Colorado Rockies to sign a veteran right-handed pitcher

Our colleague, Robert Murray, is reporting that the Colorado Rockies have agreed to sign right-handed pitcher Ivan Nova to a contract.

On the surface, this may be a peculiar signing for the Rockies but it’s a signing that is low-risk and it could have medium- to high-reward.

Nova, 34, was in spring training with the Phillies but after pitching to a 7.30 ERA in five games (three starts), he was released. He didn’t pitch well with the Tigers in 2020 either (8.53 ERA in four starts).

However, when you look at the seasons he had through 2019, he could provide the Rockies with an innings eater, either in the bullpen as a long reliever or as a starting pitcher.

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From 2016 through 2019, he averaged an 11-11 record with a 4.31 ERA in average of 30 starts a season along with an average of 174 innings pitched per season.

The Rockies also don’t have much pitching depth let alone pitching depth with significant MLB playing time so having a veteran that could be waiting in the wings may be a good thing for the Rockies.

To that point, on the Rockies taxi squad for this current road trip, only Antonio Santos had MLB service time of the five guys on it, and he has six innings pitched in the major leagues.

So, as of now, Nova (who has pitched in the majors for part of 11 seasons), Jairo Diaz (who was recently DFA’d by the Rockies), Zac Rosscup (who likely won’t be on the MLB team considering that he wasn’t even invited to MLB spring training), and Dereck Rodriguez (part of three seasons in the majors) have the most MLB experience of guys who are at the Rockies alternate training site.

It remains to be seen if Nova will be ready to join the Rockies roster right away, if it will be a little bit until he comes to the majors, or if the Rockies want to keep him at the alternate site but, at bare minimum, he will provide the Rockies with some depth and, perhaps, he will be able to provide the Rockies with an innings eater as the season unfolds.