Colorado Rockies: Bud Black on the back end of the starting rotation

Colorado Rockies manager Bud Black named his starters for the first series of the year but he wouldn’t name any other starters.

While much has changed in baseball and the world in general since mid-March, it has always been a foregone conclusion that the Colorado Rockies would turn to German Marquez, Jon Gray, and Kyle Freeland during their first series of the season whenever the season would end, in some order.

Rockies manager Bud Black spoke with the media, including Rox Pile, on Monday and he confirmed that the Rockies would have the beginning of the rotation go in that order for their opening series in Texas later this week.

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Marquez, 25, will get the nod over Gray and Freeland after those two started for the Rockies on Opening Day in each of the previous three seasons.

However, when asked about his rotation after the first three by Thomas Harding of MLB.com on Monday, Bud Black would not commit to naming anyone else being in the rotation.

"“Thomas, let’s get through this weekend,” said Black, who didn’t add anything further to his answer."

With Marquez, Gray, and Freeland making up the top of the rotation, it seems like Antonio Senzatela will be the fourth starter in the rotation. The fifth spot, though, is more up in the air. It will likely go to either Jeff Hoffman or Chi Chi Gonzalez but, perhaps, Ashton Goudeau, Peter Lambert, and Ryan Castellani could contribute to the rotation in 2020 as well.

The Rockies, technically, don’t need to have a fifth starter until their 10th game of the season on Tuesday, August 4, which is two weeks from today. They have two off-days next week (July 27 and July 30). The Rockies’ next two off-days after those are on Thursday, August 13 and Thursday, September 3.

That means that the Rockies have 33 games scheduled in 34 days starting on July 31 through September 2 so the Rockies could look to use even more than five starters in that period.