First things first: Adael Amador makes quite a first impression.
Called up from Double-A Hartford, Amador made his major league debut Sunday afternoon in St. Louis. The Rockies’ No. 1 prospect singled on his first swing on the first pitch he saw in his first at-bat. The second baseman’s forever-memory moment arrived when he led off the third inning with a looping single to right off Cardinals right-hander Andre Pallante. Amador connected on Pallante’s 94.1 mph fastball.
In Colorado’s 5-1 loss, Amador hit 1 for 3 with one strikeout and stole his first base. At age 21 and 59 days, Amador became the second-youngest position player in Rockies franchise history to make his major league debut behind current starting shortstop Ezequiel Tovar (21 years, 53 days), who debuted on Sept. 23, 2022.
“He looked fine of defense,” manager Bud Black told reporters in St. Louis. “He was probably a little amped up. … He expanded (the zone) a little bit today, which is out of his norm. But I think that will probably quiet down a little bit as each day goes on. We didn’t see the expansion of the strike zone in spring training. I’m sure he was fired up today, but overall, he looked comfortable.”
Amador, the No. 32 prospect in baseball according to MLB Pipeline, was called up to replace veteran second baseman Brendan Rodgers, who is dealing with a left hamstring strain and was placed on the 10-day injured list Sunday.
Unless Amador lights up major league pitching, his first stay with the Rockies will be short, and he’ll be optioned to the minors for more seasoning. But the Rockies thought the time was right to give Amador a test run.
“It’s going to give Amador a taste of the majors here for a short period of time until ‘B-Rod’ comes back,” Black told MLB.com. “We’re excited about that. It’ll give us a chance to look at him. He’ll be exposed to the pace of a major league game versus a Double-A game. He’s in good form at 21 years old.”
Even though Amador faced early failure at Double-A, that didn’t dissuade general manager Bill Schmidt from making the move.
“The thing that prompted this was the last 10 days, (Amador’s) been playing well,” Black said. “He’s hit some homers. Even though his batting average is below .200 and doesn’t look great, he’s been hitting well over .300 the last week or so. His defense has been fine. He’s leading the Eastern League in walks and stolen bases, so there are some things to be excited about.”
Amador was slashing just .194/.337/.329 over 209 plate appearances when he got his call to the majors. But since mashing his first home run of the season on May 21, he slashed .295/.389/.656 (1.045 OPS) with seven homers, one double, 18 RBIs and seven stolen bases in 15 games. During his hot streak, he led the Eastern League in home runs while ranking second in RBIs, stolen bases and total bases (40).
With Aaron Schunk and Coco Montes, the Rockies have older players at Triple-A Albuquerque who could have replaced Rodgers, but neither is on the 40-man roster, so Amador’s promotion made the most sense.
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