Welcome to the 2019 edition of Ranking the Rockies, where we take a look back every player to log playing time for the Rockies in 2019. The purpose of this list is to provide a snapshot of the player in context. The “Ranking” is an organizing principle that’s drawn from Baseball Reference’s WAR (rWAR). It’s not something the staff debated. We’ll begin with the player with the lowest rWAR and end up with the player with the highest.
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No. 36, Wes Parsons (-0.3 rWAR)
Let’s start this one with a haiku:
Wes Parsons – who now?
Selected off waivers, Braves
Nineteen innings pitched
While he got more playing time than a lot of other pitchers on this list, that pretty well sums it up for Parsons in 2019. The Braves designated the 26-year-old for assignment in August, and the Rockies claimed him and made room for him on the active roster by moving Scott Oberg to the 60-day IL.
He may be more than an injury replacement though. According to Rockies Roster, Parsons has two options remaining. While there will be a 40-man crunch coming soon after the World Series, Parsons has a chance of surviving it and remaining as bullpen depth for 2020.
The argument against that is the fact that he did not pitch well in those 19 innings for the Rockies, posting a 6.98 ERA and walking over 7 batters per nine innings. That lack of control simply won’t play in the majors. It was likely one of the reasons the Braves decided they could do without him, as Parsons also posted a walk rate over 7 in his 15 innings for the Atlanta in 2019.
That’s who Wes Parsons is. If he remains on the roster and doesn’t find control of his pitches, he won’t make it to 19 innings pitched in 2020, and may find himself DFA’d again.