Colorado Rockies: Jon Gray and Jordan Sheffield head to 10-day IL

The Colorado Rockies announced today that they have placed starting pitcher Jon Gray (right flexor strain) and right-handed relief pitcher Jordan Sheffield (right lat strain) on the 10-day injured list.

In corresponding moves, the Rockies have recalled left-handed relievers Ben Bowden and Lucas Gilbreath.

Jon Gray was pulled from his start on Friday after 2 1/3 IP and 5 ER. Bud Black told the media, including Rox Pile, after Friday’s game that they pulled him due to be “cautious.” The Rockies described the injury as forearm tightness and elbow soreness.

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Black said after the game that the injury was impacting his pitching.

“When I spoke to Jon, he indicated that his soreness impacted his pitching,” said Black. “I don’t think he felt it on every pitch. It started to tighten as the game went on. That’s when we noticed the variability with his pitch-making and with his mannerisms. We knew something was up.”

As we discussed in this article earlier today, this could impact the Rockies in more ways than one, since his trade value could plummet as a result of the injury.

Chi Chi Gonzalez will presumably replace Gray in the starting rotation since he has been started a lot this year and he was just recently moved to the bullpen when Kyle Freeland was activated off the 10-day injured list.

Gonzalez relieved Gray on Friday as he went 4 1/3 IP, allowing seven hits and three runs.

But the Jordan Sheffield move is more surprising.

Jordan Sheffield was also placed on the injured list as well with a right lat strain. That move was a bit more surprising.

The Rule V pick has been the Rockies most reliable reliever in 2021 but he has been less reliable lately as, in his last three outings, he has allowed four earned runs and walked four batters in 3 2/3 innings. As a result, his ERA has ballooned from 1.72 to 3.26.

With Bowden and Gilbreath being recalled, the Rockies will go from having zero left-handed relievers to having two in their nine-man bullpen.

We will update this article and/or the site with more information as we receive it.

UPDATE (3:10 PM M.T.) As of this update, Jon Gray was getting an MRI so manager Bud Black had “nothing to report” yet but we should know more postgame or on Sunday. However, Black said that Gray does not seem to have any ligament tears or anything that will cost him a very lengthy period of time (12-18 months).

Black said that Sheffield’s injury is “a little bit more serious” than Gray’s injury and he suffered the injury during Thursday’s outing. He has a “tear in one of the muscles in the back of his shoulder” but Black does not know the degree of the tear. He said that he “would not compare” Sheffield’s injury to Kyle Freeland’s injury since tears can be located in different places but, Black said that Sheffield’s “could be (out) more time than Kyle.” Freeland was out for two months.