Prior to Tuesday’s home game against the Seattle Mariners, the Colorado Rockies recalled right-handed relief pitcher Carlos Estevez from the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes to replace pitcher Adam Ottavino, who was placed on the 10-day disabled list with right shoulder inflammation.
“We talk to our guys all the time about how they’re doing, and we’ve known that Adam has been feeling good enough to pitch, but maybe not quite right,” manager Bud Black said. “The public doesn’t really know a lot about what goes on behind the scenes, which is how it should be about players and about the team.
“We talk about players being 100 percent; that’s rare in all sports once the season begins, there’s aches and pains. But in this case, we got to the point with Adam where we felt, ‘Let’s get this on the true onset of the inflammation and how he’s feeling as opposed to trying to get him to fight through this and try to get him extra rest.”
As for Estevez, he’s happy to be back in the big leagues after being sent down a few weeks ago to accommodate for a different player returning from injury. With a few weeks of Triple-A ball under his belt this season, he said he’s feeling great about where his game is.
“It feels good. You know the pretty good team we have right now, it feels pretty good to be a part of it. It feels good to be here again,” Estevez said. “[My command] is really good. I’ve been working on my command down there, my mechanics down in Triple-A, and I feel pretty good about it.”
Before being optioned a few weeks ago, Estevez pitched 12.3 innings for the Rockies, amassing a 7.30 ERA with 13 strikeouts. With the Isotopes, he’s been feeling good rhythm lately, and he’s ready to unleash that power in the majors once again.
“It’s just getting more time before releasing the baseball,” Estevez said. “I feel like it’s slowing down a little bit, but I feel good. It wasn’t a big change, which is good.”
Although he’s coming back to a first-place Rockies team right now, he said that’s not really a new feeling for him given how well the Isotopes are playing down in Albuquerque.
“The team is really good down there too,” he said. “We’re in first place down there too, and it’s kind of the same here. We get in close games and we eventually hit a lot. I was feeling really good about my pitching down there.”
Black said that, given the situation with Ottavino’s health, he’s happy with where his relievers are and feels comfortable integrating Estevez back into the mix.
“We feel good about our bullpen, we feel good about our depth, we’ve talked about that a lot,” Black said. “I think this is the right thing to do with Adam, let him take a step back and rest, get treatment, and get through these 10 days, two weeks without him and the other guys will pick up the slack.”
