Colorado Rockies: COVID-19 protocols mean four players, two coaches out of action on Friday

To start the second half of the season, the Colorado Rockies have been hit by COVID-19 protocols.

MLB.com’s Thomas Harding was the first to report that right-handed pitchers Antonio Senzatela, Jhoulys Chacin, and Yency Almonte as well as outfielder Yonathan Daza will not be available for Friday’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

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As a result, the Rockies have recalled right-handed pitcher Antonio Santos, left-handed pitcher Ben Bowden, and outfielder Sam Hilliard have been recalled from Triple-A Albuquerque.

The Rockies announced that manager Bud Black and first base coach Ron Gideon are also out for COVID-19 protocols as well. They will be replaced by bench coach Mike Redmond and Major League Data & Game Planning Coordinator Doug Bernier.

As of the publication of this article, we do not know whether those six Rockies have tested positive for COVID-19 or are part of contact tracing.

It should be noted that the Colorado Rockies were one of the first teams to reach MLB’s 85 percent threshold for the relaxing of protocols, as they reached that level in April and the team is currently at, or very close to, 100 percent of their tier 1 personnel being vaccinated. Tier 1 includes players, coaches, and other on-field and medical personnel.

The Rockies moves will have a big impact on their series with the Dodgers

Senzatela was slated to be the starting pitcher for the Rockies on Friday against the Dodgers. In his place, Chi Chi Gonzalez will start in place of him. Gonzalez was, originally, going to start on Saturday opposing Dodgers start Walker Buehler.

The Rockies have not announced a replacement for Gonzalez on Saturday but it may be Kyle Freeland, who was going to start for the Rockies on Sunday against David Price.

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