It hasn’t been a good start to the 2016 season for some of Colorado’s top homegrown baseball players.
Yankees first baseman Greg Bird and pitchers Kevin Gausman of the Orioles and Marco Gonzales of the Cardinals have opened the major-league season with injuries.
Bird, the 23-year-old former Grandview star, garnered attention after blasting 11 home runs in 46 games last year for New York. But his season ended before it even started. In February he underwent surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder that would keep him out until 2017.
“If everyone were healthy, Bird would not have opened the season on the 25-man roster,” Yankees GM .
Gonzales, who starred at Rocky Mountain High School, will also miss the entirety of 2016. On Wednesday, it was announced that he would have , according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
“Obviously, it’s disappointing,” St. Louis manager John Mozeliak told the Post-Dispatch. “We were hopeful it wouldn’t require this. Unfortunately, this year is going to be lost.”
Gonzales, the Cardinals’ first-round pick in 2013, has appeared in 10 games and has six career starts, compiling a 4-2 record with a 4.82 ERA.
Bird’s former Grandview teammate Kevin Gausman began the season on the disabled list, but his story has a brighter outlook than the other two. In spring training he was dealing with right shoulder tendinitis. But after a rehab assignment, he’s on track to re-join the Orioles next week.
Gausman, 25, has been a staple of Baltimore’s rotation the last two seasons, posting an 11-14 record with a 3.91 ERA during that span.
At least Pirates closer Mark Melancon, a Wheat Ridge alumnus, is doing well. Melancon, 31, is off to a good start after his 51-save season in 2015. In five appearances this year, he has three saves and a 2.08 ERA.
CHEW ON THIS
• .
• .
• Bad news for the Rockies: . Are they bringing up some pitching to help with their 7.20 ERA? Nope. Another catcher.
• But if they keep hitting the way they have been, they may not need it. The Rockies churned out .
• So, ? MLB reporter Patrick Saunders answers this in his Rockies Mailbag.
• And Jermaine Jones could make his Rapids debut this weekend, .
WATCH THIS
Someone didn’t make more coffee after drinking the last of it this morning here in the office. .
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
The best baseball player to have shared a name with a board-game company, Milton Bradley, turns 38. Have to wait until November for box cereal’s best namesake Coco Crisp.
Joe Nguyen: jnguyen@denverpost.com or @joenguyen
