Notes: Rockies add veteran slugger Adams

The wait for normalcy lasted longer than expected for Matt Adams, but he sees some of it now that he’s back in the Majors -- having been summoned to the Rockies from the team’s alternate site in time for Thursday night’s opener of a four-game series against the D-backs in Phoenix.

Adams, 32, has long been valued as a pinch-hitter, with extensive experience at first base and limited duty in the outfield. He played in World Series with the Cardinals (2013) and the Nationals (2019). But last season, the Mets released him from his Minor League contract in July. He then joined the Braves and batted .184 and endured a left hamstring strain that forced him to the injured list.

Spring Training began with Adams in the St. Louis area, hitting off Minor Leaguers and getting on the field when it was warm. He finally signed with the Rockies in late March. According to manager Bud Black, Adams “homered four or five times in the alt-site games, hitting well over .300.”

“I felt like last year was just kind of an off year all around,” Adams said. “Coming off winning the World Series in 2019 with the Nationals, I think I kind of just took things for granted, and that kind of bit me in the butt. But I’ve got to put that behind me. I went into the offseason with really no doubt in what I needed to work on and had a very successful offseason.

“It showed once I got down here to Arizona at the alt site. Getting back out on the field facing pitching and seeing the results that I was getting down here, it was the light at the end of the tunnel for sure.”

Wednesday night’s 7-3 loss to the Giants illustrated the Rockies’ need for Adams. The Rockies gave Raimel Tapia the night off from the starting lineup, and the team played mostly with inexperienced players. Down, 4-2, in the sixth and needing a big hit, there was no viable option but Tapia, a solid hitter but mostly for singles.

“We're looking for some offense, and Matt hopefully will provide that,” Black said. “When we signed him, we were looking for another veteran presence to potentially get on our roster.

“He'll bring an element of danger off the bench each and every night against a bullpen. He’ll bring left-handed power when he starts a game.”

A chance to learn for Hilliard
When the big situation hit in the loss to the Giants, Black could have called upon left-handed-hitting Sam Hilliard. He did call on him Hilliard later, but his subsequent strikeout left him 4-for-37 with 19 strikeouts in 19 games. So the Rockies optioned Hilliard to the alternate site, with the plan to play him regularly when the Triple-A Albuquerque season starts next Thursday.

Hilliard showed power when he debuted in 2019, but he has struggled to make contact with a high-effort swing.

“Where we got with Sam was the hitting coaches and I felt as though this needed more time in the Minor Leagues to make the mechanical adjustments that he has to make,” Black said.

The Rockies also designated for assignment righty Ashton Goudeau to make room for Adams on the Major League roster.

Lawrence up, Almonte injured
Just before game time Thursday, the Rockies summoned righty reliever Justin Lawrence -- a 12th-round pick in 2015 who nearly made the team this spring -- and placed Yency Almonte on the 10-day injured list with a right hand contusion. Almonte has struggled with walks (he walked in a run Wednesday) and he tried unsuccessfully to field a batted ball from the Giants’ Mike Tauchman.

Speaking of walks …
Righty Germán Márquez walked in two of the four runs he gave up in the Giants’ four-run second inning on Wednesday. Márquez has struggled with his fastball from the stretch since Spring Training, and Wednesday he couldn’t throw a strike with any of his pitches during those traffic moments.

Márquez’s struggles raised a question: Why not pitch from the stretch with the bases loaded? During his own career, Black pitched from the stretch with a runner at third and no chance for a trail runner to advance, and he said he has brought it up with Márquez and other pitchers.

“It’s the comfort level of the pitcher,” Black said. “There is a hesitancy because they feel as though there might be a balk in there, with a fake break by the runner, or the runner getting so far down the line because you're out of the windup. It can become distracting to the pitcher.

“So I think you'll find that the majority of pitchers -- and I'm going to say well over 80 percent, even maybe closer to 90 percent -- will throw out of the stretch.”