Bud Black gave an injury update on Ezequiel Tovar that fans don’t want to hear

The Colorado Rockies have been fighting the injury plague early on in the season, highlighted by the recent absence of their Gold-Glove winning shortstop in Ezequiel Tovar, who has been out for almost two weeks now. Tovar suffered a hip injury earlier in the month and was orginally placed on the 10-day IL with a left hip contusion, slating his return for Tuesday’s game against the Atlanta Braves.

Bud Black gave a negative update on the shortstop’s status before the series kicked off.

“He’s getting better, still not progressing as we hoped,” Black said recently. “We had hoped that after 10 days he would be back in the lineup, that’s not the case. This is a tricky one, only the player knows how he’s feeling. ”

Black hopes that Tovar can return to the lineup.at the start of next week. The 23-year-old has been struggling to start the season (who hasn’t been for the Rockies?), as he’s posted a .188/.188/.250 slash line. In the field, he has committed three errors after committing just eight in the entire 2024 season.

Other players on Colorado’s 10-day IL include Kris Bryant, Tyler Freeman and Aaron Schunk. Victor Vodnik is on the 15-day IL while Austin Gomber and Thairo Estrada are on the 60-day IL.

Bryant recently visited a doctor in Los Angeles to further discuss his degenerative disc disease. He has yet to opt for the surgery route, which would most likely knock him out for the rest of the season, but it might be a reasonable option for him given that the more conservative treatment options have not worked out. Milwaukee’s Christian Yelich had the same surgery Bryant would get back in August, and he is back and playing for the Brewers.

Ryan Feltner was able to pitch on Monday night after having his scheduled start on Sunday get pushed back a day for low back soreness. He gave up 10 hits in just 4.2 innings along with five earned runs, as he was given the loss in Monday’s contest.

Black also went on to talk about the struggle of not being able to pair Tovar with Estrada in the middle of the infield, a pairing that he’s grown very fond of lately.

“The Estrada/Tovar combination that we saw up until May 20th, and spring training was really good … I was super pumped for that,” Black said.

Estrada has recently resumed light drills, but is a ways away from being out on the field for the Rockies. In the 94 games he played at second base for the San Francisco Giants in 2024, he committed just two errors. He has never committed more than five errors when lined up at second base in his six seasons in the major leagues.

“Hopefully, in time, that [defensive pairing] will show up here because Thairo’s a good defender, under the radar, sort of quiet,” Black said.

Throughout the rest of his talk, Black had a very positive mentality on the status of the team despite getting off to the worst start by any team in the 149-year history of the National League. While it would be nice to see this team get healthy, that’s not going to fix the deeper issues that this club faces. Black is on pace to be the skipper for one of the worst teams this league has ever seen, even worse than the 1899 Cleveland Spiders who posted a win percentage of just .130.

The Rockies are back in action against the Braves Tuesday night at Coors Field as they hope to pick up their fifth win of the season. First pitch is set for 6:40 p.m. Denver time.

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