Off to hot start, the Colorado Rockies are currently tied for the most wins in baseball, with 10. It’s hard to believe that they are currently without their ace, starting first baseman and a man many expected to start in left field.
Thomas Harding of MLB.com joined Sean Walsh and TJ Carpenter on Mile High Sports Radio to discuss (amongst other things) the injuries to Jon Gray, David Dahl and Ian Desmond, and when Rockies fans can expect the players to be back.
Desmond, who broke his hand in Spring Training, will probably be the first of the trio to return. When he does, there’s reason to believe that he will help the Rockies’ already stellar defense, despite switching to a new position.
“Ian Desmond, who will be back probably by the end of the month, he’s done well everywhere he’s been,” Harding said.
A former All-Star shortstop, Desmond was moved to the outfield, where he was again named an All-Star. The Rockies are hoping he has similar success at first.
Dahl was expected to compete with Gerardo Parra to start in left field, but injured his rip. Parra has played well in his absence. Dahl has resumed some baseball activities, even joining the team in San Francisco for a spell. He looked close, but the team pumped the brakes a bit on his recovery.
“Basically, what they did is they backed him off of activity because this is one of those injuries in the rib area where you can aggravate it,” Harding said. “So, he’s doing weightlifting, he’s doing as much baseball activity as possible, but they were keeping him from swinging the bat.”
According to Harding, Dahl will head to Arizona for a bone scan on Friday. Once he is cleared, Harding believes the outfielder will need 40 at-bats, either in extended Spring Training or in the minors.
As for Gray, who is dealing with a stress fracture in his foot, Harding says that that type of injury is hard to predict. As such, he expects him to miss at least a month, perhaps more.
“The problem with stress fractures in the foot is that you really don’t know until you ramp up the activity,” Harding said. “Unfortunately for him, he’s playing in the National League, where sometimes you have to bat. That could be the [most] dangerous thing. He’s going to keep the arm going, so I would expect that the arm would be in pretty good shape. He can do almost everything except pitch full-speed, because he’s wearing the walking boot.
“Once he starts running around there, once he starts fielding his position, making pick-off moves and batting, you don’t really know what’s going to happen.”
Listen to the full interview with Thomas Harding, including whether he thinks Carlos Gonzalez can snap out of his slump and his thoughts on the team’s young pitching staff, in the podcast below.
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