Rockies activate Chacin, Helton, send down Chatwood, Wheeler

The Colorado Rockies, in a move many expected today, have activated 1B Todd Helton and RHP Jhoulys Chacin from the disabled list today according to Thomas Harding's tweet.

The return of Chacin could really help a rotation that has felt a bit over-matched at times. His presence on the mound will also certainly be a welcome sight to the bullpen who has been excellent lately, but has also taken on a heavy workload. Chacin is the only Rockies pitcher to throw 100 pitches this season (or maybe during the Obama administration) but (of course) his 100th landed him on the DL. Still, he is arguably the Rockies best pitcher, which makes him incredibly valuable to this team, and we certainly hope his DL stints are over for a while.

The Toddfather returns to a lineup that is already mashing but can always use his keen eye, patience, and veteran baseball savvy. Helton seemed to be finding his rhythm just before the injury so hopefully his short time off hasn't thrown that off and he can get back to having a swan song year worthy of a great player.

In order to make space for Helton and Chacin, the Rockies have sent INF Ryan Wheeler and RHP Tyler Chatwood back down the AAA Colorado Springs. We knew when Wheeler was called up that it was probably temporary and he would likely be sent down when the team returned to full health. The Chatwood move is perhaps the most interesting piece in this whole puzzle. Tyler had pitched pretty well, and then very well, for the big league club around some pretty shaky starts from guys like Jeff Francis and Juan Nicasio.

Pessimist's corner (Chatwood):

The Rockies should have made room for Tyler Chatwood to continue to develop at the major league level while he is pitching well and winning. This move weakens an already shaky rotation and Jeff Francis may just be done. Many here in the comments section at Purple Row seem to think that some time down in AAA for Nicasio might serve well as a tune-up since he has been having command and confidence issues lately. This makes sense, with how many young developing pitchers the Rockies have they should just be putting guys in a position to succeed.

Optimist's corner:

Chatwood got some great development time at the big league level. No reason to give it a chance to turn ugly. Let him return to AAA hopefully with a ton of confidence so he can work on the more subtle nuances of pitching, having only experienced relative success in MLB this year. I know he spent some time up with the Angels, but this stint was definitely a more realistic indication of what Tyler hopes to be as a pitcher and he can learn from this experiences and test his theories on lesser opponents. He will almost certainly be back, especially if the guys I mentioned before continue to struggle, and definitely if there are any injuries.

All in all this is good news. The team is more healthy and has more depth.

Go Rockies.