The Rockies pitched left-handed Jose Quintana on the 15-day injured list with a sprained elbow, according to a team announcement. They miss Lefty Welinton Herrera from Triple-A Albuqerque in a related move.
Quintana’s layup for IL comes after a short and rough start in Arizona on Sunday. In what turned out to be a 9-1 loss, Quintana gave up six earned runs over 1 1/3 innings. He will now miss at least two weeks, but elbow injuries usually lead to longer absences. Quintana, 37, has been in the IL seven times during his career, including once this season due to a pulled hamstring, but the elbow problem had never shut him down until the issue ended.
Since making his White Sox debut in 2012, Quintana has put together a stellar career as a member of nine different clubs. He owns a 3.79 lifetime ERA over 392 appearances and 366 starts, and earned an All-Star nod with the White Sox back in 2016.
The mobile Quintana signed a much-needed one-year, $6MM deal with the Rockies last February, but struggled to a 5.27 ERA over nine starts and 41 innings. Although his 9.4% walk rate is right around the league, Quintana ranks second last in strikeout percentage (11.0) among pitchers who have thrown at least 40 frames. He also posted a low ground ball rate of 34.3%, which is easily a career low. It would be unfair to attribute Quintana’s problems to Coors Field, as his road ERA (6.75) is worse than the 4.03 mark he logged at home. According to Quintana, the worst damage came at the hands of the Diamondbacks on Sunday.
At 20-34, the Rockies are tied with the Angels for the worst record in the majors. Their 4.98 ERA, second-highest in the league, was an obvious culprit. Now they have seen the first three ways – Quintana, Ryan Feltner again Chase the Dollar – went down with an injury last month. Feltner posted a bloated 6.30 ERA in five innings and 20 innings before ulnar nerve inflammation sidelined him in late April, while Dollander has been legitimately dominant.. While Dollander worked after the opener and made just three starts in 10 appearances, the 24-year-old had a 3.89 ERA in 44 frames before an elbow forced him to the IL on May 15.
Quintana was penciled in to start his next game on Saturday against the Giants. The shortstop Rockies will now need to find someone to join them Tomoyuki Sugano, Michael Lorenzen, Kyle Freeland again Tanner Gordon in their rotation.
Herrera, in his first chance in the big leagues, has worked only in relief since the Rockies signed him to the Dominican Republic in January 2021. To protect themselves from losing Herrera in the Rule 5 Draft last winter, the Rockies added him to their 40-man roster. The 22-year-old got his first taste of Triple-A action this season and registered a 5.16 ERA with high strikeout (31.8), walk (13.1) and ground-ball (50.9) percentages. MLB.com ranks Herrera as the 14th best prospect in the Rockies’ lineup, noting that he could turn into a “high-leverage reliever” in the bigs if his slider develops as a strong complement to a fastball capable of reaching 99 mph.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images.
