The last time the Colorado Rockies saw Jorge De La Rosa take the mound in a regular season game was last May when he tore his UCL. While reports over the last few months have painted an optimistic picture of De La Rosa's return coming in late May or in June, pitching coach Bob Apodaca expects his pitcher to return in July, according to Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post.
Apodaca is just going on a straight calculation of the average recovery time from Tommy John Surgery, which is supposed to take over one year. However, that isn't to mean that De La Rosa can't make an early return. We'll need to see how he does in his upcoming bullpen sessions and eventually in his extended spring training sessions.
Apodaca says the team isn't "in a hurry," which would be an indication that the Rockies are confident in what they have in their rotation right now that they don't need to make a possibly brash move by bringing back De La Rosa early. With the reserves the Rockies have to plug in the rotation should they have a failure in the No. 5 spot, the urgency isn't there right now for De La Rosa's return.
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