One of the top prospects in baseball is set to make his major league debut for the Colorado Rockies on Sunday afternoon in Denver.
Chase Dollander is scheduled to take the mound for the Rockies in the finale of a three-game series against the Athletics.
The 23-year-old right-hander was the ninth overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft out of Tennessee. Dollander had 169 strikeouts in 118 innings last season between High Class-A and Double-A.
After giving up 16 runs over 17 2/3 innings during spring training, Dollander made one start for Triple-A Albuquerque this season and struck out five over four innings last Sunday.
“He’s got a good, live arm,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “We saw him in spring training. I liked the stuff. It’s real stuff. It’s a good fastball with velocity. He can spin the ball and has a little bit of feel for a change. I’m looking forward to watching this unfold, watching his career. I like watching young players. I like trying to help young players.”
Dollander is ranked as the No. 7 overall prospect in MLB by Baseball America. The last Rockies pitcher to appear on Baseball America’s top 100 prospects list was Jon Gray from 2014-16.
Black said Dollander will remain in the rotation.
“He does a lot of things right for a young player,” Black said. “Long term, he is going to be a really good pitcher. I am looking forward to Sunday.”
The Rockies will try to end a six-game losing streak that has them off to their worst start (1-7) since 2005.
The A’s won the series opener 6-3 on Friday night and faced an early 3-0 deficit Saturday and had a triple play turned against them before rallying for a 7-4 win.
The Rockies went 1-for-15 with runners in scoring position on Friday and 1-for-8 on Saturday.
“For an offense to go day-in and day-out, you need five or six guys swinging the bat well in your lineup that night,” Black said. “Right now, we’ve only got a couple.”
The Athletics plan to send right-hander Joey Estes to the mound for the series finale.
Estes (0-1, 13.50 ERA) was rocked for six runs and nine hits in four innings of his season debut on Monday, an 18-3 loss to the Chicago Cubs. He gave up three homers and walked four batters.
His fastball averaged about 2 mph slower than last season.
“It’s a concern a little bit,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “First night out on the mound for him, he didn’t have command. The sweeper wasn’t there. No secondary. Had to rely on basically the fastball, which he couldn’t command.”
Estes made his only start against the Rockies last May 23 in Oakland and gave up four runs over seven innings in a 10-9 win by the A’s in 11 innings.
Lawrence Butler is 5-for-9 with a run scored in the leadoff spot for the Athletics through the first two games of the series, and Tyler Soderstrom is 4-for-9 with two runs.
–Field Level Media
