Colorado Rockies making changes to their rotation and the end of an era

With last night and today’s games, the Rockies rotation will have closed the book on one era and opened the book on a new one.

Jorge De La Rosa likely making his final Rockies start against Cardinals | Denver Post

Prior to last night’s game, Walt Weiss shared that it would likely be the final start of one of the most successful pitching careers in Rockies history. While never possessing the peaks of Ubaldo Jimenez’s career with the Rockies, Jorge De La Rosa’s combination of longevity and success has been matched by only one other pitcher in Rockies history, Aaron Cook.

Weiss also revealed that the Rockies would be going back to a five-man rotation to end the season. With German Marquez replacing Jeff Hoffman and De La Rosa dropping out of the rotation, the rotation appears to be Marquez, Tyler Chatwood, Jon Gray, Chad Bettis and Tyler Anderson to close out the season.

Rox rotation should follow De La Rosa's lead | Rockies.com

Tracy Ringolsby does a good job recapping De La Rosa’s journey with the Rockies. While his struggles this year make it easy to forget, Jorge was this team’s ace during some really bad years. While many other veteran pitchers seemed to struggle and do whatever they could to avoid pitching in Colorado, De La Rosa stayed and dominated the opposition at Coors.

German Marquez’s first major-league start provides peek into Rockies’ future | Denver Post

German Marquez is making his first start with the Rockies. While it’s not his debut because of some work out of the pen, it’s just as exciting as one. With Jeff Hoffman’s innings limit being reached, the Rockies choose to give Marquez some starts rather than continue to have De La Rosa start over the next two weeks and I couldn’t be happier.

While Hoffman has been the premier pitching prospect in the Rockies system since Jon Gray’s promotion, Marquez isn’t far behind. Acquired from the Rays in the Corey Dickerson trade, Marquez has been everything that the Rockies could have hoped for as he dominated Double-A this season. If Marquez can show some potential to end the season, the Rockies could have some interesting decisions to make next spring. Unlike Gray and Hoffman who had to debut under strict workload restrictions, Marquez doesn’t have the same concerns because of his extended time in the minors as a former DSL prospect.