On Wednesday night in Arizona, Colorado Rockies left-handed reliever Rex Brothers did what he’s been doing for the better part of his Major League career. He got one left-handed batter out.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, with the Rockies down by a run, Brothers got Socrates Brito to ground out softly to second base. Bill and Ted would’ve been proud.
Then, manager Walt Weiss took the ball from Brothers and handed it to Scott Oberg who proceeded to give up a single and two walks before he was forced to surrender the ball to Christian Friedrich.
And that has been the problem with Rex Brothers. The Rockies trust him to get a left-handed out, but that’s it. At 27-years-old, he should be in the prime of his career. But Brothers has struggled with control his entire MLB career and spent much of 2015 in Albuquerque.
In 241.1 innings pitched in his Major League career, Brothers has 140 walks – an average of 5.2 per nine innings – which just won’t cut it, according to the Rockies. Thus he has been relegated to matchup duty. It’s a tough pill to swallow for both Brothers and the organization, who once tabbed the hard-throwing Tennessean as their closer of the future.
So with Brothers not under contract for 2016 and arbitration eligible, it raises the argument of what to do with him. To try and solve this rhubarb, we went to a former MLB pitcher, Mark Knudson, and the unofficial mascot of the Rex Brothers Fan Club, Renaud Notaro – both hosts on Mile High Sports AM 1340 – for their take.
