Colorado Rockies: Carlos Gonzalez speaks on his return to the Rockies

The biggest thing in the news for the Colorado Rockies of late is the re-signing of outfielder Carlos Gonzalez.

Carlos Gonzalez has practically been the franchise player for the Colorado Rockies since 2009. On Monday, his new, one-year deal with the team became official and, yesterday, he spoke with the media on his return.

“I’m extremely happy [to be back with the Rockies]…Ever since I got [back] here, I’ve been receiving a lot of love from my teammates, the fans, and, obviously, the entire organization so it feels good to be back.” (h/t Tracy Ringolsby of Inside The Seams, KOA 850, and MLB Network on Twitter)

Later, he talked about how it was being on the free agent market this offseason. He said that it was “different,” but also, it was the first time being on the free agent market for him. He also said that he is “happy that it’s over.”

Another interesting question that was asked of him is whether or not he tried on any other teams’ caps on during this process. Gonzalez said that he did not but he said that he was…”picturing myself in a different uniform…but it didn’t happen.”

He added:

“I’m glad I’m back [and] I’m wearing the same uniform that I’ve been wearing for the past nine seasons so this will be number ten, which is special. Not a lot of guys can say ‘hey, I’ve played ten years with one organization with one uniform so that’s something that makes feel really proud and my family is ready to get back to.”

He also said that there were some of his Rockies teammates who talked to him in the offseason and they were really hoping that he would come back. He said that it “played a big role” for him in returning to Denver.

He specifically mentioned Nolan Arenado, DJ LeMahieu, Charlie Blackmon, and Gerardo Parra as four players that talked with him and really wanted him to come back.

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When will he be in a Spring Training game?

Gonzalez said that he really wanted to be in a game today but they want to wait for a couple of days until he sees any game action.

Rockies manager Bud Black said that he expects him to be working in minor league camp to see live pitching for the next “couple of days” and, after that, he will see action in Cactus League games (h/t Tracy Ringolsby on Twitter).

In minor league camp, he has an opportunity to get more at bats than he would in Cactus League games so that is part of the reason why he is there currently.

Final Thoughts

If you want to watch either Carlos Gonzalez’s presser or the Bud Black presser from yesterday, you can check out the links from Ringolsby linked above.

Next: Nolan Arenado was happy to see CarGo return

For Gonzalez, I would guess that he will probably see action in the Cactus League probably some time this weekend after he gets the at bats in minor league camp. When he does make his debut, you can expect that there will some heads turning on seeing him in major league spring training games.