Colorado Rockies: What do their recent roster moves mean?

On Thursday, the Colorado Rockies announced that they made a few roster moves.

They announced that they have outrighted relief pitchers Yency Almonte and Tommy Doyle as well as infielders Joshua Fuentes and Rio Ruiz off their 40-man roster.

What does that mean for the players and the Colorado Rockies?

Simply put, the Colorado Rockies outrighting the players off the roster means that the players accepted being put in Triple-A and the Rockies have said that they are not expecting them to be contributors to the major league team in 2021.

However, they want to keep them around for minor league depth, and, likely, the four players will be non-roster invitees to Major League Spring Training for next season.

To make the Rockies MLB roster, a player would likely have to play exceptionally well in Spring Training and, likely, have an injury or trade happen that would alleviate a player from their position. They would also have to be added to the 40-man roster again.

Of the four players, the two most surprising players to be outrighted are Yency Almonte and Joshua Fuentes.

For Yency Almonte, he was one of the Rockies best relievers in 2020 but he was awful in 2021. In 48 games, he had an ERA of 7.55. He did have some bad luck, as his hard rate was below league average and his average exit velocity was below league average.

But his walk rate was very high (5.5 BB/9) and his weighted On-Base Average (wOBA) was amongst the bottom ten percent of the league.

Joshua Fuentes has been a great defender at both first and third base but his bat has been lackluster. He had a good average in 2020 but the advanced stats (like a .406 BABIP) showed that he was having a lot of good luck. That good luck ran out in 2021 as he hit just .225 with an OPS of .608.

The Rockies still have four players on the 60-day IL that will need 40-man roster spots soon. If the Rockies put all four players on the 40-man roster, they will have one remaining spot on the 40-man to protect a minor league player from the Rule V Draft.