The Colorado Rockies have optioned outfielder Raimel Tapia to Triple-A Albuquerque. This comes despite the club’s recent offensive struggles and the fact that Tapia hit .314 with the big club, and .364 since being inserted into the starting lineup on June 10. He was getting on base at a .411 clip and slugging .557 over that span. He also showed that he needs improvement in left field defensively, and running the bases.

The move comes not long after Gerardo Parra and Ian Desmond returned from injuries, though the corresponding move was the return of Antonio Senzatela, who will pitch Tuesday night.

This move may seem hard to justify and could ultimately be proven the wrong one. But it was also, in many ways, the only thing Colorado could do right now.

Parra has earned his playing time with an excellent performance at the plate and far steadier defense than Tapia that still comes with the occasional web gem. Desmond hasn’t been quite as good as the Rockies had hoped, but whatever one may think of his play thus far into a five-year, $70 million contract, he’s going to be out there when healthy. His resume suggests a second-half breakout, as does his hard contact percentage, and the pragmatics involved in removing him from the roster would require him to be playing far worse than he is. For what it’s worth, the Rockies are confident in Desmond’s ability to contribute, specifically citing him missing almost all of spring training for  a slow start.

This move also gives insight into how the Rockies feel about their roster heading into the July 31 trade deadline. If they truly felt they were in desperate need of a quality bat, they wouldn’t be optioning Tapia.

So now, the real question now becomes: How long can the organization hold out hope that Carlos Gonzalez will rebound to some degree – to any degree — at the expense of a kid so talented? To be fair, it isn’t entirely at Tapia’s expense. The outfielder could use everyday at-bats, and even with CarGo out of the starting lineup, there still isn’t room for him to do that. As with the young pitching staff, the Rockies want Tapia at his best and in rhythm at the end of the season, and getting him there means not letting him get rusty on the bench.

If he takes it well and uses this as an opportunity to refine his game, Tapia could and should be fine. He’s never been short on confidence. And this could all sort itself out in a manner of weeks via a plethora of potential roster shuffling scenarios. A trade, an injury, or even a DFA could have Tapia back before you know it.

But will the MLB club be fine?

Another wrinkle to this is that the Rockies have handcuffed themselves with their dedication to the eight-man bullpen which also means a four-man bench. It’s mostly worked so far but now that it appears CarGo’s .214 batting average and Alexi Amarista‘s .250 (career .231) mark are taking up half the spots, it’s going to become a deeper problem. Throw in that the Rockies are getting almost no offensive production from the catcher spot and on any given day one of those guys must be on the bench and you are left with Pat Valaika, who has been excellent but shouldn’t be saddled with being the only pinch-hitter Bud Black can call upon with confidence.

The offense has unquestionably looked better with Parra a part of it. But the window closes tighter each day on Gonzalez, and the same should be said of Amarista. The latter has served his role well but both players remain on the roster only because of sound defense, veteran knowledge and their contracts. Also, neither can be removed from the 25-man roster without the risk of losing them forever, whereas Tapia can be optioned back and forth on a whim.

But Colorado has a bench with three spots that feel empty right now, and three players in Triple-A who have all-star caliber offensive talent. You can do that in July. And maybe a little bit into August, depending on how July goes. The current lighter stretch in the schedule certainly helps.

If the Rockies get back to their winning ways, they can ride that out for a little while. But at some point, if those guys don’t turn it around and the offense goes back into a slump, keeping Tapia off the MLB roster will become even harder to justify.