Ian Stewart has been Colorado’s starting third baseman since mid-2008, turned 26 years old earlier this month, and has more than 1,300 career plate appearances in the majors, but today the Rockies demoted him to Triple-A following a 2-for-26 start.
Stewart missed time during spring training with knee and hamstring injuries and started just five of Colorado’s first 16 games, but he’s presumably healthy given that the Rockies could have instead placed him on the disabled list and sent him out on a minor-league rehab assignment.
What makes the move doubly odd is that Stewart has been replaced at third base with Jose Lopez, who’s hitting just .188 with a .537 OPS in 13 games and was absolutely awful for the Mariners last season. Another option at third base, Ty Wigginton, is hitting .200 with a .539 OPS.
Stewart has plenty of flaws, but demoting him to the minors due to a slow start in sporadic playing time when he has 1,300 plate appearances of track record to go on and the alternatives aren’t any better seems awfully strange.