The Rockies announced they’ve selected right-hander TJ Shook onto the big league roster. He’ll replace Zach Agnos in the bullpen, as the latter has been optioned to Triple-A Albuquerque. Colorado transferred lefty reliever Welinton Herrera from the 15-day to the 60-day injured list to create a 40-man roster vacancy.
Herrera just landed on the injured list over the weekend with elbow inflammation. Skipper Warren Schaeffer tells Jack Janes of MLB.com that the 22-year-old southpaw has been diagnosed with a torn UCL. That’ll end his season and likely require surgery, though the manager indicated there’s no current timeline on an operation.
Shook’s first big league call comes a few days after his 28th birthday. The 6’4″ righty pitched three seasons at the University of South Carolina. He signed with the Brewers in 2020 after going unselected in that year’s shortened five-round draft. Shook worked as a starter up to the Double-A level. He was traded to the Mets in 2024 for reliever Tyler Jay and moved to the bullpen in the New York system.
The Rockies added Shook last winter in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft. He didn’t allow an earned run over 4 1/3 innings this spring and has pitched well with Albuquerque. Shook carries a 2.86 ERA while striking out more than a quarter of opponents across 28 1/3 Triple-A innings. He’s attacking the strike zone and getting a lot of weak contact despite the difficult pitching environment.
Shook has never gotten much prospect attention, as one would probably expect from his transactional history. He’s averaging 92.7 mph with his sinker, below-average velocity for an MLB reliever. Shook has a six-pitch mix but has mostly used the sinker, a cutter, and a changeup. He’s coming off five straight scoreless appearances in Triple-A. Agnos has been bombed for seven runs in each of his past two outings, making it unsurprising the Rockies are sending him out for the time being.
Herrera signed with the Rox as an amateur out of the Dominican Republic in 2021. Baseball America ranked him the #10 prospect in the system coming into 2026, praising his plus fastball-slider combination. He’s a pure reliever who was just called up for his MLB debut on Memorial Day. He worked three scoreless appearances to begin his big league career.
Although he’ll be paid the MLB minimum salary (a prorated $780K) for the rest of the season, it’s obviously a brutal development for Herrera as he tried to carve out a spot in the big league bullpen. The Rockies will need to put him back on the 40-man roster at the beginning of the offseason, assuming they don’t want to expose him to waivers. They could drop him at the non-tender deadline and try to bring him back on a minor league deal. Colorado is still rebuilding and may just elect to keep him on the 40-man all winter, then place him on the 60-day injured list at the beginning of Spring Training.
