Colorado Rockies: Who will they send down on Saturday?

The Colorado Rockies will have to send a player back to their alternate training site after having an extra player on the roster for Friday’s doubleheader.

The Colorado Rockies were able to use an extra player for their doubleheader on Friday against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Prior to the first game of the doubleheader, they called up reliever Jesus Tinoco as their 29th man and during the game, they sent down fledgling starter Chi Chi Gonzalez (who wouldn’t have been used for the rest of the season anyways) in favor of reliever Jose Mujica.

Mujica did not see any action in game two but Tinoco did. He didn’t provide much relief, though, as he allowed a run in 1 1/3 innings and he also walked two. With Mujica just being called up and not seeing any action, it obviously won’t be him sent down and frankly, if Tinoco is a guy that the Rockies are considering to be part of the Rockies bullpen in in 2021 like Bud Black has said, it really shouldn’t be him either.

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In all likelihood, it will be Antonio Santos, who was not able to get out the first inning of his first MLB start. The rookie, 23, recorded two outs before he was pulled out of the game in favor of Jeff Hoffman. Santos allowed five hits, six runs (all earned), and he walked two as well.

He likely won’t be used in the next two games, especially after that start so he will likely be sent down.

However, will we see any more roster moves for the next two games? Perhaps we will. The problem with that, though, is that most of the players that are struggling don’t have any minor league options remaining so they would have to be designated for assignment or placed on the injured list.

Some of the players that don’t have any options left are Daniel Murphy, Drew Butera, Carlos Estevez, Jairo Diaz, and Jeff Hoffman. There are others but none have played poorly enough to be sent down.

One player that could be sent down because he won’t get any more work this season and he does have minor league options is Ryan Castellani. He has gone 1-4 with an ERA of 5.82 in 10 games (nine starts), more walks than strikeouts (26 to 25) and a FIP of 7.78, suggesting that he has been lucky to keep his ERA nearly two runs lower.

Even though there are only two games left in their season, the Rockies can learn a lot about what they have (or don’t have) heading into the 2021 season this weekend.