SAN DIEGO — Eddie Butler had a locker full of gear Saturday afternoon at Petco Park. But the locker didn’t have an Eddie Butler.
The Rockies’ rookie right-hander was traveling from Albuquerque to California for his third career call-up.
“He’s our starting pitcher (Sunday). I hope he does have a locker,” Colorado manager Walt Weiss said.
The Rockies will activate Butler before the series finale against the Padres, who will counter with Andrew Cashner in the 2:10 p.m. game.
Butler’s promotion comes out of necessity more than luxury. The 24-year-old fills a spot in the Rockies’ rotation left open by David Hale, who’s on the disabled list with a strained groin.
“It wasn’t all smooth sailing down there for him,” Weiss said of Butler. “He had some tough outings. But I’m familiar with the stuff. And it’s enough stuff to get through big-league lineups, we feel.”
Butler wasn’t knocking down the door to return to the majors: In his six Triple-A starts, Butler was 2-2 with a 6.27 ERA. But the Rockies believe his fastball can carry him.
They demoted Butler on June 9 so he could work on off-speed pitches. They wanted him to decrease the speed on his slow stuff enough to keep hitters off his fastball. The Butler who returns from the Pacific Coast League, though, probably won’t be much different.
“I don’t think you’ll see him throwing a bunch of 75 mph curve balls like a Chad Bettis,” Weiss said. “But there is a little bit more separation than before.”
Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich said this month that the team made a mistake calling up Butler last season to make his major-league debut.
“I felt like he was ready. In hindsight, maybe not the best recommendation in the world,” Bridich said. “It didn’t go so well. He probably wasn’t ready. But at the time, I felt he did enough to make that jump.”
The Rockies are trying to learn from that mistake by protecting prized prospect Jon Gray, who will stay in Triple-A for now. Instead, they’ll turn again to Butler with the expectation that he’s now ready.
“I hope that the experience of it all will lead to a lot of learning and much better things for him at this level,” Bridich said.
