Colorado Rockies roster moves: Jeff Hoffman recalled from Albuquerque

Before the start of their ten game homestead starting on Friday night, the Colorado Rockies have made a roster move.

A few moments ago, on Twitter, the Colorado Rockies announced that they have recalled right-handed pitcher Jeff Hoffman to start the series opener against the Baltimore Orioles on Friday.

In a corresponding move, the Rockies have announced that they have optioned right-handed pitcher Yency Almonte back to Triple-A Albuquerque.

Hoffman, 26, was roughed up in his only major league appearance this season as he made a spot start for the Rockies on April 23 at Coors Field against the Washington Nationals. In that outing, he went five innings and he allowed six hits and four runs (all earned).

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In Albuquerque this season, Hoffman has gone 3-3 but he has had an awful ERA (even by Pacific Coast League standards) of 7.57. In seven appearances (six starts), he has pitched in 35 2/3 innings allowing 38 hits, 30 runs (all earned), 8 home runs, and 17 walks. He has averaged more than 11 strikeouts per nine innings, which is much higher than his career minor league average of 8.5 per nine innings.

Almonte, 24, has had limited action in the major leagues as well this season but he has pitched very well. In eight games (all in relief) and 11 innings, he pitched to a 2.45 ERA, allowing seven hits, and three earned runs. The only alarming number was his walk rate, as he averaged just about 5 walks per nine innings.

Although he was pitching well, he was the odd man out in the bullpen because he still has options on his contract. The only other Rockies relievers that had options were Chad Bettis (who has more major league service time than Almonte and also serves as a long reliever for the Rockies), Jairo Diaz (who was just called up a few days ago with Wade Davis heading to the IL), Carlos Estevez (who has also pitched well), and Seunghwan Oh (who has pitched poorly this season but has more major league service time than Almonte).

I think that this is more of a move to get Almonte some more frequent work in Albuquerque since he has only made two appearances in the past two weeks out of the bullpen (May 19 and yesterday) and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s back with the Rockies in the near future.