Colorado Rockies’ De La Rosa Out Longer Than Anticipated

Jul 23, 2014; Denver, CO, USA; Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Jorge De La Rosa (29) comes off the field after being relieved by manager Walt Weiss (22) during the eighth inning against the Washington Nationals at Coors Field. The Rockies won 6-4. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

The Colorado Rockies will likely be without their ace, Jorge De La Rosa, for a few more weeks after his previously-anticipated April 14 return. 

Nick Groke of the Denver Post confirms what we all were worried about when De La Rosa injured his groin two weeks ago in a Spring Training game:

"Jorge De La Rosa, who will miss the first part of the season with a groin injury, likely won’t return until later in the month. The Rockies were hoping for an April 14 return for their No. 1 pitcher, for a game at San Francisco. That’s the first day Colorado needs a fifth starter in their rotation.But Rockies manager Walt Weiss said that is not likely. “That would be absolute best-case scenario,” Weiss said. “But we don’t count on best-case scenarios.”"

You can say that again, Walt.

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It’s not much of a surprise that De La Rosa wouldn’t be back so soon.

Not only does he need to get healthy in the first place, he also has to get his pitch count up after failing to go very deep in Spring Training games and then missing the last two weeks with the groin injury.

It would be, even in the most ideal sense, pretty unrealistic to expect him to compete April 14th in San Francisco against the Giants.

And now, it looks like we shouldn’t count on it.

As Groke notes, and as you have probably assumed by this point, Christian Bergman would likely be the fifth starter going forward until De La Rosa (and/or David Hale) is deemed ready to return.

Bless Bergman, but he can’t be a long-term option in the rotation.

If the Rockies want to compete with their early, top-heavy NL West slate, De La Rosa needs to return very, very soon.

The season hasn’t even begun and it’s already musical chairs in the starting rotation, y’all. Welcome to Denver!