In a move designed to prop up its bullpen for a pos­si­ble play­off run, the Rock­ies on Sun­day acquired vet­er­an right-han­der Mychal Givens from the Bal­ti­more Ori­oles in exchange for prospects Tyler Nevin and Ter­rin Vavra, plus a play­er to be named lat­er, the Rock­ies announced.

Givens, 30, the Ori­oles’ sec­ond-round pick in 2009 as a short­stop, was con­vert­ed to a pitch­er and arrived in the majors in late 2015 to join the Bal­ti­more bullpen. He is effec­tive against right-hand­ed bat­ters and throws a 96–98 mph fast­ball, com­ple­ment­ed by a hard slider.

“He’s a proven big-league relief pitch­er who will def­i­nite­ly help us,” man­ag­er Bud Black said Sun­day after San Diego beat the Rock­ies 13–2, scor­ing eight runs and hit­ting four home runs off the bullpen. “We’re excit­ed to have him. I know the guys in the club­house were excit­ed to see the name. He’s a good one. We’ll use him in the back end of the game to help us win. He’s done that in the past.”

Though Givens faces a long trav­el day from the East Coast, there is a chance he would be avail­able to pitch for the Rock­ies Mon­day night against the Padres at Coors Field.

Givens, who’s had up-and-down sea­sons with the Ori­oles and spent some time as a clos­er, has not had a save chance in 2020, but has been used as a set-up man. He’s been very effec­tive in that role, allow­ing only two runs in 13 innings with 19 strike­outs and a 1.000 WHIP. In his career with the Ori­oles, Givens is 20–17 with a 3.32 ERA, 129 walks and 406 strike­outs across 296 appearances.

“This isn’t the first time that we’ve actu­al­ly asked on Mychal Givens over the past few years,” Rock­ies gen­er­al man­ag­er Jeff Bridich said. “What he has done in the past fits into our (plans for) lat­er innings. There’s a lot of expe­ri­ence there, a lot of production.

“The num­bers, every­body can see. But the way that he does it is a lit­tle bit dif­fer­ent in terms of his mechan­ics, which is intrigu­ing here (in Col­orado). We’re excit­ed to bring this cal­iber of a pitch­er into the fold. The fact he is around at least through next year for us was a fac­tor as well in terms of desire for his services.”

The Rock­ies lost right-han­der Scott Oberg, their best reliev­er, for the sea­son because of blood clots in his right arm. And vet­er­an clos­er Wade Davis, com­ing off a bad 2019 sea­son, remains on the injured list with a strained right shoul­der. While some reliev­ers have per­formed well this sea­son, most notably right-han­der Daniel Bard, Colorado’s bullpen had an over­all ERA of 5.81 enter­ing Sun­day afternoon’s game.

Nevin, 23, a first-round pick (38th over­all) by the Rock­ies in 2015 and the son of for­mer major lea­guer Phil Nevin, has a career .286/.362/.441 in five minor league sea­sons play­ing first base, third base and left field.

Vavra, 23, has played pri­mar­i­ly short­stop. He was named the South Atlantic League MVP with low‑A Asheville last sea­son after hit­ting .318 with 79 runs scored, 10 home runs, 32 dou­bles, one triple and 52 RBIs. Vavra was select­ed by Col­orado in the third round of the 2018 draft out of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Minnesota.

“I don’t know what the oth­er offers were from oth­er teams,” Bridich said when asked about giv­ing up two high­ly-rat­ed prospects. “I do know that (Givens) was pop­u­lar in terms of this (trade) dead­line. You add an all-star type of pitch­er, gen­er­al­ly, you’ve got to pay a high premium.”

On Deck

Padres RHP Gar­rett Richards (1–2, 5.17 ERA) at Rock­ies RHP Ger­man Mar­quez (2–4, 4.50)
7:40 p.m. Mon­day, Coors Field
TV: AT&T Sport­sNet, ESPN
Radio: KOA 850 AM/94.1 AM

Mar­quez, Colorado’s open­ing-day starter, needs to start pitch­ing like a No. 1. He’s com­ing off a so-so per­for­mance at Ari­zona — three runs on six hits over five innings. In the start pri­or to that, he got rocked for 10 runs on 10 hits over five innings. Mar­quez is 1–2 with a 6.87 ERA in three starts at home this sea­son. He is 3–0 with a 4.91 ERA in five games (four starts) vs. the Padres at Coors Field. Richards is some­thing of an emer­gency starter, as his last start came dur­ing a dou­ble­head­er Thurs­day against the Mariners. He gave up six runs on four hits and two walks while strik­ing out none over two-thirds of an inning. Richards threw only 17 of his 33 pitch­es for strikes and gave up a pair of home runs.

Trend­ing: Raimel Tapia went 2‑for‑5 Sun­day from the lead­off spot. After start­ing the sea­son 2‑for-16 at the plate, he’s start­ed 16 of the Rock­ies’ last 17 games since Aug. 11, slash­ing .361/.466/.443 with a dou­ble, two triples and sev­en RBIs.

At issue: Right-hand­ed reliev­er Jairo Dias saw his ERA rise to 4.97 after giv­ing up two runs on three hits in one inning Sun­day. Right-han­ders are bat­ting .464 against him (13-for-28).

Pitch­ing Probables
Tues­day: Giants RHP Kevin Gaus­man (1–2, 4.54) at Rock­ies RHP Jon Gray (2–3, 5.45), 6:40 p.m., ATTRM
Wednes­day: Giants RHP Logan Webb (2–3, 4.75) at Rock­ies LHP Kyle Free­land (2–1, 3.43), 1:10 p.m., ATTRM
Thurs­day: Off