The Colorado Rockies will promote pitcher McCade Brown from Double-A Hartford to make his MLB debut on Sunday against the Pirates, reports Thomas Harding of MLB.com. Brown, 25, steps into the rotation to fill the vacancy left by veteran Austin Gomber, whom the Rockies released on Friday.

General manager Bill Schmidt told Harding, “It’s time to move on, since Austin was not somebody that we were going to move forward with. … So let’s take a look at some younger guys who potentially are going to be in our future.”

A third-round pick out of Indiana in 2021, Brown has had a bit of a breakout year after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2023.  This year, he posted a 1.60 ERA in nine starts at Spokane and a 3.14 ERA in 11 starts at Hartford. The Rockies planned to place him on the 40-man Major League roster after the season, since he may have been more enticing in the Rule 5 Draft this offseason after going unclaimed last year.

The Rockies will now get a leg up on evaluating Brown and how he may potentially fit into the picture for 2026 and beyond. “These five to seven starts down the stretch, and we’ll take [it] one at a time,” Schmidt said. “That helps us going forward for our 26-man roster for next year: Is he going to be part of it, or is he going to need a little bit more time?

Brown features a classic power pitcher mix. Standing 6-foot-6, he logged  43 innings in Double-A, striking out 33.5% of opponents. He also punched out more than 35% of batters faced in his High-A starts earlier in the year.

The Rockies will need to make room on the 40-man roster to add him for the start on Sunday.