GLENDALE, Ariz. — Armed with more limp noodles on the mound than can be found on the menu at Macaroni Grill, the Rockies might be the only team in baseball with a deeper catching corps than pitching rotation.
Is that a formula to chase a playoff berth? Or lose 95 games?
When I inquired Tuesday if Colorado could depart spring-training camp with three catchers on the 25-man roster, the expectation was manager Walt Weiss would respond: No way, no how. Instead, Weiss strongly suggested catchers Nick Hundley, Michael McKenry and Wilin Rosario will all open the season with the big-league club.
Hundley and McKenry are valued for their ability to handle a pitching staff and their defensive prowess. Rosario figures to stick as Colorado tries to re-create the big-bopping magic of the Blake Street Bombers, as thunder and lightning is expected from the bats of Troy Tulowitzki, Carlos Gonzalez, Nolan Arenado and Corey Dickerson.
The Rockies, with former Harvard catcher Jeff Bridich now in charge as general manager, have finally gotten the bright idea that a catcher’s main job is to like, you know, catch the baseball.
But try as they might, the Rockies can’t quit you, Wilin Rosario.
“I know that the opposing manager is looking at our lineup card and he’s worried about that bat (of Rosario), regardless of where it’s at,” Weiss said. “Whether he’s catching that day, playing first base that day or coming of the bench, (a manager) has to envision an at-bat late in the game and how he’s going to neutralize (Rosario).”
Think of it this way: Rosario is the new Jason Giambi. Have bat, will travel. He’s a designated hitter working in the National League. His bat off the bench could help Colorado steal victories in the late innings, and it might even rebuild the trade value of Rosario when teams inevitably get desperate for right-handed power.
Within a span of 24 hours in the Cactus League, all that is fascinating and frustrating about the 26-year-old Rosario was on full display. He thumped a double off the left-field wall against the Milwaukee Brewers. Then, given the chance to catch Jordan Lyles in a game against the Chicago White Sox, Rosario was charged with a passed ball that would have embarrassed a little leaguer.
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“I know there are going to be a lot of jobs for me this year and a lot of things to do, but I’m ready to do it. Anything they ask me to do — play first, catch — I’m ready for it,” said Rosario, who can be spied sweating hard as he takes private tutoring with groundballs at first base on a back field of the Rockies’ training facility before 8 o’clock in the morning, while teammates lounge inside the clubhouse, idling tapping on smart phones or checking on their NCAA Tournament brackets.
Colorado has finally learned the obvious: In Coors Field, where giving away an out is a mortal sin and tending to a pitcher’s damaged ego is work for a saint, the job of catcher is defense first, defense last and defense always.
But don’t listen to me. McKenry, who is beloved by the young arms in the Colorado clubhouse, can explain the responsibility of a Rockies catcher much more eloquently than I can.
“As a catcher, you have to show up every day as a humble beast and a servant,” McKenry said. “I want to make sure every pitcher knows his outcome on the mound is more important than my hitting, extra work on my game or anything else. I’m here to serve them. … The best servants make the best leaders.”
If the pitcher-friendly Hundley and McKenry don’t combine to catch 140 games in 2015, I will be shocked.
Colorado is hurting on the mound. Ace Jorge De La Rosa is battling a chronic groin injury that probably will land him on the disabled list to begin the season, while newcomer David Hale is on the mend from a strained oblique muscle. Projected No. 2 starter Jhoulys Chacin was cut.
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If the Rockies are going to make any noise, it will be because inexperienced starting pitchers such as Jon Gray, Eddie Butler and Christian Bergman can retire major-league hitters, whenever they’re given the chance. Explaining that his organization now views throwing strikes in Coors Field as hazardous duty that will seldom allow a long career in a Rockies uniform, Weiss said that going forward the team’s pitching staff will always be young.
Catch the hint?
To put on the tools of ignorance in Coors Field, a catcher must be a humble beast willing to put his ego aside to serve the development of young pitchers such as Gray, Butler and Bergman.
Mark Kiszla: mkiszla@denverpost.com or
