{"id":670429,"date":"2026-04-08T15:08:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T15:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/670429\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T15:08:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T15:08:19","slug":"rockies-may-have-no-choice-other-than-to-demote-promising-outfielder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/670429\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockies may have no choice other than to demote promising outfielder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5i\">This Colorado outfielder, often touted as a potential five-tool player, has struggled to live up to his &#8220;breakout candidate&#8221; label, as the Rockies search for any bright spots this season.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5l\">Jordan Beck was initially slated as the starting right fielder, following the team&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/roxpile.com\/coors-field-conundrum-jake-mccarthy-s-speed-makes-lineup-choices-a-tough-call-rockies\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">acquisition of Jake McCarthy in the offseason<\/a>, aiming to address the challenges posed by Coors Field&#8217;s expansive dimensions.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5o\">Despite a challenging start, the club remains optimistic about the outfielder&#8217;s performance in 2026. In his first eight games, he&#8217;s hitting .080 (2-for-25) with one double and four RBIs. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5r\">A concerning trend is his six strikeouts, mirroring last season&#8217;s high strikeout rate of 29.6%.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5u\">Beck&#8217;s 2025 performance fueled optimistic belief that he could become a five-tool player. He appeared in a team-high 148 games, recording 16 home runs, 19 stolen bases, and 12 outfield assists. While he&#8217;s been using the\u00a0Trajekt\u00a0Arc machine to improve his swing and plate discipline, the results haven&#8217;t materialized yet.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5x\">Colorado&#8217;s outfield, excluding Troy Johnston and Mickey\u00a0Moniak, is experiencing difficulties. Jake McCarthy is currently hitting .120, while Brenton Doyle is hitting .129.\u00a0It&#8217;s impressive that Colorado is achieving this level of success so early, especially given the relatively low level of production from the players. This is a very positive sign.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"60\">Manager Warren Schaeffer has been utilizing a &#8220;hot hand&#8221; approach, giving Johnston starts in the outfield and at first base. This has resulted in Beck only playing in two of the last four games. This strategy could negatively impact Beck&#8217;s confidence, so sending him to Triple-A to work on his swing without performance pressure might be beneficial now.<\/p>\n<p>The question is whether the Rockies will let him work things out at the big league level or send him to Albuquerque to get things in order.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"66\">This would raise questions about whether Charlie Condon, who missed a couple of games after having a cyst removed, would be ready for the big leagues, or if a Cole\u00a0Carrigg\u00a0call-up would be more appropriate.\u00a0Colorado has several options beyond those players, including utility player Ryan Ritter, Blake\u00a0Crim,\u00a0Sterlin\u00a0Thompson, and Zac Veen, depending on their readiness.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"69\">This holds true even for Doyle and McCarthy; something needs to change, as their current performance is not reliable, especially for the\u00a0initial starting outfield core.\u00a0The trio has combined for 9 hits in 81 at-bats, with 5 RBIs and 6 stolen bases, resulting in a .111 batting average.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6c\">While it&#8217;s still too early to give up on these players, especially given their defensive pedigree and tools, changes might be necessary soon, as that level of production is unsustainable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This Colorado outfielder, often touted as a potential five-tool player, has struggled to live up to his &#8220;breakout&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2405],"tags":[5,167,52,4316,4,168],"class_list":{"0":"post-670429","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-colorado-rockies","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-colorado","10":"tag-colorado-rockies","11":"tag-coloradorockies","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-rockies"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116369719656094661","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670429","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=670429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}