The Rockies have designated utilityman Alan Trejo for task, per a crew announcement. His spot on the roster will go to fellow infielder Aaron Schunk, whose contract has been chosen from Triple-A Albuquerque. Colorado additionally recalled right-hander Riley Pint from Triple-A. The crew had a vacant spot on the lively roster after putting reliever Jake Fowl on the injured listing Thursday.
Trejo, 28, has performed in elements of the previous 4 seasons with the Rockies, however by no means supplied a lot offense exterior a 35-game displaying in 2022, when his .271/.312/.424 line clocked in simply barely beneath league common. He’s a profession .228/.276/.324 hitter, and the 2024 marketing campaign has been a selected wrestle — evidenced by a grim .143/.182/.143 batting line in 67 journeys to the plate.
Trejo has by no means been on the roster for his bat, nevertheless. He’s a flexible infielder who can deal with each place to the left of first base. He’s drawn significantly robust rankings at second base and third base. He doesn’t run significantly properly, however Trejo has proven strong vary and positive arms at a number of infield positions.
As a result of Trejo has exhausted all three of his minor league possibility years, the Rockies needed to designate him for task reasonably than merely possibility him to Albuquerque. They’ll commerce him or place him on outright waivers inside the subsequent 5 days (and waivers themselves could be one other two days if he’s finally positioned).
Schunk, 27 subsequent month, was the Rockies’ second-round decide again in 2019. The previous Georgia Bulldog ranked among the many group’s 12 finest prospects every year from 2020-22, per Baseball America, however an unpleasant 2021 season in Excessive-A adopted by a yr of pedestrian offensive output at Double-A in 2022 precipitated him to fall down the system’s rankings. He hit .290/.350/.461 in Triple-A final season and is at a really related .291/.339/.469 this yr whereas repeating the extent — this time with a far 17.7 % strikeout charge that’s far decrease than final yr’s 24% mark. That stated, whereas Schunk’s charge stats look robust, his total offensive manufacturing is about seven % worse than league-average within the supercharged offensive setting of the Pacific Coast League.
Like Trejo, Schunk is a utility infield possibility who bats from the appropriate facet of the plate and is finest fitted to work at third base and second base (although he’s performed sparingly at shortstop and first base as properly). At his finest, he ranked fifth in Colorado’s system, per BA, drawing reward for a plus arm, above-average contact expertise and common energy. The Rox will presumably hope that Schunk can fill the identical bench function Trejo held however achieve this with some extra offensive contributions.
