Colorado Rockies manager Walt Weisse wants Rafael Betancourt back
By Ed Carroll
Reliever Rafael Betancourt hasn’t pitched in the Major Leagues at all in 2014, after needing Tommy John surgery late in 2013, but Colorado Rockies manager Walt Weiss said he’d like for Betancourt to return to Colorado in 2015, when the reliever will be 40 years old.
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Betancourt needed surgery in late 2013 before he was about to become a free agent, while pitching for the Rockies. The team’s longtime closer signed a minor-league deal to return to the mountains, and had worked his way up to the Rockies’s Triple-A affiliate in Colorado Springs, but is not yet able to throw on consecutive days and wasn’t called up to the big leagues when rosters expanded at the beginning of September.
Weiss said he’d like to have Betancourt back “just on makeup alone,” but it’s clear he thinks Betancourt still has some mileage left on his arm. Betancourt hasn’t said he plans to retire; in fact, he said he had the surgery to pitch again.
Between Betancourt and fellow Rockies reliever LaTroy Hawkins, who is 41 years-old, the Rockies could boast a back-end of the bullpen with a combined age of more than 80, though having old players is probably not something a team should boast about. But in 11 big-league years, beginning with the Cleveland Indians in 2003 and continuing on through being traded to Colorado in 2008, Betancourt has been among the game’s elite relievers for many years, and owns a 3.19 ERA in 646.1 innings pitched, with 74 saves, mostly with the Rockies. It never hurts to have a live arm at the back of the pen, so maybe the Rockies aren’t crazy after all.
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