Rockies right-hander Chase Dollander underwent internal brace surgery yesterday, skipper Warren Schaeffer tells Kevin Henry of The Denver Gazette. Schaeffer had said a few weeks ago that Dollander’s UCL sprain was trending toward surgery, and that has proven to be the case.
It’ll not only officially end Dollander’s season but likely cost him the first half of 2027 as well. The internal brace procedure typically comes with a year-long recovery timeline. It’s not quite as bad as the full Tommy John reconstruction but still a significant blow for any pitcher.
That’s particularly true in this case, as the 24-year-old Dollander is arguably the most important player in the organization. The ninth overall pick in the 2023 draft, he has the highest ceiling of any pitcher on the club. Dollander struggled with Coors Field as a rookie. He had seemingly figured things out in year two, working to a 3.89 ERA while striking out a quarter of opponents across 44 innings.
The Rockies used Dollander behind an opener early in the season. They had moved him into a more traditional rotation role shortly before the injury. Dollander had a couple clunkers — most notably a six-run outing against Atlanta on May 2 — but was clearly Colorado’s best starting pitcher. His four-seam fastball and sinker were both in the 98-99 mph range as he got swinging strikes on 12% of his offerings.
Colorado is again the worst team in MLB. They’re playing at a 64-win pace as they try to avoid what would be a fourth consecutive 100-loss campaign. Rockies starters have easily the sport’s highest ERA, allowing 5.88 earned runs per nine. Their 16.2% strikeout rate is also worst in MLB. They’ve fared equally poorly on the road as they have at Coors Field. Dollander was the only Colorado starter who had struck out even 20% of opponents and they’ve all been susceptible to the home run ball.
Kyle Freeland, Tomoyuki Sugano, Michael Lorenzen and injured southpaw Jose Quintana are all likely to hit free agency. Righty Ryan Feltner has a couple remaining seasons of arbitration control and is the only member of Colorado’s current starting five who projects for next year’s Opening Day rotation. It wouldn’t be a surprise if they re-sign Freeland to a cheaper one-year contract as well. In any case, they’ll need to overhaul the group next winter and have an uphill path to building the sustainable pitching pipeline they’ll require to eventually emerge from the rebuild.
