Rockies’ Dynamic Dyan Jorge Quickly Made Up For Lost Time
Shortstop Dyan Jorge has made up for lost time and a delayed start to the season.
On March 26, with spring training winding down, the 20-year-old Cuban native fractured his right hamate bone. That made the righthanded hitter something of a medical curiosity since he had broken his left hamate bone in November 2020 during the Rockies’ instructional league program in the Dominican Republic.
Jorge made his 2023 debut when the Arizona Complex League began play on June 5. He overmatched the league for 18 games, batting .370/.495/.644 with three home runs and more walks (19) than strikeouts (12).
He made his debut for Low-A Fresno on July 3, and through his first 21 games hit .301/.330/.376 with six stolen bases.
“If the season had started and he was healthy, he would’ve been in Fresno all year,” Rockies assistant farm director Jesse Stender said.
Jorge signed in 2022 for $2.8 million, a franchise record for an international amateur. Farm director Chris Forbes said Jorge, who is 6-foot-3, 172 pounds, is “built like a fungo.” He figures to gain strength.
“It’s a line-drive approach,” Forbes said. “(He) really stays in the gaps. I think he’s going to learn how to finish some balls off, but it’s more of a doubles power. The home run profile will be more mistake-type.”
Forbes said Jorge profiles as an ideal No. 2 hitter, one who can grind out at-bats and provide the requisite offensive subtleties from that lineup spot. As he gets stronger, his bat speed, evident now, should be more notable, and his average arm should be plus.
Jorge has good range and good instincts for the game.
“The feet work. The hands work,” Stender said. “He should stick at shortstop. With the versatility of today’s game and where we’re at in the big leagues with (Ezequiel) Tovar, he’s going to have to add second, third, whatever the case may be.
“I don’t foresee any issue with him playing either of those positions, and I think he’ll be just fine.”
ROCKY ROADS
— Righthanders Gabriel Hughes, Jackson Cox and Jordy Vargas, three of the Rockies’ better pitching prospects, had Tommy John surgery. Keith Meister, the Rangers’ head team physician, performed the operations on Cox on July 26 and both Hughes and Vargas on July 28.
Hughes, who was the 10th overall pick in the 2022 draft out of Gonzaga, turns 22 on Aug. 22. He went a combined 6-5, 6.21 at High-A Spokane and Double-A Hartford with 26 walks, 83 strikeouts and 64 hits allowed in 66. innings.
The Rockies took Cox, 19, in the second round last year out of Toutle Lake (Wash.) High. He went 1-0, 7.26 in 10 games at Low-A Fresno, allowing 39 hits and 20 walks in 31 innings with 32 strikeouts. In his final two starts, Cox pitched a combined seven scoreless innings with five hits and two walks allowed and 14 strikeouts.
Vargas, 19, whom the Rockies signed out of the Dominican Republic in January 2021, went 6-3, 4.22 in 13 starts for Fresno, allowing 55 hits and 24 walks in 64 innings with 69 strikeouts.
— The Rockies promoted righthander Connor Van Scoyoc, acquired from the Angels on June 25 for Mike Moustakas, to Hartford after he went 1-2, 3.33 in four starts for High-A Spokane, where he allowed 26 hits and five walks in 24.1 innings with 22 strikeouts. Van Scoyoc, 23, began the season at High-A Tri-City, where he went 4-3, 2.76 in 11 starts. The Angels drafted Van Scoyoc in the 11th round in 2018 out of Jefferson High in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Van Scoyoc was one of five pitchers the Rockies acquired as the trade deadline approached. They also received righthander Jake Madden, 21, and lefthander Mason Albright, 20, from the Angels for outfielder Randal Grichuk and first baseman C.J. Cron. Reliever Pierce Johnson was traded to the Braves for righthanders Victor Vodnik, 23, and Tanner Gordon, 25.
