Colorado Rockies morning after: What a loss of Jon Gray could mean for the Rockies

The Colorado Rockies four-game winning streak was snapped on Friday as the Rockies lost 9-5 in the series opener against the Oakland A’s in interleague play.

However, potentially, the most important thing from the game will be the status of Jon Gray.

Gray was pulled from the game after allowing 5 earned runs in 2 1/3 innings due to what the Rockies later said was forearm tightness and right elbow soreness.

Rockies manager Bud Black spoke to the media, including Rox Pile, postgame and he said that they removed Gray for cautionary reasons.

"“We were being cautious with Jon, obviously, and we took him out of the game,” Black said."

During and after the game, the Rockies were running tests on Gray so we don’t yet know the severity of the injury. Black also said that he had not spoken much with head trainer Keith Dugger so he didn’t know the severity of it either.

However, the injuries were impacting his pitching.

"“When I spoke to Jon, he indicated that his soreness impacted his pitching,” Black said. “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.”"

If it ends up just being for cautionary reasons and Gray doesn’t miss a start, then no harm will be done. But if he misses any time or is out for an extended period, that will be a massive blow in more ways than one.

Depending on the severity of the injury, Jon Gray’s trade value could plummet

If Jon Gray misses even one start, teams who may interested in trading for Gray may be bearish on him considering the injury, at least until they see a few healthy starts under Gray’s belt.

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Gray also has an extensive injury, including “full body cramping” earlier this season, a fractured foot that ended his 2020 season, an ankle/foot injury that ended his 2019 season, fractured foot in 2017, and an abdominal strain late in spring training in 2016.

In a worst case scenario, severe forearm tightness could lead to Tommy John surgery, which means a recovery time of 14-18 months. If that were to occur, Gray’s trade value plummets to zero. Elbow surgery would also mean the same thing.

But even if Gray misses five starts (roughly a month), that means that he won’t have much time to prove that he’s healthy.

That’s part of the reason why we recently made the case the Rockies need to trade Gray and Trevor Story (who has since gone on the IL, but he is likely to return next week.)

Gray spoke with Rox Pile’s Kevin Henry earlier this week in an exclusive conversation after MLB Trade Rumors named him their #1 candidate to be traded before the trade deadline earlier this week. Also, our colleague, Robert Murray of FanSided, told us recently that he thought that Gray would be one of, if not, the first players to be traded.

Hopefully, the tests for Gray will be good news for the Rockies and for Gray so he can miss as little time as possible and prove that he’s healthy to the Rockies, especially if they try to extend him, and to other teams as well.

We will have an update on the site when we get the information as we hear it so stay tuned to Rox Pile for continuing coverage.