DENVER—The Colorado Rockies made room for ace Ubaldo Jimenez’s return from the 15-day disabled list Tuesday by sending third baseman Ian Stewart to Triple-A Colorado Springs.
Jimenez missed two starts with a cracked cuticle on his pitching thumb which prevented him from properly gripping the ball in the season opener, a poor outing against Arizona.
Stewart was mired in a 2-for-26 skid with two walks and 11 strikeouts in 12 games. He missed much of spring training with various injuries and ailments.
“He hasn’t been right,” said Rockies manager Jim Tracy, who figured the only way to get Stewart going was to get him a lot of at-bats, and the only place to do that was in the minors.
“I think it’s the right thing to do because it’s completely evident that from the standpoint of his timing and the mechanics of his swing, he’s out of sync,” Tracy said. “And the only way that we’re going to get that back into sync is if he takes a bunch of at-bats, and a bunch of at-bats in a row.
“And unfortunately with what we have going on here right now, we’re not able to accommodate that,” Tracy said. “So, I wanted to make sure that when I talked to him last night that he understands the fact that it’s not a punishment. Don’t even look at (it) as a demotion. It’s really not.”
With Stewart getting sent out, just a dozen bench players were available for Tracy for Tuesday night’s game against the Giants with Jimenez on the mound.
Without Stewart taking up at-bats, however, Jose Lopez (.188) and Ty Wigginton (.200), both of whom were in the starting lineup, will get more chances to break out of their early-season hitting funks.
“If we can get both of those guys going, especially with where Todd Helton is right now, our offense has a chance to become very dramatic. Really good, as a matter of fact,” Tracy said. “So, right now we have to find playing time for these two guys to try to get one or both of them going.”
