After three blown saves in the past week, Rockies manager Clint Hurdle decided it was time for a change. Corpas was named closer last July following a 1-9 road trip that saw Fuentes blow four straight saves.

Corpas excelled last season, converting 17 of 20 saves and five of six in the postseason. However, Corpas is 4-for-8 in save opportunities this year, while Fuentes has pitched well as the setup man with a 2.45 ERA compared to Corpas' 7.50.

"I think what you need to do is what's best for the club and that's to give the ball to Brian right now, get the heat off Manny and give him an opportunity to work his way out," Hurdle said.

While Fuentes had accepted his role as a setup man and not complained, it was no secret that he wanted to close. He has made the All-Star team each of the past three seasons as a closer and was off to a good start last year before his bad run in June eventually led to a stint on the disabled list.

"It's something that I really enjoyed doing," Fuentes said. "Coming in, I never had it as a goal when I first started playing. The more I pitched the more I realized how exciting of a job it was watching some other guys do it and found how hard it was, and now I'm ready to give it another try."

While Fuentes revels in his latest opportunity, he's also hurting for his teammate.

"If anyone knows, I definitely know what he's going through," Fuentes said. "There's a lot of things going through your mind -- doubt, anger and most importantly you feel like you've let your team down a little bit."

Hurdle plans to use Corpas as the team's main setup guy as he tries to regain his form from last season. Hurdle would not say if the change was permanent.

Corpas' main problem has been his ability to locate pitches. He's keeping the ball down -- as he had success doing last year -- but he's leaving the ball over the middle of the plate too often. His velocity is also down.

"He didn't pitch winter ball for the first time," Hurdle said. "I'm not sure what his velocity was early last season. We've looked and you try to fish and compare, but it's not abnormal for a player to not be throwing his best velocity early in the season as he does later in the season when he's well-oiled and moving.

"It's not a red flag, but again, when you're looking for a closer, you're looking for a guy to come in and put an exclamation point at the end of a game, as we were seeing [Corpas] do at the end of last season. We need to find a way to help him reclaim that."