Rockies May Have Damaged Brothers

(Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports)

Something has not been right with Rex Brothers so far. He isn’t pitching at the level he was pitching last year when he was overpowering hitters by striking them out.

Brothers has had control problems. He has had a time getting out. He’s been terrible to stay the least with a 4.26 ERA to show for it. His performance has raised questions about him.

Here’s a guess to why he has struggled: He never mentally accepted his setup man role after he closed out games in the summer last year.

It’s hard to believe he was happy about losing his closing job to Latroy Hawkins, who the Rockies signed as a free agent this offseason. Who can blame him? All he did was doing his job well as a closer by having 19 saves with an 1.74 ERA last season.

Brothers thought he was going to be the closer heading to this season. The Rockies had other ideas. They wanted to insert him as a setup guy since they didn’t have anyone qualified for it, so they thought signing Hawkins as a closer would be a unique way to demote their closer to fill the eighth inning role.

Only the Rockies can think demoting a great closer would make him happy to accept it. This is the same organization that came up with a ridiculous pitch count rule of taking starters out after 75 pitches while overusing the relievers in the process.

Now, they may have destroyed Brothers’ development altogether. Yes, it’s not an excuse for his struggles. He should be professional enough to accept his role. That’s easy for anyone to say. Try being in his place and see if it’s easier said than done.

The Rockies should have known this may have had an effect on his psyche after he was told that he would not close. It’s astounding they didn’t think about the effect it would have him on their guy. It’s one thing to demote a guy when he stinks, but to change his role when he is doing well in it does not make sense. Not when he is used to being a closer.

The problem with the Rockies is they overthink too much when it comes to pitching. They come up with zany ideas to improve their pitching such as the pitch count or the humidors and all. They need to find guys who can pitch, not reinvent the wheel of seeing what works.

Make no mistake. If Brothers can’t figure it out, the Rockies are in trouble. He has overpowering stuff to get hitters out. There are not many relievers the Rockies have that can fill the eighth inning role. As tempting as it is to put Adam Ottavino in that role, there’s no guarantee he can do it when he never did. It’s not simple to insert new guys in. Relievers need to be comfortable in the role they are suited in.

Brothers is trying too hard to prove a point he was the guy as a closer. He may have overtinker his mechanics this offseason. He may have overdone it throwing hard in throwing fastballs. Either way, something is not right.

It’s hard to believe a reliever with an impeccable control would lose it all of a struggle unless something happened along the way. That’s the case with Brothers.

To say maybe the Rockies were right all along about Brothers is disingenuous. It’s easy to say that now when he is struggling. No one was able to say it last year when he was doing well. There were questions from the same fanbase about what was the point of signing Hawkins when they have Brothers.

All the Rockies can hope for is Brothers having a bad month. That’s all they can do. They can’t do anything with his mechanics. His strength is throwing fastballs. It’s hard for them to have them teach him another pitch during the course of the season.

If Brothers lost it altogether, the Rockies have no one to blame but themselves for ruining his development. They should have never changed his role when he didn’t deserve to lose his closing role in the first place. It’s not easy to throw guys in just to make it work.

It’s too bad if he struggles for good. He could have been one of the best closers ever. Maybe he can still be one day.

With the Rockies, nothing ever goes right.

They may have damaged another pitcher of their own doing.

Contact or follow Leslie Monteiro at @LightRodWriter

Leslie Monteiro

Leslie is a contributor for Lightning Rod Sports. He covered high school sports in Bergen County out in North Jersey, and has written op-ed columns on sports such as Bleacher Report and NY Sports Digest.

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