{"id":629476,"date":"2026-03-18T05:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T05:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/629476\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T05:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T05:08:15","slug":"rockies-notes-rotation-gordon-amador","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/629476\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockies Notes: Rotation, Gordon, Amador"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Rockies made a pair of camp cuts on Tuesday, optioning right-hander\u00a0Tanner Gordon<\/a> and second baseman Adael Amador<\/a>. Both players will open the season in Triple-A Albuquerque.<\/p>\n

Gordon made 15 starts a year ago, holding a rotation spot throughout the second half. The 28-year-old righty allowed a 6.33 ERA with a modest 18.4% strikeout rate. Gordon pitched well this spring, striking out 12 against two walks across 11 innings. He only surrendered eight hits and two runs. It wasn\u2019t enough to overcome last year\u2019s regular season production to hold a spot in a revamped Colorado rotation.<\/p>\n

The Rockies signed\u00a0Michael Lorenzen<\/a>,\u00a0Jose Quintana<\/a> and\u00a0Tomoyuki Sugano<\/a> to one-year deals. They\u2019ll all hold rotation spots behind\u00a0Kyle Freeland<\/a>, whom the Rox have tabbed as their Opening Day starter for a third straight season (and franchise-record fifth overall). That leaves one spot in the season-opening staff up for grabs.<\/p>\n

Thomas Harding of MLB.com<\/a> writes that the Rockies still haven\u2019t decided whether they\u2019ll go with\u00a0Ryan Feltner<\/a> or\u00a0Chase Dollander<\/a>. Feltner is the more experienced pitcher and made 30 starts with a 4.49 ERA and league average peripherals back in 2024. He was limited to six MLB appearances last year by injury, most notably back spasms.<\/p>\n

Dollander is coming off a frustrating rookie season, allowing a 6.52 ERA across his first 21 starts. He pitched fairly well on the road (3.46 ERA with a 22.2% strikeout rate in 52 innings) but was destroyed for 55 runs over 46 frames at Coors Field. The 24-year-old Dollander is a former top 10 overall pick who is one of the most important players with the organization in a complete rebuild.<\/p>\n

Neither pitcher has done much to impress this spring. Dollander has walked seven and hit three batters in 14 innings. He has given up 11 runs (1o earned) on 18 hits with 10 strikeouts. Feltner has been rocked for 13 runs with 10 walks in 11 2\/3 frames. Gordon handily outperformed both of them in camp, but he\u2019s a lower-ceiling pitcher whom the front office evidently wasn\u2019t seriously considering for a spot on the Opening Day roster.<\/p>\n

The Rockies are expected to keep\u00a0Antonio Senzatela<\/a> in a long relief role. Dollander and Feltner both have minor league options. Whomever doesn\u2019t win the fifth starter job will probably begin the season alongside Gordon in the Albuquerque rotation. Gabriel Hughes<\/a> and\u00a0McCade Brown<\/a> are the other depth starters on the 40-man roster. They were both optioned out in early March.<\/p>\n

As for Amador, it\u2019s moderately disappointing that he didn\u2019t win a roster spot. The switch-hitting infielder has been one of the team\u2019s more well-known prospects for a few seasons. Amador hasn\u2019t hit at all in 51 MLB games over the past two years, batting .176\/.242\/.250 through 164 plate appearances.<\/p>\n

His Spring Training production (.229\/.270\/.429 with two homers in 12 games) wasn\u2019t good. Amador is coming off a strong .303\/.405\/.478 season with more walks than strikeouts in Triple-A, though that comes with the caveat of Albuquerque\u2019s very hitter-friendly environment. Colorado acquired\u00a0Edouard Julien<\/a> from the Twins and signed utilityman Willi Castro<\/a> to a two-year free agent deal to factor in at second base. They can each move to a corner infield spot (first and third base, respectively) if the Rockies decide to take another look at Amador midseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rockies made a pair of camp cuts on Tuesday, optioning right-hander\u00a0Tanner Gordon and second baseman Adael Amador.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2405],"tags":[6604,5,717,167,52,4316,4,168,1945,7169],"class_list":["post-629476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-colorado-rockies","tag-adael-amador","tag-baseball","tag-chase-dollander","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-rockies","tag-coloradorockies","tag-mlb","tag-rockies","tag-ryan-feltner","tag-tanner-gordon"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116248452269702245","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}