BALTIMORE -- When Triple-A Albuquerque manager Pedro Lopez asked infielder Warming Bernabel to come to his hotel room in Salt Lake City, the 23-year-old was greeted with some less-than-pleasant news: “You’ve been traded.”
“I was like, ‘No way,’” Bernabel said via Rockies third-base coach Andy Gonzalez on Saturday. “Then he told me, ‘No, we didn’t trade you. You’re going. You got called up. You’re going to the big leagues.”
Immediately, Bernabel was hit with a rush of emotions. Five years in the Minors, injuries on and off the field, and one unsatisfactory season at Double-A led to that moment.
“There’s a lot of emotions,” Bernabel said. “Obviously, memories from where I was, from when I was a kid, all the way to now -- the good and bad and all the stuff I’ve been through. Definitely started crying and let a lot of emotions out. …
“It was a good -- it was a good moment.”
The Rockies selected Bernabel’s contract from Triple-A on Saturday, the day after they traded third baseman Ryan McMahon to the Yankees for a pair of top prospects.
Colorado plans to use Bernabel -- who boasts a .301/.356/.450 slash line over 75 games at Triple-A this year -- mainly at first base, though he will likely see reps at third as well. He was slotted into the lineup hitting eighth and playing first for his debut on Saturday vs. the O’s.
“He fits best at first base,” interim manager Warren Schaeffer said pregame. “He can bounce over to third if he needs to, if we need him to, but first base is the spot for him at the moment.”
Bernabel hit eighth and played first for his debut on Saturday, during which he went 1-for-3. His first big league hit came in the ninth inning of the Rockies’ 18-0 loss to the O’s at Camden Yards, when he reached on an infield single to lead off the frame.
“It’s awesome to see Bernabel come up here and get his first knock -- and leg out a single,” Schaeffer said postgame. “You could tell he wanted it bad. That’s the good stuff in this game.
“Any time a guy can get his first hit, it’s really special. You work your whole life to get here as a baseball player, and for him to get that knock, that’s huge for him.”
It’s been a long road to this point for the former Top 30 Rockies prospect, who last year was ranked No. 18 by MLB Pipeline. And Schaeffer has been there for part of that journey, making Bernabel’s callup (and subsequent debut) all the sweeter.
“It’s extremely exciting for me,” Schaeffer said. “I announced him in [the] hitters’ meeting, and the boys [gave him] a round of applause. It’s awesome. I’m happy for Warming -- I had him in ‘22 in the [Arizona] Fall League, managed him, so I’ve seen him grow up a little bit. And he’s come a long way since then.”
In 2018, the Rockies signed Bernabel as an international free agent. He began climbing up the ranks in the organization, slowly but surely making his mark. He was turning heads, even when he under-performed in 2023 -- though he missed six weeks with a back issue that year during what can be dubbed a “lost” season, both from a performance and injury perspective.
Then, a different kind of setback: In December 2023, Bernabel and his wife were picking up food from a restaurant in his native Dominican Republic when they were hit with an errant bullet during a robbery/mugging attempt. The bullet narrowly missed his spinal cord and vital organs, entering one side of his back and exiting through the other side, then hitting his wife in the biceps. They both recovered quickly, and Bernabel went back to work.
“That was the most impactful thing, all the stuff that [I’ve] been through,” Bernabel said. “Got on the roster, got off the roster. Five years in the Minor Leagues, and the shooting. So that makes this a lot -- very special for [me]. And it’s something I can talk about later on in [my] life.”
And so, almost six years after signing with the Rockies -- less than two years after that shooting -- Bernabel is finally getting his chance in the big leagues, and he’s determined to make the most of it.
“Last offseason, I worked hard,” Bernabel said. “There was no break for [me]. There was a lot of work, and obviously it’s paying off this year, and I’m very grateful for that. …
“[I’m going to do] nothing differently, just going to keep doing what [I’ve] been doing in the Minor Leagues that got me up here, and do my best so I can stay here the whole rest of the year.”