Rockies to call up top prospect Brendan Rodgers, per report

The Rockies are set to purchase the contract of middle infielder Brendan Rodgers from Triple-A Albuquerque on Friday, per MLB.com’s Thomas Harding:

Rodgers, 22, is ranked as the No. 10 prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline and 11th overall by Baseball America. He was the third overall pick — the third of three straight shortstops taken — in the 2015 MLB Draft, and he’ll have hefty expectations placed upon him, seeing as he followed Dansby Swanson and Alex Bregman in the draft.

Rodgers has been rotating between the two middle infield positions since entering the Rockies organization, with the front office identifying him as a potential long-term replacement for second baseman DJ LeMahieu, who departed in free agency this past offseason. He’s also begun adding third base to his resume since last season — he has 240 professional appearances at shortstop, 83 at second, and 24 at third.

Rodgers, a .296/.353/.505 career hitter, is hitting .356/.421/.644 with nine homers at Albuquerque this season — extremely impressive numbers, even for a guy who’s playing his home games in a hitter’s paradise in a league with a juiced ball.

With Ryan McMahon performing solidly at second base right now, Rodgers’ first assignment may be to provide extra depth at shortstop, or outright take over the position for the time being, with starter Trevor Story banged up. Story suffered a bruised knee in Wednesday night’s loss to the Red Sox, though he said following the game that he expected to play Friday. If the Rockies want to place Story on the injured list for precautionary reasons and give him a week or so to heal up, that could present a nice opportunity for them to take a look at Rodgers.