News Rockies Team Notes

Rockies Release Jacob Stallings

The Rockies announced a series of roster moves today. Infielder Ryan Ritter has been selected to the roster, catcher Braxton Fulford has been recalled and right-hander Zach Agnos has been reinstated from the bereavement list. Right-hander Angel Chivilli was optioned after yesterday’s game. To open two more spots, the club has placed shortstop Ezequiel Tovar on the 10-day injured list with a left oblique strain, retroactive to June 3rd, while catcher Jacob Stallings has been unconditionally released.

Stallings, 35, had a solid season for the Rockies last year but he’s been dreadful this year. Going into 2024, he signed a $2MM deal and went on to hit .263/.357/.453 for a 114 wRC+ in 82 games for Colorado. The defensive reviews were mixed but the Rockies clearly liked him, as it was reported in September of last year that they wanted to bring him back. The two sides eventually reunited on a one-year deal for 2025 with a $2.5MM guarantee, in the form of a $2MM salary and $500K buyout on a $2MM mutual option for 2026.

Unfortunately, his performance has dropped off significantly so far this year. Through 93 plate appearances, he has a .143/.217/.179 line. A drop from last year’s .324 batting average on balls in play to this year’s .226 doesn’t help but that’s not the only thing going on here. He has struck out in a third of his plate appearances, a huge jump from last year’s 23.1% clip. His walk rate has dropped from last year’s 9.6% pace to this year’s 5.4%.

While Stallings has been doing that, Hunter Goodman has been taking over the catcher position. Goodman has ten home runs in 241 plate appearances, helping him produce a .281/.328/.491 line and 114 wRC+. His defensive marks aren’t great but it’s understandable that the Rockies have leaned towards that stronger offensive output. Fulford has been playing well in the minors so he’ll get to come up and join the big league catching ranks, while Stallings has been let go.

Once Stallings clears release waivers, he’ll be able to sign with any club. The Rockies will remain on the hook for the remainder of his salary. If any other club gives him a spot, they would only have to pay him the prorated portion of the league minimum salary for any time spent on the roster.

It’s unclear how long Tovar will be out of action but oblique strains can be difficult, with minor strains sometimes taking weeks or months to recover from. That opens the shortstop position and Thomas Harding of MLB.com suggests that Ritter should get regular playing time, though Orlando Arcia, Tyler Freeman and Kyle Farmer all have some experience at the position.

Ritter, 24, was a fourth-round selection of the Rockies in the 2022 draft. He has since climbed the minor league ladder and is having a good season in Triple-A. He has a .305/.413/.635 line and 149 wRC+ in 52 games for the Isotopes. He already has 16 home runs while drawing walks at a 13.9% clip and keeping his strikeouts down to a 20.4% rate.

Prospect evaluators have often worried about his chase tendencies but he has continued to lower his strikeout rate. He was punched out 29% of the time in 2023 but got that down to 23.6% last year and he’s dropped it even more this year. His defensive reviews are mixed but he’s capable of swiping 20 bags annually. Baseball America now lists him as the #4 prospect in the club’s system.

Even the best prospects can sometimes flounder when first reaching the majors, so time will tell how Ritter handles the jump. If he doesn’t succeed right away, he could be optioned back down to Albuquerque when Tovar is healthy. If he succeeds, he has played some second base in the minors and could perhaps kick over to the other side of the bag, depending on how Thairo Estrada is performing.

Photo courtesy of Robert Edwards, Imagn Images
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Source: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/06/rockies-release-jacob-stallings.html
 
Rockies To Activate Austin Gomber

The Rockies will reinstate lefty Austin Gomber from the 60-day injured list this weekend, reports Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. He’ll start Sunday’s game in Atlanta, where he’ll take on reigning Cy Young winner Chris Sale. The Rox announced that Carson Palmquist, who’d been in line to start that game, was optioned to Triple-A today. Righty Anthony Molina was recalled from Triple-A, adding another arm to the ’pen in the meantime. Colorado will need to make a 40-man roster move to reinstate Gomber prior to Sunday’s start.

Gomber, 31, will make his season debut when he takes the mound Sunday. He’s been out all year due to a left shoulder injury but has looked sharp in four Triple-A rehab starts, tossing a dozen innings with three runs allowed on six hits and five walks. He’s fanned 13 of 48 opponents along the way.

In 2024, Gomber tossed a career-high 165 innings over the course of 30 starts, working to a 4.75 ERA. His 16.7% strikeout rate was well shy of the 22% league average, but his 5.5% walk rate was quite strong. Gomber struggled with home runs, as one would expect for a fly-ball pitcher who’s prone to hard contact and plays his home games at Coors Field; he yielded an average of nearly two homers per nine frames at home and a total of 1.64 HR/9 on the season overall.

It’s a fifth starter’s profile, but the pitching-starved Rockies valued his durability and tendered Gomber a contract that pays him $6.35MM in his final year of club control. He’ll be a free agent at season’s end and, if he can get out to a decent start to his 2025 campaign, could end up as a trade chip for the Rox ahead of next month’s deadline as well. Colorado traditionally tends to avoid trading away too many veterans even in non-contending seasons, but at 12-55 with a -202 run differential, there are no delusions of a second-half run. Shipping out Gomber won’t bring much of a return, prospect-wise, but at the very least they’d trim some payroll and add some depth to the minor league ranks.
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Source: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/06/rockies-to-activate-austin-gomber.html
 
Rockies Place Kyle Freeland On 15-Day Injured List

The Rockies announced that southpaw Kyle Freeland has been placed on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to June 12) due to lower back stiffness. Left-hander Carson Palmquist was just optioned to Triple-A three days ago, but he’ll now be recalled back to Colorado’s active roster and will start Monday’s game against the Nationals.

Freeland has a 5.13 ERA over 14 starts and 73 2/3 innings this season, with a subpar 17.4% strikeout rate but an outstanding 4.6% walk rate. That latter number is on pace to be the best walk rate within a career of solid control for Freeland, and a 3.99 SIERA reflects the 58.4% strand rate and .362 BABIP that has inflated his real-world ERA. Playing for the woeful Rockies also hasn’t helped Freeland’s fortunes, as his average run support of 3.05 runs per nine innings is among the lowest in baseball.

There isn’t any indication that his back issue is particularly serious, though he’ll get at least a couple of weeks to recover before returning to Colorado’s rotation. Now in his ninth season with the Rox, Freeland probably doesn’t hold much value as a potential trade candidate at the deadline, given his middling numbers, lack of strikeouts, and pricey contract. The left-hander is earning the remainder of a $16MM salary in 2025 and is owed another $16MM in 2026, which is the final guaranteed year of the five-year, $64.5MM extension Freeland signed with the Rockies back in April 2022. The deal has a $17MM vesting player option for 2027 that will trigger if Freeland tosses 170 innings in 2026, and while he has only topped the 170-IP threshold twice in his career, that stands as another reason rival clubs may be wary of inquiring about a deadline deal.
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Source: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/06/rockies-place-kyle-freeland-on-15-day-injured-list.html
 
Rockies Designate Keston Hiura For Assignment

The Rockies announced that first baseman Michael Toglia has been recalled from Triple-A Albuquerque. Infielder Keston Hiura has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move. The club’s 40-man roster count drops to 39.

This is the reversal of a transaction from a few weeks back. On May 31st, Toglia was optioned to Albuquerque, with Hiura selected to the roster to take his place. Toglia had a nice season in 2024 but got out to an awful start in 2025.

Last year, he hit 25 home runs in just 116 games and took over as the clubs’ regular first baseman. His 32.1% strikeout rate was high and his batting average was low, but he drew walks at an 11.8% clip. His .218/.311/.456 line actually translated to a subpar 98 wRC+, thanks to the hitter-friendly nature of Coors Field, but that still made him one of the better hitters on a bad team.

This year, prior to being sent down, his walk rate fell to 8.7% and his strikeout rate climbed even higher to 39.1%. He currently has a .194/.266/.349 slash and a 55 wRC+. Since getting optioned, he has played 11 Triple-A games, with numbers in line with his 2024 season. He hit three home runs with an 11.8% walk rate and 29.4% strikeout rate for a .273/.353/.568 line and 112 wRC+.

Hiura, 28, got a small amount of big league playing time and didn’t do much with it. He got 21 plate appearances over eight games. He did not draw a walk but struck out seven times. He knocked four hits, including one double. It all added up to a .222/.333/.278 line and 71 wRC+.

Presumably, Toglia will now be retaking the regular first base job after this brief reset. In his absence, Hiura got a decent chunk of the time there, with utility players like Orlando Arcia and Kyle Farmer also chipping in.

Hiura now heads into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Rockies can technically take five days to explore trades. There’s not likely to be a ton of interest. Hiura was performing well enough in the minors prior to coming up but it’s been the case for years now that he shows pop in the minors and then strikes out too much in the majors. He now has 1,105 big league plate appearances with 50 home runs but a massive 35.9% strikeout rate.

He exhausted his final option year with the Brewers in 2022, which pushed him into journeyman status. Over the past few years, he has repeatedly cleared waivers and signed minor league deals with clubs like the Tigers, Angels and Rockies, occasionally getting brief looks in the majors. If he clears waivers again, he’ll have the choice of electing free agency or reporting back to Albuquerque.

Photo courtesy of Rhona Wise, Imagn Images
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Source: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/06/rockies-designate-keston-hiura-for-assignment.html
 
NL West Notes: Carroll, Glasnow, Garcia, Freeland, Black

Corbin Carroll has missed the Diamondbacks’ last four games due to a sore left hand, after the outfielder was hit by a pitch in Wednesday’s 8-1 loss to the Blue Jays. X-rays were negative and manager Torey Lovullo indicated today that Carroll’s hand was improving to some extent, but the skipper told MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert and other media that Carroll would undergo an MRI as an extra precaution. “Just because it’s not progressing as quickly as we wanted it to, and because of what we’ve just gone through with [Gabriel Moreno] and several of the injuries that we’ve been taking on, we want to definitely get a baseline,” Lovullo said.

In Moreno’s case, what apparently seemed like a minor hand injury ended up leading to a much longer expected absence, as a second MRI revealed a hairline fracture in the catcher’s right index figure. Such an outcome for Carroll would be devastating, as the young star has bounced back from a fairly ordinary 2024 campaign to hit .255/.341/.573 with 20 home runs in his first 323 plate appearances of 2025. Only 12 players in baseball have a higher wRC+ than Carroll’s 148, so naturally even losing him for a few days has been a hit to Arizona’s lineup. Losing Carroll to a more serious hand issue might well change the trajectory of the Diamondbacks’ season, as it would make it even harder for the Snakes to make up ground in both the crowded NL West or in the NL wild card picture.

More from around the NL West…

  • Tyler Glasnow and Luis Garcia each began minor league rehab assignments today, with Glasnow tossing two innings for the Dodgers’ Triple-A Oklahoma City and Garcia throwing an inning with the Dodgers’ A-ball affiliate in Rancho Cucamonga. Glasnow has been on the injured list (first the 15-day and then the 60-day) since late April due to shoulder inflammation, and is expected to make at least three rehab outings before a potential return to the Los Angeles rotation. Garcia has been out since late May due to an adductor strain and probably won’t need as much of a build-up to return to his bullpen role, so a return before the end of June seems possible.
  • Kyle Freeland is hoping to return from the 15-day IL when first eligible on Friday, the Rockies left-hander told MLB.com’s Thomas Harding and other reporters. Lower back stiffness led to Freeland’s IL placement, but he said “everything felt great” after a 50-pitch bullpen session today. The plan is for a shorter bullpen session on Tuesday as the final step in an abbreviated recovery process, and the extended 50-pitch outing today was meant to get Freeland into something of a simulated game environment without the need for any rehab starts.
  • Sticking with the Rockies, another quick return of a more unusual fashion may be occurring if Bud Black rejoins the organization. Fired as Colorado’s manager on May 11, “Black is a strong candidate to rejoin the Rockies as a pitching director or special assistant,” USA Today’s Bob Nightengale writes. While some managers are occasionally re-assigned to a new role within an organization in lieu of being altogether axed, such shuffling usually happens at the time of a managerial change, not a little over a month afterwards. Black managed the Rockies to a 544-690 record over eight-plus seasons, as playoff appearances in 2017-18 gave way to six straight losing seasons, plus Colorado’s current 18-60 record under Black and interim manager Warren Schaeffer.
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Source: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/06/nl-west-notes-carroll-glasnow-garcia-freeland-black.html
 
Trade Deadline Outlook: Colorado Rockies

MLBTR's team-by-team look at the upcoming trade deadline continues with a look at the Colorado Rockies, who are on pace to break the 2024 White Sox' modern-day record for losses in a single season. General manager Bill Schmidt's club is on pace for a staggering 37 wins this season -- a mark that 23 of the game's 29 other clubs have already reached as of late June. The Rockies are a clear seller -- or at least, they should be. The Rox typically march to the beat of their own drum, however, and owner Dick Monfort seems particularly averse to any large-scale sell-offs.

Still, given the Rockies' historic futility in 2025, the expectation is that they'll move some veteran pieces, while the fan base's hope might be for an uncharacteristically active deadline on the sell side of things.

Record: 18-62 (0% playoff odds, per FanGraphs)

Other series entries: Giants, Phillies, Pirates, Astros, Marlins

Sell Mode

Impending free agents: Germán Márquez, Thairo Estrada, Austin Gomber, Kyle Farmer, Orlando Arcia

Márquez has been a pillar for the Rockies' staff since coming over in a 2015-16 offseason trade that sent outfielder Corey Dickerson to the Rays. The Rox have resisted trading him in the past, twice signing him to extensions. He's now in his first full season post-Tommy John surgery, earning $10MM. There'll be about $3.17MM of that sum yet to be paid out of as of deadline day. Márquez got out to an awful start but has turned in a 3.21 ERA in 47 2/3 innings over his past nine starts (though that includes six unearned runs in his last start against the Dodgers). His 17.6% strikeout rate in that span is nowhere near peak levels, but his command has been good and he's averaging better than 95 mph on his heater. Plenty of teams would look at Marquez's velocity and track record of missing bats and think they could turn him around further.

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Source: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/06/trade-deadline-outlook-colorado-rockies.html
 
Rockies Designate Sam Hilliard For Assignment, Select Austin Nola

The Rockies announced a series of roster moves today. They have recalled outfielder Yanquiel Fernández from Triple-A Albuquerque, a move that was previously reported, and also selected the contract of catcher Austin Nola. In corresponding moves, they have optioned backstop Braxton Fulford and designated outfielder Sam Hilliard for assignment.

Hilliard, 31, was added to Colorado’s roster just over a month ago. He has since been sent to the plate 61 times, with a huge 37.7% strikeout rate but also a strong 16.4% walk rate. The result is a lopsided line of .196/.328/.412.

He has occasionally shown promise as a big leaguer but often with his penchant for punchouts getting in the way. He now has 936 big league plate appearances over seven seasons with 44 home runs but a 34.3% strikeout rate. Since he’s out of options and the Rockies want to get a look at Fernández, Hilliard has been bumped off the 40-man roster.

Hilliard was also outrighted off the roster at the end of March. As a player with between three and five years of major league service time, he has the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency, but has to forfeit his remaining salary in order to do so. He is making $1MM this year, so he accepted an outright assignment the last time he was sent through waivers. It’s possible the same sequence of events plays out in the coming days.

Nola, 35, signed a minor league deal with the Rockies in the offseason. He has spent a decent amount of this year on the minor league injured list but has been healthy for the past month or so. He has 116 minor league plate appearances this year with a strong .330/.397/.456 line, though most of that has been in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, so it only translates to a 107 wRC+.

That will seemingly be enough to Nola a shot at the backup catcher job. The Rockies released Jacob Stallings last month, with Hunter Goodman and Fulford left in charge of the catching duties. Fulford will now presumably get everyday playing time in Triple-A while Nola returns to the majors.

Nola has 345 big league games under his belt with a .249/.326/.370 line and 95 wRC+. That’s a solid mark for a catcher though his framing hasn’t received good marks from outlets like FanGraphs, Statcast or Baseball Prospectus. He is out of options and would therefore have to be removed from the 40-man roster if the Rockies decide to bump him from the active roster at any point.

Photo courtesy of Brad Mills, Imagn Images
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Source: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025...lliard-for-assignment-select-austin-nola.html
 
Kevin Pillar Announces Retirement

Kevin Pillar is hanging up his Superman cape. On an appearance on Foul Territory, he announced that he is retiring from playing. He was with the Rangers earlier this year but was released about a month ago.

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Pillar, now 36, was able to engineer an incredible zero-to-hero career. The Blue Jays drafted him in the 32nd round of the 2011 draft. But despite that humble beginning, he would not only make it to the big leagues but he would stick around for more than a decade.

His best asset was his defense, as he quickly earned a reputation for making highlight-reel catches, often diving horizontally in a way that earned him his Superman nickname. He got some limited big league time in 2013 and 2014 before fully cementing himself as a big leaguer in 2015.

That year, he got into 159 games for the Jays, producing a batting line of .278/.314/.399. His 94 wRC+ indicated he was 6% below league average at the plate, but that was more than adequate to pair with his other attributes. He stole 25 bases and received strong grades for his glovework, leading FanGraphs to credit him with 3.7 wins above replacement. That played a big role in getting the Jays to the postseason for the first time since 1993. Though the club was eventually felled by the Royals in the ALCS, the Jays got José Bautista’s legendary bat flip game along the way.

That would ultimately prove to be an apex for Pillar. He never again stole more than 15 bases nor topped a 90 wRC+ in a full season. But he still proved to be a useful player in generally the same shape, with his speed and defense making up for some subpar offense. From 2016 to 2018, he got into 442 games for the Jays, slashing .258/.296/.401 for an 86 wRC+ and producing 4.5 fWAR.

By the time the 2019 season had rolled around, Pillar was 30 years old and the Jays were rebuilding. Early that year, he was flipped to the Giants, which started the journeyman period of his career. Over the next few years, he would bounce to the Red Sox, Rockies, Mets, Dodgers, Braves, White Sox, Angels and Rangers. Though he had moved into his 30s, his performance was roughly the same as before, though with his glovework naturally slipping a bit. Over those 2019-25 seasons, he played 544 games and hit .246/.284/.415 for an 85 wRC+ and produced 2.4 fWAR.

Most recently, he had a stint with the Rangers but hit just .209/.209/.256 in 20 games before getting designated for assignment and released. He had flirted with retirement before but now seems to have decided that it’s time to hang up the spikes.

Any 32nd-round pick making it to the big leagues is exceedingly rare. In fact, the draft was shortened to 20 rounds a few years ago, so it likely won’t happen again. Pillar not only made it, but he got into 1,234 games over 13 seasons. He racked up 1,053 hits, including 114 home runs. He was credited with 10.8 WAR from FanGraphs and 16.1 from Baseball Reference. He earned about $25MM in his career, according to Baseball Reference. We at MLB Trade Rumors congratulate Pillar on an impressive career and wish him the best with whatever comes next.
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Source: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/07/kevin-pillar-announces-retirement.html
 
Yankees Have Shown Interest In Ryan McMahon

As the Yankees search for infield upgrades to address their need for either a second baseman or third baseman — Jazz Chisholm Jr. can play either spot — they’ve reached out to the Rockies regarding the potential availability of Ryan McMahon, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. While the Rockies have been unwilling to entertain offers for McMahon in the past, Heyman suggests that they’re willing to listen this time around as they barrel toward a potentially historic loss total in 2025. He adds that New York has yet to contact the D-backs about Eugenio Suarez, though that has more to do with Arizona being within arm’s reach of a Wild Card spot (three games back) than a lack of interest.

McMahon would bring a major upgrade to a Yankees infield that has felt one player short all season. Chisholm has split his time almost evenly between second base (251 innings) and third base (214 innings), performing well with the bat at both spots. He’s hitting .240/.339/.490 on the season and has swatted 14 homers to go along with 10 steals. His 28.2% strikeout rate is up nearly four percentage points over his 2024 levels, but Chisholm’s 11.5% walk rate is far and away a career-high mark.

Chisholm told The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner earlier this week that he knows he’s a better defender at second base and that he’d prefer to be playing there if all else were equal, but he’s happy to do “whatever it takes to help the team win.” A trade for McMahon (or another third baseman) could kill two birds with one stone: solidify the hot corner and get Chisholm back to the position at which he’s most comfortable and best-suited to play.

Earlier this year, it looked as though the Rockies may have missed the boat on trading McMahon. He drew considerable interest in the weeks and months leading into last summer’s trade deadline, but McMahon is reportedly a favorite of Rox owner Dick Monfort, who wasn’t keen on shipping out an All-Star infielder who’s signed affordably through 2027. McMahon wound up falling into a deep slump over the season’s final two months and started the 2025 campaign with the least-productive month of his big league tenure. He entered the month of May hitting just .147/.273/.235 with a sky-high 35.5% strikeout rate.

McMahon homered on May 1, however, and it’s been business as usual for him since. He’s largely back into All-Star form, hitting at a .253/.343/.468 clip with 10 homers, nine doubles and a triple in his past 216 turns at the plate. It should be noted that he’s currently in a bit of a cold spell, with just two hits and 11 strikeouts in his past 23 plate appearances, but nothing so drastic or prolonged as his swoon from August through April (.179/.272/.275, 320 plate appearances). He’s still hitting only .216/.318/.387 on the season because of that disastrous first month, but the trend lines in May and most of June were quite favorable.

On top of his resurgent bat, McMahon has maintained his status as a premium defensive player. Both Defensive Runs Saved (3) and Statcast’s Outs Above Average (3) grade him as a positive in 2025. He’s not on quite the same pace as he was in 4434 innings from 2021-24 (50 DRS, 38 OAA), but McMahon is an unequivocal plus defender at the hot corner who also has ample experience and strong defensive grades at second base.

McMahon’s contract is surely appealing to the Yankees as well. He’s not necessarily a raucous bargain, but the former No. 42 overall draft pick is being paid $12MM this season and is owed $16MM in both 2026 and 2027. The Yankees would pay a 110% tax on his contract’s annual value, given their status as a third-time offender in the top tier of luxury penalization, but McMahon’s six-year, $70MM extension is still well shy of the market rate for a plus defensive third baseman with 25-homer pop.

Heyman also suggests that Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes is at least “on the Yankees’ radar” as a change of scenery candidate, though he’d be a pure project. Hayes is an elite defender whose offensive output has cratered after recurring back troubles have popped up in recent years. He’s playing out an eight-year, $70MM contract signed with Pittsburgh prior to those back troubles surfacing. The Pirates owe him a $7MM salary this season and are on the hook for an additional $36MM over the contract’s final four guaranteed seasons (2026-29).

Hayes is hitting well over the past three weeks (.324/.342/.405 in 76 plate appearances), but it’d be a pretty big leap of faith to expect that to continue, considering the 28-year-old’s composite .239/.289/.297 slash in 714 plate appearances dating back to Opening Day 2024. Still, given the strength of his glove, his above-average speed and solid contact skills, Hayes at least makes sense for infield-needy clubs to track as a long-shot trade candidate.
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Source: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025...an-mcmahon-rockies-eugenio-suarez-dbacks.html
 
Rockies Reinstate Ryan Feltner From 60-Day IL, Outright Sam Hilliard

The Rockies announced a pair of transactions today. They reinstated Ryan Feltner from the 60-day injured list and optioned him to Triple-A, and they sent outfielder Sam Hilliard outright to Triple-A Albuquerque. The team already had an open spot for Feltner on the 40-man after designating Hilliard for assignment earlier in the week, so no corresponding move was necessary.

It is somewhat surprising news that Feltner has been optioned, considering he has made Colorado’s Opening Day rotation in each of the past three years and has not pitched in the minors for any reason other than a rehab assignment since July 2022. In fact, he was the team’s most effective starting pitcher just last season (4.49 ERA, 4.31 SIERA in 30 starts), and he looked much the same over his first six starts in 2025, pitching to a 4.75 ERA and 4.49 SIERA through the end of April. However, this seems to be less of a demotion and more of a continued rehab assignment for Feltner. He has been on the IL since May due to back spasms, and he did not look particularly sharp in any of his three rehab outings with the Isotopes.

With the way that rookie Chase Dollander has struggled this season, especially as of late, Feltner won’t be blocked if he proves he’s ready to return to the majors. At the same time, the 20-67 Rockies have little incentive to rush him back before then. Hopefully for Felter, a few more outings at Triple-A are all he needs to rein in his control and get back to being the pitcher he was before his injury.

As for Hilliard, he has the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency, but not without sacrificing the remainder of his guaranteed salary for 2025. Thus, it seems likely he will accept the assignment, just as he did the last time the Rockies DFA’d and outrighted him this season. Presumably, he will return to Albuquerque and continue to serve as speedy, lefty-batting outfield depth for the organization.
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Source: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025...ner-from-60-day-il-outright-sam-hilliard.html
 
Rockies Option Chase Dollander

The Rockies announced today that they have optioned right-hander Chase Dollander to Triple-A Albuquerque. Fellow righty Bradley Blalock has been recalled from Albuquerque as the corresponding move.

Dollander, 23, was called up to the majors in the first week of April. The ninth overall pick of the 2023 draft, he tore through the minors last year, posting a 2.59 earned run average, 33.9% strikeout rate and 9.4% walk rate in 118 innings. He was already a top prospect after being drafted but that performance shot him up even higher on the rankings. After just one Triple-A start this year, he was up in the show.

Thus far, he hasn’t been able to deliver on that prospect hype. Around a brief stint on the injured list due to forearm tightness, he now has 15 big league starts under his belt with a 6.68 ERA. His 16.8% strikeout rate and 10.7% walk rate are both subpar.

Not every prospect comes up to the majors and finds immediate success, so it’s not necessarily a concern that Dollander has struggled so far. On the other hand, Coors Field is a notoriously challenging venue to pitch in and that seems to be a factor here. Dollander has a 4.25 ERA on the road but a massive 9.37 mark in the mountains. His 20.3% strikeout rate on the road is much better than his 13.7% clip at Coors.

Getting major league hitters out is tough in any stadium but the Coors effect only heightens the challenge. Batted balls fly farther in the thin air but breaking pitches also move less, so there may be a steep learning curve as Dollander tries to make his stuff work at altitude.

Given his struggles, it’s not necessarily a shock to see the Rockies send him down. It’s also possible that the upcoming All-Star break will allow them to recall him fairly quickly without missing more than one or two turns through the rotation. With some upcoming off-days, the Rockies might just use a four-man rotation for a while, or perhaps give Blalock a spot start or two.

Though the decision is defensible, Dollander is likely to be personally impacted by the move. A baseball season is usually 186 days long but a player needs only 172 days of service to be credited with a full year of service time. Dollander was called up just ten days into the season, so he was on track to hit the one-year mark. That almost certainly won’t happen now as an optional assignment for a pitcher has a 15-day minimum.

The Rockies could technically recall Dollander in less than 15 days if someone else goes on the injured list, but barring that scenario, Dollander no longer has a path to one year of service. As a top prospect, he could also earn a full year by finishing in the top two of Rookie of the Year voting but it’s hard to fathom that possibility with his current stats.

Put it all together and Dollander’s path to free agency has almost certainly been pushed by a year. Had he stayed up, he would have been on track for free agency after 2030. It now appears that post-2031 will be the earliest he could hit the open market. His path to arbitration could also be impacted, depending on how long this optional assignment lasts.

Those are long-term questions which will be answered in time. In the shorter term, the focus will be on Dollander’s on-field abilities and figuring out how to reach his potential. The 2025 Rockies are one of the worst baseball teams of all time and there aren’t many reasons for long-term optimism either. If Dollander can start looking like a potential ace again, that would provide a glimmer of hope, but it’s not there right now.

Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
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Source: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/07/rockies-option-chase-dollander.html
 
Latest On Rockies’ Expected Deadline Approach

The Rockies dropped to 21-71 with today’s loss in Boston, putting them on a 37-win pace for the season. That’d have them four wins shy of last year’s White Sox, the worst team in modern history. The Rockies are obviously going to be deadline sellers, but the extent of that sale is complicated by the organization’s track record of holding onto players that any other team would have traded.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic writes that the Rox intend to be more willing to listen on veteran players than they have been at prior deadlines. He suggests they’ll seriously entertain interest in the likes of third baseman Ryan McMahon, reliever Jake Bird, and starter Germán Márquez. That broadly aligns with a report from Jon Heyman of The New York Post last week. Heyman reported that the Rockies are open to offers on McMahon, specifically, after they pulled him off the trade market early in 2024.

However, that increased willingness to deal veterans doesn’t mean the Rockies are completely open for business. Rosenthal writes that the team remains unlikely to trade young players whom they view as core pieces. He lists shortstop Ezequiel Tovar, center fielder Brenton Doyle, and rookie righty Chase Dollander in that group. Rosenthal more surprisingly adds relievers Seth Halvorsen and Zach Agnos, plus starter Ryan Feltner, as players who may fall in the latter category.

McMahon, Márquez and Bird are Colorado’s three most obvious trade chips. They all featured prominently on MLBTR’s initial list of the top 40 trade candidates last week. McMahon is a plus defensive third baseman with power and strikeout concerns. He had an abysmal April, raked in May, and has cooled back off since the beginning of June. He’s hitting just .210/.310/.373 on the season and has been a well below-average hitter (.207/.305/.350) over the past calendar year.

There’ll nevertheless be interest in McMahon, particularly given the scarcity of infield talent that may be available. The Yankees need to acquire a third baseman and have reportedly already checked in. The Cubs and Tigers are speculative possibilities. McMahon is playing on a $12MM salary in his age-30 season and will make $16MM annually between 2026-27.

Márquez is an impending free agent who is making $10MM. He was an above-average starter earlier in his career but hasn’t been as sharp since undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2023. He’s sitting on a 5.84 ERA with a subpar 15.3% strikeout rate over 18 starts. The 30-year-old righty is coming off his best month of the season, though, working to a 2.97 mark while striking out 21% of opponents in June. His fastball still sits around 95 MPH, so teams could view him as an upside play outside of Coors Field. He’s unlikely to be a qualifying offer candidate, so there’s little reason not to trade him.

Bird, 29, had quietly been one of the league’s best relievers until he was blown up by the Red Sox on Tuesday. That outing jumped his season ERA by nearly a full run, up from 2.79 to 3.70. Bird has fanned more than 27% of opposing hitters and has generally done well to keep runs off the board. He looked to be a fairly nondescript middle reliever entering the season. He’s under club control for three seasons beyond this one, but this is a breakout year for a reliever approaching his 30th birthday. The Rockies would be wise to cash him in this summer while his trade value is at its peak.

The Rockies have a few other veteran players, though they’d have little to no trade value. They’ll presumably hope to find a lottery ticket prospect for the likes of Thairo Estrada, Austin Gomber and Tyler Kinley. It’s not surprising they’re reluctant to move Tovar or Doyle, both of whom are struggling through down years but looked like potential cornerstones a season ago. Dollander has been hit hard in his debut campaign and was recently optioned back to Triple-A, but he’s a recent top 10 pick and the organization’s best hope of developing a front-line starter.

Feltner is a back-of-the-rotation starter who has missed most of this season rehabbing a back issue. He just returned from the injured list last week and has been limited to six starts. The Rox could get a notable return for Halvorsen, a fireballer who has gotten a look in the ninth inning. He’s only 25 and controllable for five more seasons. A team in Colorado’s position should arguably be willing to trade any reliever, but there’s more of a case for holding Haloversen than there would be with Bird. It’s tougher to see the logic in including Agnos as a potential building block. He’s a rookie reliever with a 5.19 ERA and 15 strikeouts in his first 26 career innings. Agnos, a former 10th-round pick, has good but not elite velocity and has never been a highly-regarded prospect despite excellent minor league numbers.
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Source: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/07/latest-on-rockies-expected-deadline-approach.html
 
Which Other Draft Picks Are Eligible To Be Traded Before Sunday?

The Rays made an “early” strike in deadline season yesterday, shipping off their Competitive Balance Round A selection (No. 37 overall) in Sunday’s draft to acquire righty Bryan Baker from the division-rival Orioles. Baker, 30, has had his two worst outings of the season in his final Orioles appearance and last night’s Rays debut — which came just hours after he was “shocked” to learn he was traded and boarded a last-minute flight to meet his new team in Boston — but carried a 2.58 ERA and 33.3% strikeout rate through July 5. He comes to the Rays with three additional seasons of club control, as well.

Following the trade, O’s general manager Mike Elias acknowledged that Thursday’s trade was “earlier than my comfort level” but that the timing of the draft and strength of the return pushed him to make a deal sooner than he’d have preferred (link via Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com). It’s feasible that other general managers/president of baseball operations feel similar pressure if presented with opportunities to add an extra pick over the next two-plus days.

As a refresher, Competitive Balance picks are the only picks in the annual amateur draft that are eligible to be traded. They can only be traded one time, meaning the pick the Orioles received for Baker — and the picks the Dodgers, Guardians and Red Sox received in trades of Gavin Lux, Josh Naylor and Quinn Priester, respectively — are now locked in place for those clubs. There are still a handful of selections that could be traded, however.

Here’s a rundown of the picks in Competitive Balance Rounds A and B. MLBTR has confirmed via industry sources that the picks held by the Dodgers, Yankees and Mets in Round A are ineligible to be traded, as they’re technically first-round picks that were dropped down into Competitive Balance Round A as penalty for exceeding the luxury tax by more than $40MM. Similarly, the picks held by the Rays and Brewers in Round B are ineligible to be traded due to the fact that they are compensation for failing to sign last year’s picks in Competitive Balance Round B. Picks that are eligible to be traded are in bold; those ineligible to be moved are in strikethrough font. The deadline to trade any of these eligible picks is 4pm ET on Sunday — two hours prior to the start of this year’s amateur draft.

Round A

  • No. 33 overall: Red Sox (acquired from Brewers in exchange for RHP Quinn Priester)
  • No. 34: Tigers
  • No. 35: Mariners
  • No. 36: Twins
  • No. 37: Orioles (acquired from Rays in exchange for RHP Bryan Baker)
  • No. 38: Mets
  • No. 39: Yankees
  • No. 40: Dodgers
  • No. 41: Dodgers (acquired from Reds in exchange for INF/OF Gavin Lux)
  • No. 42: Rays (acquired from A’s in exchange for LHPs Jeffrey Springs, Jacob Lopez)
  • No. 43: Marlins

Round B

  • No. 66 overall: Guardians
  • No. 67: Rays (compensation for unsigned pick in 2024)
  • No. 68: Brewers (compensation for unsigned pick in 2024)
  • No. 69: Orioles
  • No. 70: Guardians (acquired from D-backs in exchange for 1B Josh Naylor)
  • No. 71: Royals
  • No. 72: Cardinals
  • No. 73: Pirates
  • No. 74: Rockies

The Tigers are the only clear buyer with a pick that can be traded, and it’s a prominent one. The Mariners and Cardinals are only one game out of a Wild Card spot in their respective leagues. Seattle is expected to act as a buyer and has been on the hunt for corner infield bats and late-inning bullpen help. The Royals (3.5 games), Twins (4) and Guardians (5) are all within five games of a Wild Card spot.

Fans would largely welcome the advent of additional selections becoming eligible to be traded, but that’s not in the cards for now. MLBPA executive director Bruce Meyer joined Foul Territory earlier this week and told hosts Scott Braun, Erik Kratz and A.J. Pierzynski that the union is in favor of trading draft picks and has unsuccessfully raised the issue in past waves of collective bargaining (video link, draft pick talk coming around the one hour, 12-minute mark).

“This union has consistently been in favor of teams being able to trade draft picks,” said Meyer. “It would help competition. We think it would help small-market teams that have those valuable draft picks. They should have the flexibility to trade them if it’s in the best interest of the team. I think many teams would agree, but the league for whatever reason has, to date, been against allowing clubs the ability to trade Rule 4 [amateur] draft picks. We proposed it last time. It was rejected. I don’t want to commit to much for the next round of bargaining, but I feel pretty confident we’ll propose that again, because we think it’s actually beneficial to competitive balance.”

It should be noted that virtually any proposal in collective bargaining comes with some give and take. Meyer’s comments only portray one side of the discussion, and it’s not clear whether anything else was attached to that proposal. Regardless, it’s notable that the union’s lead negotiator has signaled a desire to again broach the subject of draft pick trades when the two sides return to the table to hammer out a new collective bargaining agreement.
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Source: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025...-are-eligible-to-be-traded-before-sunday.html
 
Rockies Place Thairo Estrada On IL With Thumb Sprain

The Rockies announced today that infielder Ezequiel Tovar has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list. In a corresponding move, fellow infielder Thairo Estrada goes the other way. He’s been placed on the 10-day IL due to a sprained left thumb, retroactive to July 11th.

It’s a notable development for Estrada and the Rockies, as he is one of the most obvious trade candidates this month. He’s a veteran playing for the worst team in the league, so all signs were pointing to him being on the block.

Unfortunately, his value was already low due to a previous injury. He signed a one-year, $3.25MM deal with the Rockies in the offseason but then broke his right wrist on a hit-by-pitch during spring training. Since he missed time in 2024 due to left wrist sprains, it was a less than ideal development for him.

He was reinstated from the IL at the end of May. Since then, he stepped to the plate 125 times with a .284/.312/.397 batting line. That looks okay at first glance but translates to an 83 wRC+ due to the favorable conditions of Coors Field.

Estrada had a strong three-run with the Giants from 2021 to 2023. He slashed .266/.320/.416 for a 105 wRC+ over those seasons, stealing 45 bases in the process. But he hit just .217/.247/.343 last year while battling those wrist issues. That got him bumped from the roster, which led to his deal with the Rockies.

If he had been able to bounce back to that 2021-23 form, he would have been an intriguing piece at this year’s deadline. Unfortunately, he’s now coming up on two years of being hurt and fairly ineffective. Given that the IL stint is backdated, he could come back in a week. But even in that best-case scenario, that doesn’t give him much time to change his trade value. He can be retained for 2026 via arbitration but is trending towards a non-tender.

Photo courtesy of Ron Chenoy, Imagn Images
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Source: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/07/rockies-place-thairo-estrada-on-il-with-thumb-sprain.html
 
Daniel Bard Retires

Veteran reliever Daniel Bard is ending his comeback bid and will retire, reports WEEI’s Rob Bradford. The 40-year-old Bard signed a minor league contract with the Mariners earlier this summer and had pitched well in a limited look with Seattle’s Triple-A affiliate in Tacoma, allowing two runs on six hits and a walk with nine punchouts in 5 2/3 innings.

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Originally a first-round pick by the Red Sox back in 2006, Bard made his big league debut in 2009 and quickly became a star reliever in Boston. In his first three seasons, the righty pitched 197 innings of 2.88 ERA ball and piled up 79 holds and five saves. Along the way, he fanned nearly 27% of his opponents. That’d be a strong mark even in today’s game, but at the time, the league-average strikeout rate sat around 18% (compared to this year’s 21.9%). Bard ranked 21st among all relievers in strikeout rate over that three-year period and, despite not debuting until mid-May in ’09, tallied the third-most holds in MLB from ’09-’11.

In 2012, the Red Sox tried moving Bard into the rotation, hoping some of that single-inning dominance would carry over to lengthier stretches. It didn’t pan out. Bard made ten starts and was hit hard, yielding a 5.30 ERA in 54 1/3 innings and showing some alarming command troubles. The lanky right-hander walked more hitters (36) than he struck out (34) and plunked eight batters. He was moved back into the bullpen later in the season.

Bard’s command struggles had actually begun in September of 2011. They continued in 2012 during that shift to the rotation, and reached a tipping point the following season. Bard pitched just one major league inning in 2013, plus another 15 1/3 frames in the minors — during which he walked one-third of the batters he faced and threw 11 wild pitches. Bard would eventually learn that he’d also been pitching with an undiagnosed case of thoracic outlet syndrome — he underwent surgery in 2014 — and he’s also been candid throughout his career about his ongoing battle with anxiety.

A series of minor league deals with the Rangers, Cubs, Pirates, Cardinals and Mets didn’t pan out, and by 2017 Bard had opted to call it a career and move onto the next phase of his baseball journey. He took a job with the D-backs, serving as a player mentor/mental skills coach who worked with young players throughout the organization. Bard held that position for a couple years but found that with some time off, his velocity, command and desire to pitch all returned. He worked out for clubs ahead of the 2020 season, signed a minor league deal with the Rockies and embarked on one of the more improbable comebacks in recent memory.

Bard was heading into his age-35 season and hadn’t pitched in the majors for seven years when he went to camp with the Rockies. He wound up not only earning a spot on the roster in the shortened 2020 season — he was named National League Comeback Player of the Year. Bard pitched 24 2/3 innings with the Rockies that season and logged a 3.65 ERA with a 25.5% strikeout rate, 9.4% walk rate, six saves and two holds. His fastball, which had sat 93-94 in 2012-13 while he was unknowingly pitching with thoracic outlet syndrome, averaged a hearty 97.3 mph.

Bard had a tough 2021 season but was brilliant in 2022 when he saved 34 games and pitched to a 1.79 earned run average. The Rockies signed him to a two-year, $19MM extension that summer rather than ship him out when he would’ve been one of the most popular rental arms on the trade market. That contract didn’t work out, as Bard struggled again in 2023 and missed the 2024 season recovering from a pair of surgeries: one to repair a torn meniscus and another to repair a torn flexor tendon. He’d hoped to make one final run in the majors, but he’ll now wrap up one of the more interesting career arcs this generation of baseball has seen.

All told, Bard pitched in parts of five seasons with the Red Sox and four with the Rockies — plus minor league appearances with the Rangers, Cardinals and Mets. He pitched 457 1/3 big league innings, saved 66 games, tallied 91 holds and recorded a 3.74 ERA. Bard set down just over 24% of the hitters he faced on strikes over the course of his career, and he earned more than $31MM in salary, thanks largely to that late-career extension in Colorado.

Bard has already taken one non-playing job with the Diamondbacks. It stands to reason that plenty of clubs would welcome someone with Bard’s background to their organization, be it in a coaching role, a player development role or a baseball operations role — should he choose to again look for new opportunities to stay involved in the game.
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Source: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/07/daniel-bard-retirement.html
 
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