Colorado Rockies: RHP Ubaldo Jimenez comes home

The Colorado Rockies have signed former ace Ubaldo Jimenez to a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training. Jimenez was one of the first pitchers to become a legitimate ace in the Mile High city.

This is the point of the offseason where you will see familiar and not so familiar names sign minor league deals with invitations to spring training. Teams want to see if these players have anything left to give and it cost them nothing more than a spring training uniform. One of the names was quite familiar for Colorado Rockies and baseball fans alike, as Ubaldo Jimenez signed a deal with the Rockies to see if he has anything left to give.

A decade ago, Ubaldo Jimenez was absolutely electric for the Rockies. He had an unorthodox motion and threw absolute gas with a fastball that averaged 96.1 in a time when that sort of velocity was rare. He’s the best pitcher to suit up for the Rockies over the last decade and it wasn’t close. Jimenez showed you could be an ace in Coors Field and provided a blueprint for many of the guys today with ground ball rates and sinking fastballs.

Jimenez hasn’t played in affiliated ball since 2017 which was the last year of a four year, $50M deal with the Orioles that didn’t work out great for either party. Now 36, Jimenez will enter spring training looking to compete for a spot in the Rockies bullpen. He will also serve as a great mentor to current and future Rockies pitchers since he knows how to succeed at altitude.

As far as what remains, Jimenez fastball was averaging right around 90 in his last year in Baltimore. Maybe with a few years off and knowing he’ll be out of the bullpen, Jimenez can ramp that up to the 92-94 range. Mix that with his nasty splitter below and Ubaldo could actually be a middle relief weapon in short spurts. For a Rockies team that ranked 29th in relief WAR, Jimenez could absolutely be an upgrade.

Will Ubaldo Jimenez have a large impact on the mound for the 2020 Rockies? Probably not, but there’s no risk in letting him come in throw some innings and see what he has left. Every player has to ride off eventually, Jimenez is going to give it one last shot after taking a few years off.

Colorado Rockies fans aren’t getting back their ace but maybe they’ll get a reinvented Jimenez for some serviceable innings out of the bullpen. They can enjoy the sunset of Jimenez’s career while enjoying the nostalgia of who he used to be.