Carlos Estevez Impresses in Colorado Rockies Debut

Carlos Estevez made his much-anticipated Major League debut for the Colorado Rockies on Saturday night against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Signed as an 18-year-old free agent out of the Dominican Republic, Estevez worked his way through the minors and finally burst onto the Coors Field scene with two scoreless innings against the Dodgers. In all, he threw 28 pitches, including 15 for strikes. He walked one and struck out two.

Now 23, Estevez wasn’t afraid to go inside either, backing Yasiel Puig off the plate with an inside pitch before striking him out.

“That works,” Estevez told reporters of his habit of backing batters off. “I just have to keep doing it. Sometimes it’s not on purpose, but I make it look like it is.”

Colorado manager Walt Weiss liked what he saw from Estevez in his debut, including the inside pitches.

“Everybody has to take shots inside. Carlos with the power, I think that can be effective for him,” Weiss said. “I figured there were some nerves but overall I thought he handled himself very well. He showed a lot of poise in his debut and showed some nice things. I think there’s some deception with the delivery. There’s some funk there to go along with the power. It was a good showing.”

Carlos Estevez looked as if he might make his MLB debut on Friday night when Weiss had him up in the bullpen but the timing wasn’t conducive, Colorado’s skipper said.

“He could’ve gotten in on Friday night but I didn’t want to throw him in the fire right away,” Weiss said. “With that debut, a lot of times I’ll look to bring him in in a non-leverage situation. Last night was a nice opportunity.”

After Jairo Diaz was lost to Tommy John surgery in spring training, many expected Estevez to fill the flame-throwing role that Diaz was tentatively slotted for, but Weiss was quick to say there’s more for the right-hander to do and learn.

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“The fact he gave us two innings was big. He’s been a two-inning guy at times in (Triple-A) Albuquerque,” Weiss said. “Potentially, he could fill into the role that (Jairo) Diaz had for us (before Diaz’s injury) because he has that kind of power. But before we start looking at him like that, we have to get him some innings under his belt. When we look at him, we project him as a back-end guy, but that’s a process.”