The Rockies have optioned starting pitcher Jon Gray to Triple-A Albuquerque and have called up outfielder Raimel Tapia, the team announced Saturday.
While optioning Gray is a little bit of a shock, it really shouldn’t be too surprising. He’s simply not right. Gray’s striking out as many batters as ever, but again and again in 2018 he’s let innings, and ultimately games, get away from him. Usually it’s with a couple walks and a minor barrage of hits. He’s been extremely hittable when he’s not striking guys out. I haven’t done the research, but his over 11 strikeouts per nine innings, 5.77 ERA, and 3.07 FIP sounds like a marvel of modern baseball that’s rare, if not unprecedented. Let’s hope he gets right and comes back to the rotation soon.
Raimel Tapia will see the majors for the first time in 2018. The lefty outfielder hit .288/.329/.425 in 171 plate appearances in 2017. His season in Triple-A thus far has been his run-of-the-mill stat line in Triple-A: .308/.353/.527. Like Gray, Tapia comes with a lot of questions as well. The salient one is whether or not he can consistently translate his minor-league hitting prowess to the majors. Tapia will be in Los Angels tonight, but he’s not starting.
Of all the things I thought would happen in 2018, this transaction was certainly not one of them. But that’s baseball, I guess.