Rockies place Freeland on injured list amid flurry of pitching moves

ATLANTA — Rockies pitcher Kyle Freeland finally saw good fortune in his last two turns in the rotation, picking up his first win of the season at Miami on June 4 and earning a quality start last Wednesday against the San Francisco Giants.

But that momentum hit a roadblock in the form of lower back tightness.

Freeland will head to the 15-day injured list and miss his next scheduled start in Washington. Rookie Carson Palmquist, who had just been optioned back to AAA Albuquerque, will return to the big club and make the start Monday night at Nationals Park in Freeland’s place.

Palmquist is 0-4 and has gone five innings just once in five major-league starts.

ROCKIES MAKE THREE OTHER PITCHING MOVES

Beyond the Freeland and Palmquist moves, the Rockies made three other roster moves, all involving pitchers:

Austin Gomber officially returned to the roster from the 60-day injured list. He will make his 2025 debut Sunday, starting in the series finale against Atlanta.

Starter Ryan Feltner will head to the 60-day injured list. He hasn’t started since April 28 against Atlanta because of back spasms.

Finally, reliever Zach Agnos was optioned to Albuquerque. Agnos had been the Rockies’ closer throughout May and early June — which, of course, meant he had few opportunities to actually close because of the team’s historically-bad pace.

Agnos looked the part through June 2; he notched four saves and had a 1.50 ERA and a 0.83 WHIP to that point.

But since then, he hasn’t been the same. His troubles began on June 5 against the New York Mets; he entered with a tie game and yielded a pair of ninth-inning runs in a 4-2 loss.

Agnos has a 27.00 ERA and a 35.10 WHIP in his last four appearances.

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