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Colorado Rockies release highly drafted pitching prospect

April 26, 2017

DENVER – We aren’t at all sure why, and we’ve asked around a bit and not heard back from the club as of the publishing of this article, but the Colorado Rockies have released pitching prospect Alex Balog.

(This actually happened about a week ago but we’ve spent some time trying to figure out why and have come up with nothing that makes the move any clearer.)

Balog was taken in the competitive balance round (second round-ish) in the 2013 draft. That pedigree combined with his relatively decent results make this a somewhat surprising move.

Over 64.1 innings last year between High-A Modesto and Double-A Hartford, Balog posted a 4.20 ERA which isn’t world-beating but is still decent for a 23-year-old in his second professional season.

He also missed almost all of 2013 with a remarkably odd injury.

“He went in for a precautionary MRI to have something checked out and because of where it was his arm had to be pinned above his head,” Bob Apodaca told me in 2014. “Being in there so long, he came out sore and never felt completely right.”

This is the second young pitcher the Rockies have released early in 2017 with a strong argument that they didn’t really need to. This comes on the heels of the Miguel Castro DFA-and-trade. Either the Rockies are souring on these guys and their ability or something else is going on. Certainly, the two could be completely unrelated but both moves stand in stark contrast to Jeff Bridich’s philosophy of stockpiling assets and being reluctant to give up anyone with potential. It’s the reason Cristhian Adames is still on the roster.

Alex Balog wasn’t exactly knocking the world down. But he was also battling through injury, still very young, and the reports we heard and what we personally witnessed out of his big fastball make it hard to believe that the Rockies just gave up on the young man. We’ve heard rumors that Castro was let go because of attitude problems, but nothing along those lines for Balog, who admittedly isn’t quite as high profile. But the Rockies were once incredibly high on both players which makes the recent changes that much more perplexing.

The Rockies are getting so much right now out of Antonio Senzatela and Kyle Freeland that it might seem silly to argue that they are taking hits to their pitching depth, but to some degree they are. They team must just feel confident that they finally have enough pitching depth.