Colorado Rockies Top 39 Prospects

Below is an analysis of the prospects in the farm system of the Colorado Rockies. Scouting reports were compiled with information provided by industry sources as well as my own observations. This is the third year we’re delineating between two anticipated relief roles, the abbreviations for which you’ll see in the “position” column below: MIRP for multi-inning relief pitchers, and SIRP for single-inning relief pitchers. The ETAs listed generally correspond to the year a player has to be added to the 40-man roster to avoid being made eligible for the Rule 5 draft. Manual adjustments are made where they seem appropriate, but I use that as a rule of thumb.
A quick overview of what FV (Future Value) means can be found here. A much deeper overview can be found here.
All of the ranked prospects below also appear on The Board, a resource the site offers featuring sortable scouting information for every organization. It has more details (and updated TrackMan data from various sources) than this article and integrates every team’s list so readers can compare prospects across farm systems. It can be found here.
Rk | Name | Age | Highest Level | Position | ETA | FV |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Adael Amador | 20.2 | A+ | 2B | 2025 | 60 |
2 | Ezequiel Tovar | 21.9 | MLB | SS | 2023 | 50 |
3 | Dyan Jorge | 20.3 | R | SS | 2026 | 50 |
4 | Jordy Vargas | 19.6 | A | SP | 2026 | 45+ |
5 | Yanquiel Fernandez | 20.5 | AA | LF | 2025 | 45+ |
6 | Nolan Jones | 25.1 | MLB | RF | 2023 | 45 |
7 | Gabriel Hughes | 21.8 | AA | SP | 2026 | 45 |
8 | Sterlin Thompson | 22.0 | A+ | DH | 2027 | 45 |
9 | Hunter Goodman | 23.7 | AA | C | 2024 | 40+ |
10 | Jordan Beck | 22.2 | A+ | RF | 2027 | 40+ |
11 | Zac Veen | 21.5 | AA | RF | 2024 | 40+ |
12 | Drew Romo | 21.8 | AA | C | 2025 | 40+ |
13 | Warming Bernabel | 21.1 | AA | 3B | 2024 | 40+ |
14 | Connor Seabold | 27.4 | MLB | SP | 2023 | 40 |
15 | Jeff Criswell | 24.3 | AAA | MIRP | 2023 | 40 |
16 | Joe Rock | 22.9 | AA | SP | 2024 | 40 |
17 | Victor Juarez | 20.0 | A+ | SP | 2025 | 40 |
18 | Michael Prosecky | 22.3 | A | SP | 2026 | 40 |
19 | Brenton Doyle | 25.1 | MLB | CF | 2024 | 40 |
20 | Jaden Hill | 23.5 | A+ | MIRP | 2024 | 40 |
21 | Julio Carreras | 23.5 | AA | SS | 2023 | 40 |
22 | Benny Montgomery | 20.8 | A+ | CF | 2025 | 40 |
23 | Carson Palmquist | 22.7 | A+ | MIRP | 2026 | 40 |
24 | Gavin Hollowell | 25.6 | MLB | SIRP | 2023 | 40 |
25 | Brayan Castillo | 22.8 | A+ | SIRP | 2024 | 40 |
26 | McCade Brown | 23.1 | A | SIRP | 2024 | 40 |
27 | Braxton Fulford | 24.5 | AA | C | 2025 | 35+ |
28 | Bryant Betancourt | 19.7 | A | C | 2026 | 35+ |
29 | Robert Calaz | 17.6 | R | DH | 2029 | 35+ |
30 | Noah Davis | 26.2 | MLB | SP | 2023 | 35+ |
31 | Ronaiker Palma | 23.5 | AA | C | 2024 | 35+ |
32 | Jackson Cox | 19.8 | A | SP | 2027 | 35+ |
33 | Michael Toglia | 24.9 | MLB | 1B | 2023 | 35+ |
34 | Tommy Doyle | 27.2 | MLB | SIRP | 2023 | 35+ |
35 | Karl Kauffmann | 25.9 | MLB | SP | 2023 | 35+ |
36 | Riley Pint | 25.6 | MLB | SIRP | 2023 | 35+ |
37 | Dugan Darnell | 26.0 | AA | SIRP | 2024 | 35+ |
38 | Angel Chivilli | 20.9 | A+ | SIRP | 2024 | 35+ |
39 | PJ Poulin | 26.9 | AAA | SIRP | 2023 | 35+ |
Other Prospects of Note
Grouped by type and listed in order of preference within each category.
Up-the-Middle Depth
Andy Perez, SS
Ryan Ritter, SS
Kody Huff, C
Hunter Stovall, 2B
Bladimir Restituyo, CF
Braiden Ward, CF
Nic Kent, SS
Perez, 19, is a super projectable lefty-hitting shortstop from Cuba who skipped the complex and was sent to Fresno after two years in the DSL. His underlying bat-to-ball performance is better than his surface stats, but his swing is just so long and geared for low-ball contact that I’m not sure it will work long-term. Ritter has 14 bombs as of list publication, but he’s coming out of the SEC (he was the Rockies’ 2022 fourth rounder from Kentucky) so he should be crushing the Cal League. He’s striking out 25% of the time and, same as pre-draft, I don’t think he’ll hit enough to make the main section of the list. Huff was a multi-positional Phoenix high schooler who went to Stanford to catch. I think his swing is grooved, but Huffy has been super hot in the month leading up to list publication and could use a promotion to test the bat. Stovall has a long track record of bat-to-ball performance, but a 2B/1B/LF fit on defense needs a bit more pop than he has. Restutiyo, 21, can go get it in center field, but he has some of the worst plate discipline in pro baseball. Ward, 24, was Colorado’s 16th rounder in 2021 out of Washington. He can fly and has begun to see time at second base in addition to all three outfield spots. He’s performed at a near league-average level in A-ball, for which he’s pretty old. Kent, a 2021 11th rounder from Virginia, can really pick it. The 23-year-old is repeating High-A and having a better year with the bat than in 2022.
Injured Lefties
Helcris Olivarez, LHP
Sam Weatherly, LHP
Ryan Rolison, LHP
Olivarez and Weatherly have both been 40+ FV prospects in the past as hard-throwing lefties with plus breaking stuff. Both have been out for most of the last couple of years with severe shoulder ailments. A former first rounder, Rolison’s stuff was down after returning from shoulder surgery this year and he’s back on the IL as of early June.
Potential Relievers
Case Williams, RHP
Evan Justice, LHP
Michael Peterson, RHP
At points during the past couple of years, Williams (who has gone back and forth in trades from Cincinnati) has looked like one of the better pitching prospects in the system. At times, he’s been into the mid-90s with plus breaking stuff, while at others he’s in the low-90s and getting shelled. Maybe a shift to the bullpen will help him find consistency. The Rockies don’t really have to decide until next season, Williams’ 40-man evaluation year, at the earliest. Justice is a lefty reliever at Double-A Hartford who’s sitting 94-95 mph with plus deception and tailing action. He’s working with his heater about 70% of the time and a lack of slider feel is all that kept him from the main section of the list. Peterson has been a FanGraphs fascination for a while now, a British flamethrower who will touch 100 mph but struggles to throw strikes and stay healthy.
Potential Depth/Spot Starters
Connor Staine, RHP
Alberto Pacheco, LHP
Chris McMahon, RHP
Nick Garcia, RHP
Connor Van Scoyoc, RHP
Staine got off to a great start in his draft year at UCF before his stuff and command waned as the 2022 draft approached. At his best, he was sitting 94-97 mph with a good slider, but more often he’s 92-94 with fringe command. Pacheco is a 20-year-old lefty with plus command of below-average stuff. His slider command might enable him to outpace this projection. McMahon, a former second rounder, missed most of 2022 with injury but is back and pitching at Hartford, where he’s sitting 91-92 with a good slider. Garcia, 24, was Pittsburgh’s 2020 third rounder from D-III Chapman University and was acquired for Connor Joe. He is running a nearly 8.00 ERA at Hartford while sitting 90-92 with a good changeup. Van Scoyoc was acquired from the Angels for Mike Moustakas just before list publication. He sits 91-93 with a very strange angle that helps his fastball play in the zone as a bat-misser. He can cut or sink his heater and has an above-average curveball, but he isn’t a typical athletic fit on the mound and his arm action is so long that it has an intermission.
Power Bats
Aaron Schunk, 3B
Grant Lavigne, 1B
Robby Martin Jr., OF
Zach Kokoska, 1B
Both Schunk and Lavigne are former high draft picks who I worry lack the hit tools to profile at their respective positions. Schunk, 25, is a former second round pick who had that J.D. Davis/Casey Schmitt/Matt Chapman college role, in which he was a power-hitting third base prospect who also pitched. He fell off the prospect lists here after the 2021 season because of strikeouts, but he’s performed at or above the league average each of the last two years as an old-for-the-level player. Lavigne was a high school comp pick in 2018 who walks a ton and has a 40 bat with 50 raw power and a groundball-heavy profile. Martin was a big deal as a high school and college prospect, a physical lefty corner outfield prospect from Florida State with contact issues to overcome. Mr. Kokoska is 24 and currently crushing High-A. He has a super quick top hand that snatches high fastballs to his pull side with power. I’m skeptical of the performance because of his age and the hitting environment in Spokane.
System Overview
I consider this to be an average farm system, but there are scouts who cover the org who would think that’s light. I’m skeptical of the bats who have been at Spokane for most of this season, but in the course of work on this list, no fewer than three of my sources said they think that as many as a half-dozen Top 100 prospects have emerged from that group or will in the future. The gap between my evaluation of Jordan Beck and that of these sources seems to be the biggest. It’s not that I think these players are bad, just that they aren’t the everyday, omni-situational bats that I envision as Top 100 prospects. I am all-in on Adael Amador, though, who at worst has a skill set similar to Jeff McNeil’s.
The Rockies’ core competencies and deficiencies have remained the same for some time, even amid regime semi-change. Senior Vice President & General Manager Bill Schmidt has been a Rockie since 1999, but his GM tenure only began midway through 2021. During his time with the org, he has been at the crux of Colorado’s proficiency: scouting hitters. While they sometimes have scary plate discipline, the Rockies have consistently been able to find amateur hitters who make it to the big leagues. They don’t always hit it quite as big as Charlie Blackmon or Ryan McMahon, but most of the Rockies’ homegrown success stories of the last many years, and most of the exciting players currently in their system, are sticks. Even if I’m right and most of these guys are players you “win with” and not ones you “win because of,” there are still enough hitters in this system to Voltron together a good platoon contingent at the corner positions around a Tovar/Amador middle infield.
I mention it in a few blurbs but it bears repeating: You have to be careful not to scout the stat lines in this org. Most of the Rockies affiliates play in either a hitter-friendly home park or league, and their hitters’ output is often caricatured while their pitchers get bombed. It makes sense for this org to try to forge their pitching prospects in bandbox fire given what awaits them at the big league level. Still, this is where the Rockies have fallen short most often. They haven’t been able to acquire and develop pitchers who can sustain a high level of performance. They’ve certainly tried, but most of the pitchers in the system tend to be “arrow down” guys over time.
Lately (similar to Oakland) the Rockies have targeted “ready-made” pitching in trades, getting older arms back in smaller deals as if they’re attempting to circumvent their inability to develop them. The problem is that pitchers don’t necessarily sustain their performance, and keeping them healthy and effective often requires the same tools that made them good in the first place. The Rockies are playing a decade’s worth of catch up with regard to pitching dev understanding and technological infrastructure. They’re an incredibly secretive org, and it’s possible they’re actively trying to close that gap without it being obvious to those of us who hang around their primary complex diamond.
Eric Longenhagen is from Catasauqua, PA and currently lives in Tempe, AZ. He spent four years working for the Phillies Triple-A affiliate, two with Baseball Info Solutions and two contributing to prospect coverage at ESPN.com. Previous work can also be found at Sports On Earth, CrashburnAlley and Prospect Insider.
Eric, good insight from the system overview, thanks1