After a rash of pitching injuries contributed to last year’s 103-loss season, the Rockies have their first significant health issue on the mound in 2024.
Colorado placed Kyle Freeland on the 15-day injured list on Friday with a left elbow strain, a move retroactive to April 16.
“Relatively speaking, with the results of his scan and the doctor’s report, he’s going to be OK,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “… We’re hoping in anywhere from a month to six weeks that he’ll be back on the mound for us.”
In four starts this season, Freeland is 0-3 with a 13.21 ERA. In his last start on Sunday, the Thomas Jefferson High School product allowed four runs on seven hits in five innings in a 5-0 loss in Toronto.
Freeland said he felt discomfort in his elbow late in that start, and started receiving treatment during Colorado’s series in Philadelphia. He tried to test the elbow by throwing on Wednesday, and his elbow was still in pain. Imaging followed on Thursday.
“It came on gradually throughout the fifth inning (in Toronto),” Freeland said. “That’s when I started getting some uncomfortableness in my forearm, but nothing that raised a huge flag for me. I’ve been sore in starts before, later in games, but I didn’t know it was going to be what it is right now.”
Freeland later separated his right shoulder pinch-running in a 2-1 loss to Philadelphia the next day when Phillies right-hander Jeff Hoffman landed on him in a play at the plate in the ninth inning. Friday’s IL designation is unrelated to that play, according to the club.
The southpaw will be shut down now for an undetermined period of time, and he said he expects to need to make rehab starts in Triple-A prior to re-joining the Rockies. He believes his UCL is okay, although he has not yet gone over the scans of his elbow with Rockies medical director Dr. Thomas J. Noonan.
This past offseason, Freeland put an emphasis on upping his fastball velocity, which increased from an 88.8 mph average last year to 92.0 mph this season.
“I dipped into a couple (throwing) programs — some of my own stuff, some stuff I’ve spoken to with our trainers and strength coaches about, and some stuff with (trainers) outside of our clubhouse,” Freeland said. “That was all stuff to strengthen my arm and get it to where I wanted it to be, and we got it there.
“I do not know if that’s any correlation to my injury. I really hope not because I enjoyed that work process, I thought it was very good for me and it put me in a good spot through the start of spring training with my velocity where I wanted to see it.”
The injury is the latest blow to a club that’s reeling through the first month of the season and is off to a franchise-worst 4-15 start. Freeland’s played a role in that awful start, as he didn’t make it through the fourth inning in either of his first two starts.
On opening day in Arizona, he was shelled for 10 runs in two-plus innings in a historic 16-1 loss, then the Cubs got nine runs off him (seven earned) in his next outing in Chicago.
In a corresponding move on Friday, the Rockies recalled right-hander Noah Davis from Triple-A.
Davis will take over a long reliever role in the bullpen. Davis is 0-4 with a 9.00 ERA in nine games (six starts) in his big-league career, and spent the first month of this season with the Isotopes. In Triple-A this year, he has a 6.62 ERA across four starts.
“There’s been a little bit of marked improvement to Noah (since debuting in the final game of 2022) in understanding how he gets his outs, and what he needs to do to really solidify himself as a major league pitcher,” Black said. “There’s been some bumps and bruises for Noah, but he’s really starting to figure some things out about his stuff and how it plays in the major leagues.”
Dakota Hudson will now start Saturday’s game, while Cal Quantrill is still going on Sunday at 1:10 p.m. and then Peter Lambert will make his first start of 2024 in Sunday’s nightcap at 6:10 p.m. That game is the make-up game for Friday’s series opener that was postponed due to inclement weather.
Black said Lambert will be slightly limited in his innings until he builds his pitch count back up. In six relief appearances this year, the right-hander has a 2.31 ERA and 1.46 WHIP.
“In spring training, we got him up to 75, 80 pitches, and you lose a little bit of stamina as each week goes on,” Black said. “But he’s still pretty built up.”
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