Braxton

Fulford

There’s zero incentive for the Rockies to rush back their primary offensive catalyst with nothing at stake in the final two weeks of the season. The positive news for fantasy managers is that Goodman hasn’t been placed on the injured list. He’ll sit out his second consecutive game due to right thumb soreness. He should be considered day-to-day for now. It’ll be Braxton Fulford getting the nod behind the dish in his place.

Fulford will occupy a spot on Colorado’s bench and get some opportunities to face left-handed pitching down the home stretch. He’s been up a couple times over the last few years, but hasn’t been able to stick in a backup role behind starting catcher Hunter Goodman.

Fulford heads back to the minors with starting backstop Hunter Goodman coming off the injured list. The 27-year-old was up with the Rockies for roughly one week during his latest abbreviated stint at the highest level.

Fulford will be part of Colorado’s solution to replace slugging backstop Hunter Goodman with Brett Sullivan likely to handle most of the catching duties in his absence. The 27-year-old has struggled to gain any traction at the highest level after putting up some impressive numbers in the hitter-friendly environments in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League over the past few years.

With Brenton Doyle set to return from the injured list on Friday, something had to give, and Fulford wound up being the odd man out. The 27-year-old backstop hit .177/.254/.290 with just one homer and seven RBI in 71 plate appearances during his time with the Rockies.

Fulford gives Colorado another left-handed bat off the bench after losing Jordan Beck (hamstring) to the injured list. The 27-year-old backstop has posted some impressive offensive numbers in the hitter-friendly Triple-A Pacific Coast League over the last few years but hasn’t been able to parlay them into sustained success at the highest level.

With Tyler Freeman (back) coming off the IL, Fulford will head back to Triple-A after not having started a game since coming up over the weekend.

He’ll have a bench role while Mickey Moniak is out. Perhaps Hunter Goodman will grab some of Moniak’s DH time and let Fulford catch a game here or there, but he’s not someone who needs to be on the fantasy radar for the time being.

No real surprises among this batch of cuts for the Rockies. These moves get them down to 36 players remaining in major league camp as we inch closer to Opening Day. Look for them to finalize their roster in the coming days. Fulford hit .213/.267/.324 in 120 plate appearances with the Rockies last year, but slugged .714 in 171 Triple-A plate appearances and figures to be their third catcher this season.

Since Braxton Fulford was called up as a third catcher option last Monday, he’d started four games, including two at DH, to Nola’s none, making it easy to see where things were heading. Nola was just 7-for-38 with one extra-base hit and one RBI over 41 plate appearances in his six weeks with the club.