick Groke of The Athletic.
Rodgers strained his right hamstring while attempting to steal a base in a game against the Seattle Mariners last Saturday. The team, after having Rodgers rest for a few days, initially thought the injury wasn’t serious enough to warrant much missed time. But his condition apparently worsened as the week went on, leading manager Bud Black to inform reporters of the bad news on Friday.
The Rockies’ top position prospect for years, Rodgers hasn’t made much of an impact in limited big league time. But he played well this spring, going 8-for-23 with a couple of home runs while showing a considerable amount of pop in his bat. Rodgers was seemingly on track to earn a job as the Rockies’ Opening Day starting second baseman, but the team will now have to switch gears.
Josh Fuentes played third base in the Rockies’ Cactus League win over Cleveland on Friday; Ryan McMahon, the likely choice to take over for Nolan Arenado at the hot corner once real games begin, started at second base, where he has spent considerable time over the last couple of seasons. The Rockies could opt for that same configuration to begin the season, with offseason acquisitions C.J. Cron, Connor Joe, and Greg Bird in the mix for the first base spot that would be vacated by Fuentes in that scenario.
Despite Rodgers’ strong prospect pedigree, it would be difficult to declare that they’re a worse team with him out of the lineup to start the season than they would be otherwise. His defense has been called into question, whereas Fuentes is a valuable swiss army knife and McMahon has already proven to be a strong fielder at second base. Cron, who probably had the inside track over Bird and Joe prior to Rodgers’ injury, is an above-average defender at first base, where Fuentes performed excellently a year ago.
However, if he plays to his potential, Rodgers has a chance to be a better offensive player than Fuentes and possibly even McMahon. Hopefully, the seriousness of Rodgers’ hamstring injury doesn’t keep the Rockies from being to find that out sooner rather than later.
Colorado, which has only made one set of roster moves to this point in the spring, has 11 Cactus League games remaining before opening the regular season at Coors Field against the Los Anglees Dodgers on April 1.
