Charlie Condon Addresses His January 2025 FanGraphs Scouting Report
Charlie Condon was drafted just last year, so unlike the previous installments in this series, the 22-year-old corner infielder isn’t exactly revisiting “an old scouting report” here. The observations and opinions he is responding to were written by Eric Longenhagen this past January, less than sixth months after Condon was drafted third overall by Colorado out of the University of Georgia. At the time, the young power hitter had only 109 minor league plate appearances under his belt in the High-A Northwest League.
Eric wasn’t as bullish on him as many other evaluators were when our 2025 Rockies Top Prospects list was published. Our lead prospect analyst ranked Condon second in what he described as a “talented but imbalanced system,” but Eric also gave him just a 45+ FV, citing last year’s poor performance during his first professional season as one of the reasons to be concerned; Condon slashed .180/.248/.270 with a 40 wRC+.
The 6-foot-6, 215-pound right-handed hitter is doing his best to dispel doubts that he can develop into an offensive force at the big league level. After recovering from a non-displaced fracture of his left wrist suffered in spring training, Condon put up a 131 wRC+ over 167 plate appearances with High-A Spokane this season and earned a promotion to Double-A. Since joining the Hartford Yard Goats at the beginning of this month, he’s gone 6-for-27 with a pair of two-baggers.
In a twist to our Old Scouting Reports series, here are Condon’s responses to excerpts from Eric’s January write-up.
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“Condon went third overall, signed for $9.25 million, and then had a no good very bad pro debut at Spokane during which he hit .180 and struck out 31.2% of the time.”
“That’s just baseball, man, “ Condon said of his disappointing debut. “It’s part of the learning experience, and you have to be able to accept failure and take the positives out of it. I think I’ve learned since then. It’s a tough game.
“Some of it was timing,” the slugger said when asked to elaborate. “I was also getting a little big sometimes. I had to clean up some things with my bat path to help get ready for this year.”
“During instructs, Condon played defense but didn’t get at-bats, as if he was being given time away from the plate to reset.”
“I was dealing with a hand injury that I played through that first year of pro ball,” Condon explained. “I was dealing with that as well. We were trying to get on top of that at instructs, so I kind of took some time off of hitting to let my hand heal. So yes, I was just working on some defense stuff.”
“Condon’s swing is relatively grooved and stiff. He swings really hard and has an incredible ability to turn on pitches on the inner third, especially for a 6-foot-6 guy, but Condon doesn’t have great feel for manipulating the barrel.”
“That’s someone’s opinion,” the first-rounder replied. “I disagree with it. I hit .430 in college, so nobody can really say that. I know that the hit tool is in there. I didn’t show it very well last year, but I think I can manipulate the barrel pretty well.
“Everybody has got their hot and cold zones,” he added. “But I think I’m pretty good at what I do. I just need to continue to tighten things up and show it on this stage.”
“He was late on basically everything after the draft and wholly unable to pull the ball, which wasn’t the case when he was at Georgia, where Condon had a 90% contact rate against fastballs.”
“Yeah, I just didn’t have a great year,” Condon admitted. “I had to clean that up. Now it’s better.”
“He played third base, first base, and all three outfield spots during his time in Athens, and third base and left field after the draft.”
“I’m going to continue to keep playing a lot of positions,” Condon said. “I’m playing a lot of first base right now. It’s just wherever they need me, wherever I can help.”
“He is a better thrower from the outfield than he is from third base, and I thought he looked surprisingly skillful in center field at Georgia.”
“I was just trying to bounce around and play as many positions as I can,” he explained. “I played a lot of corner outfield before, and my last year of school they tried me in center field. I was pretty comfortable there, too. I’ve been able to move around.”
“Here Condon is projected as a flawed but powerful multi-positional role player rather than an impact third baseman.”
“Again, that’s someone’s opinion,” countered Condon. “Not mine. I disagree. I think I’m really good at what I do. I’m going to keep playing my game and putting in the work that got me here.”
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Previous “Old Scouting Reports Revisited” interviews can be found through these links: Shane Baz, Cody Bellinger, Matthew Boyd, Dylan Cease, Matt Chapman, Erick Fedde, Kyle Freeland, Max Fried, Lucas Giolito, Randal Grichuk, Ian Happ, Jeff Hoffman, Tanner Houck, Matthew Liberatore, Sean Newcomb, Bailey Ober, Matt Olson, Austin Riley, Joe Ryan, Max Scherzer, Marcus Semien.
David Laurila grew up in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and now writes about baseball from his home in Cambridge, Mass. He authored the Prospectus Q&A series at Baseball Prospectus from December 2006-May 2011 before being claimed off waivers by FanGraphs. He can be followed on Twitter @DavidLaurilaQA.
These are an excellent series of articles but something about this one feels a little icky to me. I could see it being interesting for a uniquely humble or introspective type of young player but I think probably 90% of high draft picks who haven’t lit the world on fire will likely have similar responses to Condon here.
I agree. Tough spot for him as a pretty young guy who had a bad start. It might be more interesting in a few years if he has success and has some more perspective, like a lot of the other interviews in this series.
He seems like a good sport for agreeing to do it though.
“Icky” isn’t the word I’d use which has pretty heavy negative connotations that I don’t think are justified. “Awkward”? Yes, as hell. I honestly felt uncomfortable for Condon, David, and Eric while reading this.
That is something I do wonder about sometimes when reading the scouting reports. I understand the point is to (try to) be as dispassionate as possible while reviewing thousands upon thousands of players, but the dismissiveness and certainty that the reports contains sometimes rubs me the wrong way.
I am almost certainly projecting a bit (let’s just say I have a very hard time, personally, with criticism, even when reasonably offered), but I often imagine the player themselves reading it.
Strongly agree. The way (tone) this specific scouting report was written, especially so recently, doesn’t lend itself well to this series
I agree. It is a little more insightful when they stick to older players who have gone through more lumps, bumps, successes, and adaptations to stick around in the league.
The series overall is exceptional though.
I feel like this works better when it’s someone who already beat the scouting report, so someone like Framber Valdez or Matt Olson. It’s one thing to reflect on your own journey and the haters when you have been successful, but when you’re in the middle of a rough transition this feels like piling on.
I dont disagree about the awkwardness for the reader but at the same time I doubt any of this was a big deal for Condon. These top guys have been hearing scouting reports/criticisms about themselves since they were like 12 years old (which is probably also why he handled it like it was nothing) and its going to be a thing for as long as he plays. Its kind of just part of the job and most guys seem to know and accept that. Also the amount of self confidence these guys have about their game is insane lol. I doubt Condon cares even a little bit about what any scout says about him. In his mind he is great.
hell, I was no where near good enough to be truly scouted like this but even I treated that “outside stuff” like background noise.