Right-hander Geoff Hartlieb cleared waivers after being designated for assignment by the Rockies, per a club announcement. He’s been assigned outright to Triple-A Albuquerque. As a player who’d previously been outrighted in his career, Hartlieb had the right to reject the assignment in favor of free agency, but a source tells MLBTR he’ll accept the outright and return to Triple-A.
The 30-year-old Hartlieb pitched nine innings out of the Colorado bullpen and was tagged for nine runs during his short time with the club. He fanned seven batters, walked four and kept the ball on the ground at a 40.6% clip. While the raw run-prevention numbers obviously weren’t encouraging, Hartlieb sported a career-high 97.1 mph on his heater, per Statcast — a notable uptick from the career 95.9 mph mark he carried into the season. His sinker (95.7 mph vs. 94.3 mph career average) and slider (87 mph vs. 84 mph) also had pronounced velocity increases. Additionally, Hartlieb introduced a new cutter that sat at 92.8 mph.
For now, Hartlieb will head back to the Isotopes to continue working on his new-look arsenal. He’s pitched to a 5.61 ERA in a hitter-friendly setting there but carries a solid overall track record at the Triple-A level, including a nice showing with the Marlins’ affiliate last year (3.63 ERA in 44 2/3 frames). In 205 1/3 innings of Triple-A work, Hartlieb has a 4.21 earned run average while fanning 24.8% of his opponents against a 10% walk rate.
Given the general state of the Rockies’ bullpen (collective 5.73 ERA and 4.52 SIERA — both last in MLB) and the potential for some trades of relievers (impending free agent Jalen Beeks, in particular), there’s a decent chance that Hartlieb could get another big league look later this summer. In parts of five MLB seasons between the Pirates, Mets, Marlins and Rockies, the former 29th-round pick carries a 7.37 ERA with a 20% strikeout rate, a 14.4% walk rate and a 47.9% ground-ball rate.