Colorado Rockies: Carlos Estevez won’t be ready for Opening Day

According to Thomas Harding of MLB.com, Colorado Rockies right-handed reliever Carlos Estevez will not be ready for Opening Day.

In February, Rockies reliever Carlos Estevez was sidelined due to a strained oblique after one one appearance in Cactus League action.

At first, it was reported that he would only be sidelined for “a few days”, as our own Olivia Greene relayed in this article February 25th. Rockies pitching coach Steve Foster even called it a “tweak piece.”

However, as is often the case with oblique injuries, it has taken a lot longer than originally expected. It has nearly been a month now since Estevez has seen game action. He has been on a rehab program but he suffered a bit of a setback with the recovery process, according to Thomas Harding of MLB.com in this article.

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With the setback, he is starting a throwing program so that he can rebuild himself but he will not be ready for Opening Day.

Estevez was not slated to be one of the main relievers for the Rockies as, in fact, he was going to be in competition with a few other relievers to see who and who would not make the big league club out of spring training. They include Zac Rosscup, Scott Oberg, Antonio Senzatela, and Jairo Diaz.

As it currently looks, per Roster Resource, they predict that Senzatela and Diaz will be two that are on the outside looking in with Rosscup and Oberg making the team to start the regular season.

Last season for Estevez, he pitched in 35 games at the major league level for the Rockies but he had an ERA of 5.57. However, if you delve a bit deeper, his numbers were actually a bit better. He had a FIP of 3.84 while striking out 8.6 per nine innings and walking 3.9 per nine (which was a drop from 2016).

In addition, in August and September (and one game in October), in which he made 17 of his 35 appearances, he had an ERA of 2.87 with a .241 opponent batting average and a .279 BABIP.

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However, with the injury and the Rockies revamped bullpen, it will be interesting to see if he even has a spot in the bullpen once he returns.