Colorado Rockies: An update on Jon Gray’s injury

After Saturday’s 6-3 loss to the Oakland A’s at Coors Field, Colorado Rockies manager Bud Black provided an update on Jon Gray and his injury.

Before Saturday’s game, Black spoke with the media after the Rockies had announced that they had placed him (and reliever Jordan Sheffield) on the 10-day injured list. At the time, Black did not have any other news besides the fact that Gray would be headed to the IL since Gray was undergoing an MRI at that time.

More from Rox Pile

• Colorado Rockies: What if Todd Helton had played football instead?
• Colorado Rockies: Charlie Blackmon out for the season
• Colorado Rockies: Injuries shift look of roster ahead of Dodgers series
• Colorado Rockies: Has Sean Bouchard earned a second look in 2023?
• Colorado Rockies: 3 things we appreciated from Tuesday in San Francisco

But after the game, Black said that Gray’s MRI came back “clean” and Black said that Gray “feels fine (in regards to) the soreness today. Gray “got some treatment” from the Rockies training staff as well.

Black also added that he and the training staff are “encouraged” by the results of the scans as they came back about as good as they could have been.

Gray will travel with the team on the road this week when the team goes to Miami and Cincinnati to get treatment from the medical staff and he will “at some point, probably, get a ball in his hand on this trip and start progressing to get back on the mound.”

Considering that, originally, his injury was reported as forearm tightness and elbow soreness (which could lead to Tommy John surgery or elbow surgery, both of which would require him to be out for the rest of the year), this is great news for the Rockies as he will likely only miss a few starts, assuming all goes well. A more severe injury could have been catastrophic.

In the meantime, Black said on Saturday confirmed what we believed would happen and he said that, to a “high degree of probability,” Chi Chi Gonzalez will take Jon Gray’s spot in the starting rotation. Black said that Gonzalez is stretched out enough that he believes that he can have up to 100 pitches in an outing.

That outing will likely come on Thursday in the series finale against the Marlins, who enter Sunday with an eight-game losing streak and a 24-33 record.