The Colorado Rockies roster has experienced an early season roster shakeup as the club announced a slew of moves to their depth chart this morning. There are now two new faces with the Rockies as youngsters David Dahl and Noel Cuevas were recalled to the Major League roster after Colorado placed outfielder Carlos Gonzalez on the 10-day disabled list with a right hamstring strain, retroactive to April 19, and optioned outfielder Mike Tauchman to Triple-A Albuquerque. In addition, outfielder Gerardo Parra will begin to serve his four-game suspension for his involvement in the benches-clearing brawl against the San Diego Padres earlier in the season.
The complexion of the Rockies has been tinkered with following the moves. Carlos Gonzalez has struggled this season, posting a batting average of .235 and Tauchman has been dismal in his time at the big level owning a .043 batting average. Colorado’s offense has struggled immensely out of the gate in the 2018 season as they have the third lowest batting average in the sport with a mark of .218 amongst the team collectively. The Rockies also rank in the bottom half of the league in RBI and hits.
The two additions to Colorado’s roster has the potential to kickstart the Rockies on offense. Dahl was a force when he was called-up by the Rockies at the end of the 2016 season, hitting .315 with seven home runs and 24 RBI while tying a Major League record for the longest hitting streak to start a career by logging a hit in each of his first 17 games. Dahl missed a majority of last season dealing with a stress reaction in is ribcage but is healthy in 2018 with the Rockies eager to see if he can return to his late 2016 form. There is a lot of optimism attached to Dahl who the Rockies hope can optimize their lineup to add more depth and run-scoring ability.
Cuevas will be making his debut on the Rockies roster after an impressive start to his season in Triple-A. Cuevas owns a .333 batting average with 13 RBI in his 16 games played this season and will bring some fresh blood to Colorado’s clubhouse which could be a benefit.
The Rockies organization has a lot of moving parts attached to it throughout all of their levels, but there is a lot of intrigue with their players stemming from the bridge of triple-A and the show. Prior to the season the Rockies had about five-or-so bubble players all looking to make the roster in Tauchman, Dahl, Ramiel Tapia, Jordan Patterson, and Ryan McMahon among others. With the depth of players ready to establish playing time on the big league level, Colorado has options to plug-n-play with throughout the early portion of the season to try and enhance their performance.
Losing Parra and Gonzalez is unfortunate, but both have not been performing recently for the Rockies which makes the impending performances of Dahl and Cuevas more intriguing. There has been a ton of expectation loaded on the Rockies for this season, and the team needs to start producing if they want to live up to those expectations. Switching up the roster and making some minor adjustments after the team has struggled to find their footing is a smart play by the Rockies to hopefully kick things into gear while also getting an enhanced grip on what players in the minor leagues are capable of doing.
