Colorado Rockies Top 43 Prospects

Dollander sat 93-95 mph as a freshman at Georgia Southern, then started throwing harder as a sophomore after he transferred to Tennessee. Throughout 2022 and 2023, he sat 94-97 with riding life and would frequently top out in the 98-99 mph range. In 2024, he sustained that across 23 starts, 118 innings, with the last two months of the season spent at Double-A Hartford.

Dollander does (or projects to do) everything well. He has plus fastball velocity, as well as the angle/movement traits you want in a power pitcher’s bat-missing heater. He also has a plus-flashing breaking ball in his upper-80s slider, a pitch that wasn’t turning the corner as consistently late in 2024, but was dominant early in the year. He can take a little off and show hitters a vertical curveball, too, and both breaking balls have distinct movement. Dollander’s changeup is improving despite limited usage. The pacing of his delivery, which has huge acceleration at the very end, should help mask his changeup, which has plenty of action and a chance to be yet another bat-missing pitch for him at peak. Dollander’s secondary pitches were dominant during the first half, but weren’t as impressive after the All-Star break. By the end of the season, his chase and miss rates were pretty average for his secondaries across the board, but remained outstanding for his fastball.

A strapping 6-foot-2, Dollander has the frame and delivery of a 160-plus inning workhorse. His line to the plate can waver at times, but for the most part his delivery and release are consistent, and Dollander’s fastball is nasty enough to give him lots of margin for error on the days when his command is a little looser. He’s going to be an impact mid-rotation guy — and maybe the Rockies’ best starter — very soon.

Condon set an SEC freshman record for homers as a redshirt frosh and slugged .800 in his first season of reps for the Bulldogs. He came into the 2024 season ranked 24th on the FanGraphs draft board due to concerns about his hit tool, then slashed .433/.556/1.009 (seriously) and hit 37 homers in 60 games, albeit during an historic season for offense in college baseball. 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. During instructs, Condon played defense but didn’t get at-bats, as if he was being given time away from the plate to reset. Perhaps because I was already relatively skeptical of Condon’s contact ability before the draft, I am reading his post-draft performance as signal, rather than a small sample aberration or the result of exhaustion.

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. His swing generates enormous power on pitches down and in, but it lacks precision and variability in other parts of the zone, and he has hit tool risk despite his college performance. 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.

How much room Condon’s contact issues will have to breathe is going to depend on where he ends up playing defense. 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. Condon bends well for a player his size, but his range at the hot corner is well below average. 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, though he’s a 40-grade runner and likely not a long-term fit there. Here Condon is projected as a flawed but powerful multi-positional role player rather than an impact third baseman.

Brecht didn’t sign coming out of high school in part because he wanted to play football at Iowa. He redshirted as a freshman, caught nine balls as a sophomore, and then focused solely on baseball as a junior. Walks have been an enormous problem for Brecht. He had more walks than inning pitched as a freshman, and 135 walks in 178 career innings for the Hawkeyes. He also had among the best stuff in the 2024 draft class, and has a rare combination of physicality and athleticism.

Brecht will sit 96 (he was 95-98 during instructs) and has touched 101. He has a relatively short stride down the mound for someone as big and athletic as he is, and his generic three-quarters slot has a negative impact on his fastball’s shape and movement. It plays well below an average pitch even though it has plus-plus velocity. Whatever can be done to help Brecht command his fastball or improve its movement will ideally be implemented without altering his slider, which is an 80-grade SOB that evokes Dinelson Lamet‘s upper-80s power breaker. Brecht also has a goofy low-90s changeup with big tail and fade. His secondary pitches diverge in such a way that makes it hard to stay on both of them at the same time.

Built like a marble statue at 6-foot-4 and 235 pounds, Brecht hasn’t been focused on baseball for very long and also hasn’t yet been in a developmental environment that can max him out, though that might still be true because Colorado’s developmental track record for arms isn’t great. The gap between where he is as a pitcher right now and what he could be is very large. There is precedent for teams solving issues like Brecht’s (Carlos Rodón’s command was a mess, too, though maybe not this bad), and he has enormous upside if someone can. Those right tail outcomes are absolutely baked into his FV grade, as is Brecht’s risk. At worst, Brecht looks like a potential late-inning reliever who works off of his secondary pitches more than his fastball. He could be a three-pitch mid-rotation stalwart if he and Colorado can find better control.

I gave over-enthusiastic weight to Amador’s small sample 2023 contact performance and rocketed him into the front half of the Top 100 prospects list. Then his 2024 season was a tale of two halves at Double-A Hartford: Amador slashed .194/.332/.313 before the All-Star break and .273/.357/.453 after. He made a brief 10-game big league cameo in June, more out of necessity than merit, and was never promoted to Triple-A Albuquerque, where he’ll likely begin his second option year in 2025.

The roller coaster ride that was Amador’s 2024 season once again makes him a fairly difficult player to scout, though because of his improved health (a broken hamate in 2023 clouded his raw power eval) and a more robust data sample than the season before, the picture has become more clear. Amador’s contact rates are great relative to other prospects (80% contact, 85% in-zone) but closer to average when you compare him to big league second basemen (80%, 87% respectively). This meshes with Amador’s visual evaluation. He can move the barrel around the zone, he spoils a ton of well-located pitches, and his stocky, compact build allows him to have a short swing and pull the baseball as a left-handed hitter. A small percentage of Amador’s lefty swings are ferocious, but for the most part, he utilizes a contact-oriented approach and generates below-average bat speed, which is even more the case when he bats righty. Despite this, Amador’s hard-hit rate and peak exit velocities are also right around the big league average, which speaks to the quality of the contact he makes even with mediocre bat speed. Still, his splits against average or better fastball velocity aren’t good, and that’s something to monitor out of the gate in 2025 as precise, publicly available pitch data is generated at Triple-A parks in real time. In short, Amador is a roughly average all-around hitter for his position, with some indicators that suggest he’ll trend down against better stuff.

Even though he’ll barely be 22 when the 2025 season begins, Amador’s size limits his power projection; the cement on his bottom-heavy physique is mostly dry. There are many examples of physically generic second basemen who hit enough to be impact players for at least a little while (Adam Frazier, Brendan Donovan, Jeff McNeil, etc.), but all of them make (or made) elite rates of contact, not merely the 55- or 60-grade rates Adael has.

Amador seems poised to be a second-division second base regular rather than an impact player, and it would make him much easier to roster if he finds a second viable defensive position, either third base or an outfield corner. He’s entering his second option year, so it might behoove Colorado to experiment with one of those in 2025 — if not during the regular season, then definitely in the AFL or LIDOM.

Fernandez’s prodigious left-handed power and very exciting long-term frame projection made him a need-to-know prospect while he was still in rookie ball. But as he has accrued more and more pro reps and generated more data, a crack has emerged in his profile: a lack of plate discipline. Even as Fernandez has enjoyed sensational surface-level performance (148 wRC+ and 17 homers in the first half of 2023, 120 wRC+ as a 21-year-old at Double-A Hartford in 2024), he has some concerning underlying indicators in his chase rates (38% chase, 57% chase with two strikes) and a visible issue with high-and-away fastballs that could become more problematic against big league stuff. Fernandez’s swing generates some epic homers, but he’s vulnerable to both whiffs and weak contact when pitchers execute to the outer third of the zone against him. Because Fernandez is a heavy-footed corner guy, he needs to rake to be an impact player, but each of these issues is potentially a real problem for his future offensive output. Jesús Sánchez (who has been okay, more talented than productive) and Oscar Colás (who has really struggled) illustrate the effects of these issues.

After struggling down the stretch at Triple-A toward the end of 2024, Fernandez went to the Puerto Rican Winter League and continued to flounder. He is still just 22 and has rare left-handed power; he’s a good prospect but an incredibly risky one despite his precocious mid-minors success. He should get to enough power versus righties to be a good platoon guy.

Palmquist’s arm slot has come up a lot since college and, though still low, it now looks much more like a lot of other starters’ arm strokes. Palmquist has also gotten much stronger since entering pro ball, and has now performed across a 27-start, 117.2-inning load, including success at hitter-friendly Hartford. Palmquist has retained enough of his Clay Rapada-like funk to remain deceptive, allowing his 91-mph fastball to punch above its weight. He mixes breaking ball shapes and speeds across a wide range of velos, most of them in the upper 70s. Palmquist’s slower breaking balls are the ones with his best swing-and-miss rates. These are sweepers in the 74-75 mph range, and likely will be less effective against big leaguers. Conversely, Palmquist’s changeup should have meaningful long-term growth as he gets more comfortable with this newer delivery; he also has the arm action and athleticism combo you want in order to forecast changeup growth. Palmquist lacks the pinpoint command one would need to be an impact starter with average stuff, but he’s poised to be a consistent no. 4/5 starter soon by virtue of his repertoire depth and deception.

Hughes looked incredible out of the gate in 2023 and even dominated the Dodgers’ big league lineup during a spring training game, but by July he was running an ERA well over 6.00, sitting 91-92 mph, and needed Tommy John. Hughes returned during the fall of 2024 and pitched during instructs and in the Arizona Fall League and looked fine.

Hughes attacks with a 93-94 mph fastball that often has a little bit of natural cut. His breaking stuff has plateaued; his 85-88 mph slider/cutter is average and lives off of his command, while his 79-82 mph curveball is well below average. Toss out Hughes’ surface-level AFL stats because he was clearly working on this curveball a ton during that stretch. His changeup, a tailing upper-80s offering, is getting better and might be his best pitch at peak. It often has enough tail to run off the front hip of lefty batters and back into the zone. Hughes’ prototypical size, athleticism, and arm action augur more changeup growth, as well as strikes and efficient innings. Hughes won’t be dominant, and I’m perhaps not appreciating how homer prone he’ll be sitting 93 in Colorado, but he should work efficiently and eat innings enough to be a team’s no. 4/5 starter during the regular season.

Vargas is a loose, ultra-projectable, strike-throwing starter prospect with a curvaceous breaking ball who missed 2024 recovering from Tommy John surgery. He checks every scouting box one could hope that a young pitching prospect would check, aside from maybe his fastball shape. From ages 18 to 20, Vargas’ fastball would sit 93-95 early in outings, and he’s built and moves in such a way that he might end up throwing considerably harder as his body fills out. He’s super loose, balanced, and mechanically consistent for a pitcher his age, in the Cristopher Sánchez or Brady Singer mold in terms of build and delivery.

Vargas’ curveball is a knee-buckling parabola of death, he’s adept at creating tail on his changeup, and his general athleticism and the looseness of his arm action portend continued growth in this area. His fastball’s shape doesn’t really complement his curveball right now, and similar to Singer, it might be tough for Vargas to miss bats with his heater unless he ends up throwing really hard (he was 92-94 during instructs in the fall of 2024) or makes a change to the pitch’s shape.

Vargas is also a good bit behind the developmental curve due to the unfortunate timing of his late-2023 Tommy John, which cost him all but a handful of developmental innings during instructs. The 2025 season is technically Vargas’ 40-man platform year, but the 64 Low-A innings he pitched before he blew out in 2023 were a career high. How the Rockies handle his innings load and promotion pace in 2025 will be interesting. They’ve experienced the drawbacks of adding very young pitching to their 40-man roster too soon (Helcris Olivarez), but Vargas is very talented and fairly polished for his age, so it’s plausible he could be sniped in the Rule 5 Draft if left unprotected. He’s among the most exciting pitching prospects in Colorado’s system and has the look of a college pitcher who gets drafted in the middle of the first round.

Thompson is a left-handed Miguel Vargas of sorts, a bat-only prospect without superlative physicality. Built in the Daniel Murphy and Nolan Schanuel mold, Thompson isn’t an especially mobile athlete, and he has trended down the defensive spectrum during the last few years from 2B/3B to 1B/LF, where he isn’t particularly sound. Thompson has great hands in the batter’s box, his pretty swing generates airborne contact from pole to pole, and he does not miss mistakes. He’s going to actualize the power he has, but it will only be fair pop unless something about his physicality changes drastically in his mid-20s. Now a career .270/.345/.430 hitter in the minors, Thompson has a roughly average contact and power combination undercut a bit by a lack of plate discipline. It’s enough to consider him a high-probability platoon piece, but not enough to consider him a foundational everyday player at the positions he’s capable of playing.

Calaz had among the best present raw power in the 2023 international signing class and he has reinforced that assessment so far in pro ball, as he has 19 homers in 105 career games and has posted peak exit velocities (113 mph max, 109 EV90) that would be plus on the big league scale, let alone for a teenage hitter. He clubbed his way off the complex in 2024, spending the final three weeks of the season at Low-A Fresno, and is now a career .336/.436/.603 hitter with 54 extra-base hits in 105 mostly rookie-level games.

The power aspect of Calaz’s profile is for real. Perhaps what is most absurd is how much thump he can generate without a leg kick — he starts with a very wide stance and uses just a little toe tap to get going. A very loose athlete, Calaz rotates with verve and ferocity, but in order to do so, his hips often clear very early, leaving him vulnerable to sliders away from him. This is a pretty serious issue already. Calaz ran a paltry 66% contact rate in 2024, worse than all but one qualified big leaguer (Zack Gelof). There are a handful of very toolsy whiff-prone power hitters in that contact rate area, including Christopher Morel and Logan O’Hoppe, both of whom are sound build/frame comps for Calaz. And Calaz projects to have raw power similar to other players in that group, like Brent Rooker and Adolis García. There’s 35-homer ceiling here, but there’s also a lot of bust risk because of how many rookie-level strikeouts we’re talking about.

Peralta looked like a perfectly fine lefty middle reliever in Pittsburgh’s system before he enjoyed a substantial velo boost throughout the 2024 season, during which he was traded to Colorado at the deadline for Jalen Beeks. He sat 93 mph in 2023 and 94 during the bulk of 2024, then found another gear when he was promoted to the big club in late August and sat 94-97.

Peralta hides the ball well and creates upshot angle on the pitch; if he can command it to the top of the zone more consistently, it should be a comfortably plus offering. Peralta’s low-80s slider lacks raw spin, but it has still been a platoon-neutral weapon that generated a miss rate around 50% from both lefties and righties in 2024. If the velo spike sticks in 2025, he’ll be one of Colorado’s high-leverage options.

A rock-solid two-way player at East Carolina and on Team USA, the mustachioed Agnos has focused on pitching in pro ball and has added nearly four ticks of velo to his fastball, which kept climbing throughout the entire 2024 season. He split the campaign evenly between High-A Spokane and Double-A Hartford, and ran a 1.38 ERA across 52.1 innings of relief.

Agnos has the tools to deal with hitters of either handedness, hence his multi-inning projection. He attacks hitters at the belt with a 94-95 mph fastball that features plus vertical movement, and he gets them to go fishing below the zone with a heavy, sinking changeup in the 83-87 mph range. Agnos can vary the speed on his lateral breaking ball and present hitters with a low-90s cutter look or a two-planed mid-80s slider. The latter gets some play as a backfoot offering to lefties, but Agnos tends to mix both breaking balls in against righties. His command of everything is good enough to wonder whether he might fit in a rotation, but he’s a squat guy with a fairly violent delivery, atypical of a starter in these ways. The 2025 season is Agnos’ 40-man platform year, but if he pitches like he did in 2024, he’ll probably be up before the end of the season.

Halvorsen was a pretty serious two-way high school prospect (at least to play both at a high level in college — he was seen as probably just a pitcher in pro ball) who began his college career at Missouri, where he had Tommy John as a freshman early in 2019. During the early part of his return from TJ as a sophomore, Halvorsen played center field for the few weeks before the pandemic shutdown. He was exclusively a starting pitcher in 2021, then transferred from Missouri to Tennessee and transitioned to a multi-inning relief role in 2022. There have been a few key adjustments to Halvorsen’s pitch mix along the way. He was fastball/curveball guy at Mizzou, threw more of a new splitter at Tennessee, and now he’s throwing a few ticks harder than in college and has added a slider. He raced through the minors and was in Denver just over a year after he was drafted, notching 11 scoreless outings in 12 September games.

All three of Halvorsen’s pitches can be nasty. Because he lacks precise command, both of his secondary pitches have a tendency to finish all over the place. His slider, which averaged 88 mph during Halvorsen’s big league trial, is hard enough to miss the barrel even when it backs up, and some of his mis-released splitters act like two-seamers running off the front hip of lefties and catching the corner. Fernando Cruz, Scott McGough and Erik Swanson are fair present comps for the way Halvorsen is likely to operate, with his pitch usage spread across his whole mix so that unpredictability can help him get away with his mistake locations. He profiles as the third- or fourth-best reliever in a good bullpen, one who has experience getting more than just three outs and who has the pitch mix to do so.

Mejia spent his first year on the 40-man roster entirely at Double-A Hartford, where he ran a 5.00 ERA but a 3.50-ish FIP and xFIP. Mejia has one of the more explosive and athletic deliveries in the minors, as well as an ideal pitcher’s frame at a lanky, broad-shouldered 6-foot-3. Mejia’s velocity has climbed into the upper 90s across the last couple of seasons, and he tends to coast in the 95-97 mph range with peaks around 100. The movement on his heater is lacking, and it played more like an average offering in 2024. The same is true of Mejia’s slider, though that pitch is more overtly nasty and instead underperformed because of Mejia’s poor command. Mejia’s delivery is almost too powerful for him to wrangle, and his release consistency suffers as a result. His ceiling as a reliever will be dictated by whether or not he can polish this part of his game. This is a relatively bullish projection, but Mejia is too freaky to slide even though he had an underwhelming 2024.

A slender, 6-foot tall pure reliever, Herrera spent three years in rookie ball and then exploded in 2024 as he split his season between both A-ball levels, totaling 62.1 innings in 46 games while striking out 92 and allowing just 80 baserunners. His fastball averaged about 94.5 mph during the regular season, but was 95-98 for me during Instructional League and 94-97 in the Dominican Winter League with Aguilas.

Herrera’s drop-and-drive delivery and three-quarters slot combine to create uphill angle on his fastball, making it very tough for hitters to get on top of it when he’s sitting 96-plus; that pitch had an absurd 42% miss rate in 2024. In order to hit his ceiling as a set-up man or closer, Herrera will need to improve at least one of his secondary pitches. His slider was in the 82-84 mph range during the 2024 season and instructs, but has been up in the 86-88 mph range in LIDOM, where it still lacks the finish and depth of a great slider. His changeup, often in the 87-90 mph range, tends to cut on him and finishes in vulnerable locations. Herrera’s long arm swing makes it tough to project a ton on his changeup, but even if his fastball ends up being his only impact offering, it’s going to be good enough for Herrera to be more than just a generic middle reliever. He’s a candidate for quick promotion in 2025 and is likely to be put on the 40-man after the season.

Cracks in Veen’s toolsy profile, which includes electrifying speed and plus raw power projection, began to show after he was promoted to Hartford in 2022. His 2023 was shortened and likely compromised by an injury to his wrist that necessitated season-ending surgery. He had something of a bounce-back 2024 as he hit .258/.346/.459 and reached Triple-A betwixt and between another couple of injuries, this time to his back and thumb. The Rockies put Veen on the 40-man roster after the season and it’s plausible he debuts in 2025, though because there’s an enormous stack of players with less roster flexibility ahead of him on the outfield depth chart, a 2026 debut is much more likely. This grade remains skeptical of Veen’s future ability to hit and access his raw power, but appreciates how impactful his speed will be in a part-time outfield role.

I’m excited by Veen for the same reasons anyone would be: He’s a ferocious rotator capable of hitting some epic home runs, and he’s built as if Maserati started making human beings. Veen has one of the more electric power/speed combos in the minors, but his levers and long, low-ball swing make it very difficult for him to be on time to the contact point, especially against fastballs, which has led to a good number of strikeouts and mediocre contact. Pitchers work him in on the hands, then get him to swing over the top of back-foot breaking balls once Veen starts to cheat on heaters in that spot. He’s best able to create power against bad breaking balls and pitches located down-and-away from him, when he can get his arms fully extended. When he does, it’s very beautiful and easy to see why so many folks (including your author) have been gaga for Veen at various points in his prospectdom. Still, as it’s currently constituted, he presents a below-average contact and game power look.

Veen brings other meaningful stuff to the table. He plays with an elite motor, moves from base to base with just a few gigantic strides, and commits to the next base with abandon in borderline situations. There are more opportunities for speed to impact the big league game now, which helps elevate Veen into a more impactful FV tier. On defense, his speed allows him to turn would-be doubles into singles by chasing them down before they can trickle into the gap or corner, but he doesn’t get good reads and looks uncomfortable at the catch point. Despite his wheels, the Rockies have basically never given Veen any kind of extended run in center field because his reads and routes aren’t good. It makes Veen feel like a turbo charged fifth outfielder on a good team rather than a true fourth or platoon guy.

Carrigg is a unique multi-positional prospect, a fair switch-hitter with some low ball pop from the left side of the plate and an all-world arm. He slashed .283/.359/.491 with 17 homers in his first full pro season, spent mostly at High-A Spokane. Both visual scouting and a data-oriented assessment of Carrigg as a hitter have him more average (contact) or a shade below (raw power). Both of Carrigg’s swings are geared for pull and lift (he has a pretty classic low-ball stroke as a lefty), and he’ll be able to get to relevant (if modest) power.

The Rockies deployed Carrigg behind the plate a little bit right after he turned pro, but he spent most of 2024 in center field, with infrequent starts at shortstop. A long-striding runner, Carrigg has plus speed underway but takes a little while to get going. In a year and a half of pro ball, Carrigg has now played twice as many games in center field as he did throughout his three years of college. He was more comfortable out there late in 2024 than he was at the start and should be average there in time. Plus, he brings show-stopping arm strength to the table. The way Carrigg’s body unfurls on a max-effort outfield chuck is incredible, though he isn’t an accurate infield thrower at all, and it’s a big enough issue that he might just be an outfielder. The peak outcome for Carrigg would be a dynamic, Willi Castro-esque utilityman, though he’s trending more like a good part-time outfielder whose career might have a relevant second act on the mound.

Hidalgo is a toolsy shortstop prospect with precocious power and potentially great defense. He had a monster 2023 season, his second in the DSL, where he slugged .574 and hit 12 homers, good for second in the league. His production was down the following year in Arizona — .288/.347/.365 — but Hidalgo was still one of just two hitters Colorado promoted from the complex to Fresno toward the end of the year (Robert Calaz was the other).

Hidalgo has all the physical talent needed for shortstop (especially the arm), but he’s currently unpolished and mistake-prone. He’s also big enough that it’s possible he’ll outgrow the position, but with that size comes exciting power projection. Hidalgo already has roughly average big league power and he’ll likely grow into more. He isn’t an especially skilled hitter — Hidalgo’s swing is long and imprecise, and isn’t anywhere near optimized to take advantage of his power. This is a risky prospect in a number of ways, but good shortstops with plus power are rare. Jose Barrero and Gabriel Arias represent outcomes with way too many strikeouts, while the Danny Espinosa and Tim Beckham window of production is more of Hidalgo’s median outcome.

Andujar signed with Colorado for $1.7 million in January of last year and was one of the youngest players in the class. He won’t be 18 until the end of July, when he’ll likely repeat the DSL. Amateur Andujar was billed as a speedy, contact-oriented infielder who should be a long-term shortstop fit, and that remains true. He only K’d 13.5% of the time last year and slashed .291/.376/.352. He is still very skinny and frail looking, but at just 17, that’s fine. The foundation of a good baseball player is here, now Andujar needs to layer on strength. It might take a few years yet, but once he does that, he should break out.

After a couple of years during which Romo simply didn’t look like his usual self on defense (he allowed an 80% success rate on steals in 2023), things appeared more normal in 2024 as Romo’s arm looked average, and his receiving and ball-blocking did too. He posted his second consecutive upper-level season with a 104 wRC+ and made his big league debut.

Romo has the tools of a backup catcher. He’s a solid if unspectacular defensive catcher now that his arm strength has mostly returned (though his throws back to the pitcher are still odd looking), and he looked comfortable catching big league stuff late in 2024. Romo is a plus contact hitter with below-average bat speed, and his hit tool and game power both play down a bit because he’s an overly aggressive swinger. The strapping lad should play a well-rounded backup role for a very long time.

Hill was an exciting high school prospect with a low-90s fastball and a plus changeup, but wildness helped funnel him to LSU, where he experienced a huge velo spike. Multiple injuries, including a 2021 Tommy John, prevented Hill from pitching enough to prove that he had bettered his command. He was developed as a starter in 2022 and during the 2023 regular season after he had returned from his TJ rehab. He battled shoulder soreness in 2023 and picked up reps in the Arizona Fall League as a reliever. His stuff took a leap, with his fastball up about three ticks into the 97-99 mph range, while both of Hill’s mid-80s secondary offerings flashed plus or better. Hill entered 2024 as a pure reliever, dominated Double-A, and reached the big leagues.

Though Hill has three plus pitches, he’s a little too wild to trust in high-leverage spots. He’s nearly a sidearm thrower whose fastball tails, sometimes way, way in on righties. His changeup also has a lot of tailing action, and the horizontal split between his slider and his two other pitches forces hitters to deal with a tough combination of east/west movement, though his lack of command doesn’t enable these pitches to consistently play to their full potential. Hill projects as a feast-or-famine middle reliever.

Perez is a slow-burning, projectable, 6-foot-3 shortstop who makes terrific rates of contact despite an over-aggressive approach. In 2024, Perez repeated Low-A and found a new gear of power as he more than tripled his career home run total with 10 bombs on the year. Perez’s combination of a lanky build and physical projection is very exciting and atypical for someone who has maintained plus contact rates as a pro (91% in the zone and 82% overall in 2024). Though Perez is often late to the contact point and his chase is scary (40%, essentially 30-grade plate discipline), he has had bat-to-ball success despite his issues for each of his four pro seasons, and he makes a plus rate of contact outside the zone. He’s a great bender for an athlete his size, and so long as he adds arm strength as his frame fills out, which might also yield more power, he has a decent shot to remain at shortstop for the long haul. Much of Perez’s profile is still magmatic, but potentially viable shortstops with this kind of size and contact feel are uncommon. Perez is a good long-term prospect of rather extreme variance, with his right tail outcomes that of a regular shortstop.

Thomas was a draft-eligible sophomore who posted a career .336/.418/.565 line at Texas with an 18% strikeout rate. He barely played affiliated ball after the draft. Thomas has an ideal baseball frame at a super projectable 6-foot-2; he has above-average power to both gaps and is going to grow into more. His dynamic low-ball swing plays best when Thomas’ bat path is vertical; it tends to be too long when he has to flatten it out to catch fastballs away from him. His power can be neutered in the down-and-away part of the strike zone. Barring the shortening up of Thomas’ swing, what were average college contact rates will likely translate to below-average rates in pro ball, but he might grow into enough power for that to be alright. At Texas, Thomas played center field, left field, and first base. His reads in the outfield aren’t very good and unless they improve, his arm forces him to left. Thomas only has the two years of college experience, so it’s worth a shot to continue things in center for at least a little while, and the Rockies played him in left and center during his brief pro debut. Thomas’ realistic ceiling is as a power-over-hit 1B/LF platoon bat, and he requires a little more projection than is typical of a college hitter.

Blalock was selected as a safety pick in the 32nd round of the 2019 draft under the assumption that he was heading to school, but when the ink was dry everywhere else, Boston still had enough bonus pool money left to sign him for $250,000. He had an inconsistent full-season debut in 2021, but also showed significant growth in terms of velocity, sitting 93-95 mph. He entered 2022 as a potential breakout guy, but injuries (TJ and an oblique injury) have impacted large portions of Blalock’s last few seasons and his stuff has been more average of late. During that span, he was traded from Boston to Milwaukee (for Luis Urías) and then to Colorado as part of the Nick Mears deal.

Blalock made his big league debut in 2024 with six starts, most of which came toward the end of the year. His position on the rubber changed a couple times throughout the season, including in his final big league outing. It seems like there’s still tinkering happening here. Blalock has a due north arm slot and vertical fastball/breaking ball attack. He has four decent pitches and should be a fine spot starter while he has options left, and then transition to a long relief role when he’s out of them.

Sullivan is an ultra-deceptive cross-bodied lefty with 20-grade velocity. He’s done well in the mid-minors despite sitting 87 mph because of a mix of deception, command, and quality secondary stuff. Sullivan’s stride direction takes him toward the first base line at an extreme angle, and this, in concert with his low three-quarters slot, takes hitters a few looks to get comfortable with. Sullivan’s fastball averaged 90 mph in 2023 and 87 mph in 2024, but he still managed a 2.11 ERA, 125 strikeouts and just 15 walks across 115.1 innings, good for a microscopic 3.4% walk rate. In college, Sullivan’s repertoire was fastball-heavy in the extreme at about 75% usage. His usage is still really high (67% in 2024), but he’s been branching out in pro ball and his changeup generated huge rates of chase and miss last year. His slider plays by virtue of Sullivan’s odd release. It’s fair to be skeptical that this will actually work in a starting pitcher capacity — asking a guy who sits 87 to navigate a big league lineup three times feels like too much — but in short relief bursts where hitters have no time to adjust to Sullivan’s funk, he should be fine.

Mahoney played both ways a little bit as an underclassman at SC. He pitched out of the bullpen during most of his freshman year, then missed 2022 recovering from Tommy John, though he was still able to hit some that year. He held 92-94 and touched 96-97 across 17 starts as a junior, and Mahoney was thrown right into the fire from an innings standpoint in 2024, as he worked 120 frames and ended his season in Spokane. It was a very positive campaign for Mahoney even though the Cal League was probably beneath his skill level — he held average velocity all year and walked just 30 guys. His fastball tails, he commands a short, mid-80s slider sitting 84-86 mph, and he has arm-side changeup feel. Mahoney’s feel for location is advanced considering his lack of college reps and he has a shot to develop three average pitches. There’s a backend starter projection here, with a non-zero chance he’s scratching the surface of more.

Carreras’ excellent defense should carry him to a low-impact utility role. He has fantastic defensive footwork, his hands, actions, and transfer are all lightning quick, he has a flair for making acrobatic plays around the second base bag, and his arm (if a little inaccurate at times) is very strong. As he enters his age-25 season, Carreras remains rather thin and has plateaued with gap doubles power, which he struggles to get to because he tends to chase. It’s the skill set of a glove-only nine-hole hitter. On a good roster, Carreras would be used as a defensive replacement.

Reyes is a skills-over-tools center field prospect with some catalytic qualities and deficient present power. He slashed .266/.392/.328 in the Complex League in 2024. Perhaps Reyes’ most impressive skill is his plate discipline, which is steely even with two strikes. He’s also a plus runner, plays good center field defense, and bunts well. Though he’s of medium build and likely to add a fair bit of strength as he matures, Reyes is currently so lacking in power that it’s tough to forecast him for enough pop to play every day. Instead, he has the skills of a good extra outfielder à la Michael Siani or Myles Straw.

Hernandez is a stocky, low-to-the-ground athlete with plus defensive hands and terrific feel for the barrel. After two years in the DSL, he slashed .305/.417/.360 and managed a 93% in-zone contact rate on the complex in 2024, but he’s still looking for his first pro homer. Hernandez’s style of hitting is geared more for opposite field line drive and groundball contact, but he squares the ball up in that direction and is incredibly difficult to make swing and miss. Roynier is compact and strong, but his frame lacks typical strength projection; he has a Yonny Hernández or Neifi Perez type of build. The Rockies have been deploying him all over the infield, and he is slick and sound at every spot. Hernandez’s size will limit his impact, but his defense gives him a sort of floor as a low-impact utilityman.

Herrera had something of a breakout 2024. The gigantic righty began the season in Milwaukee’s Low-A bullpen, but by the end of May, he was in the High-A rotation. He was then traded to Colorado as part of the Nick Mears deal and finished the season in Spokane. Herrera’s combined line: 100.2 IP, 85 H, 110 K, 34 BB, 3.04 ERA.

Herrera is listed at 175 pounds but is more like 250. He’s a below-average athlete who has struggled to throw strikes at various points during his career, and he still looks like he has below-average command despite his reasonable walk total from 2024. Herrera’s best pitch is his slider, a tight mid-80s hellraiser with late bite and good length for how hard it is. Still, too many of his sliders back up on him right now. He has a well-demarcated four-seam/two-seam fastball mix, but no cogent third pitch yet. Herrera’s velo keeled off at the very end of the year and he was put on the IL with elbow inflammation in September (he also had a hamstring issue last season); the Rockies left him off the 40-man roster. There’s a little too much development needed here to comfortably project Herrera as a starter, but he should be a fine sinker/slider middle reliever in time.

A high-waisted, bubble-butted southpaw with a rectangular frame, Casilla was one of the more exciting pop-up arms of early 2024 backfield action, as the teenage lefty’s fastball was routinely in the 95-98 mph range, and he flashed a nasty two-planed breaking ball. Frustratingly hittable and wild, he posted a 32.9% K% and 16.2% BB% in 12 regular season appearances, then Casilla seemed to get hurt during Instructional League activity toward the end of September. The exact severity of the injury is unclear, but it looked pretty bad. His fastball angle and shape cause it to play beneath its velocity, his command dilutes the effectiveness of his entire repertoire, and he needs to develop a third pitch in order to start, but Casilla’s arm strength and breaking ball quality are a great starting point for a young pitcher. If his injury was bad enough to cost him a portion of 2025, it will funnel him further toward a reliever future, though he has late-inning upside in that role.

Jones is among the most fun to watch players in the minors. He’s a top-of-the-scale athlete who plays spectacular (albeit inconsistent) defense at several positions, and he has incredible speed and above-average raw power. Now 26, Jones still hasn’t made progress in a few key areas, namely his infield hands and arm accuracy, and his contact hitting. He hit .267/.344/.453 in his first season in the Rockies system, but K’d at a 35.5% clip, which is actually a good bit better than his 2023 rate (38.8%). Jones swings pretty hard and can tag a fastball, but he’s hapless against secondary stuff; this is the kind of guy who’d hit .180 or so with regular reps.

At a certain point it was feasible that a young, switch-hitting Jones would make meaningful progress in this area, but that hasn’t happened. Instead, it’s via his speed and defense that Jones remains relevant. Though he struggled with flubs and underthrows, Jones was developed solely at shortstop for his first four years in the Rays system and wasn’t given run in center field until 2023. Traded to Colorado for Joe Rock that offseason, he’s now been exposed to a mix of CF/SS/2B and sometimes plays all three like your friendly neighborhood Spiderman, with highlight-reel acrobatics. Too often, though, Jones is flub-prone on the infield, and his throwing is much, much better from the outfield, where his relative inexperience still sometimes shows. He’s below average at short and has played just eight games at second, but Jones is such an unbelievable athlete that I’m still betting he becomes a very special defensive center fielder in his late 20s. He still has value as a late-game runner and defender.

Montgomery was a divisive amateur, a big-framed center field prospect with a rare power/speed combo and fair batted ball showcase performance for a cold weather guy. Detractors were scared of how cacophonous his swing was and thought he’d need an overhaul to hit at all in pro ball, while model-driven teams rounded down on Montgomery because he was nearly 19 on draft day. The Rockies picked Montgomery eighth overall, then he had a big first full season (.313/.394/.502 at Low-A) but struck out at an alarming rate. That carried into 2023, when Benny’s output dipped closer to league average. He barely played in 2024, dislocating his left shoulder and damaging the capsule and labrum during an outfield dive. He had season-ending surgery after just 11 games at Hartford.

Montgomery went to Puerto Rico for winter ball after the season, and though he had clearly spent a lot of his rehab in the weight room, his swing is still noisy and odd. Montgomery’s added mass hasn’t cost him much speed, but he’s still a tentative and clumsy defender in center field. Missing 2024 reps because of his injury really stings. Rust accumulates with months off, and Montgomery is returning from a severe injury he suffered while playing defense; it’s fair to give him time to get comfortable out there. Still, even if he does, I fear it will be rendered moot by the lack of functionality in Benny’s swing. He’s a 64% contact rate guy combined in 2023 and 2024 (Cactus League, Clemente League, scraps from Hartford), which is a pretty scary number. Because he’s so young and physically impressive, and plays hard, Montgomery is still a prospect, but it doesn’t appear he’s going to actualize his tools into real production without a swing overhaul.

After pitching out of the Louisville bullpen for his entire college tenure, Prosecky’s pro career got off to a great start in the Fresno rotation in 2023. He began 2024 on the shelf with elbow inflammation, but he was good when he returned: 14 games, 48.2 IP, 78 K (but a 1.42 WHIP). Prosecky only sits 91-93 mph, but hitters don’t seem to pick it up. The southpaw has a short, vertical arm stroke that helps his heater play as an in-zone bat misser despite below-average velocity. He hides the ball forever and it appears to jump on hitters very quickly. He throws a classic 12-to-6 curveball off of that, a pitch that’s virtually indistinguishable from his fastball until it starts to bend with huge, bat-missing depth. Those two pitches give Prosecky a lower-leverage reliever’s foundation. Prosecky’s arm stroke isn’t always well timed, and his strike-throwing results have been mixed during this try as a starter. In the 2024 Fall League, Prosecky was working with a second breaking ball, a slider in the 82-84 mph range that looked below average. There’s definitely more variance here than is typical for a guy who sits 92, but Prosecky is tracking like a low-leverage lefty.

Coupet is a low-slot lefty with a huge breaking ball who struck out 12.45 per 9 IP across a career-high 86 innings in 2024. He never worked more than 64 innings at Ohio State and struggled with walks as an underclassman, but he’s thrown enough strikes the last two years to merit development as a starter. Another potential barrier: Coupet has a fastball that only sits about 90 mph. His two breaking balls are both fantastic, especially his tight, low-80s slider, which Coupet commands to the glove side with consistency. He can subtract velocity and bend in a nasty mid-70s curveball, which is a good first-pitch weapon against righties, but Coupet’s arm slot, plus his lack of velocity or a changeup, make him otherwise vulnerable to significant platoon splits. He’s likely a bulk reliever who specializes in lefties.

Ritter is a flashy but inconsistent shortstop defender who had a 24 home run/20 stolen season in 2023 (though keep in mind, he was an SEC alum in the Cal League). Ritter produced more modestly in 2024 — .270/.370/.403 with a .353 BABIP — but that was still good for a 126 wRC+ in the Eastern League. Ritter does some acrobatic stuff at shortstop but, even at age 24, he needs technical polish. He’s well-built and mobile enough to continue to develop at short, but a lot of what he does there takes a little too long, and scouts’ opinions of Ritter’s defense are all over the map. Ritter has good power for a middle infielder but looming issues against sliders, including ones that finish in the zone, have me stopping short of projecting him for enough offense to be a good team’s utilityman. Instead, he’s a bottom-of-the-40-man type whose athletic longevity and power should keep him in that area for a while.

It’s fair to be skeptical of Wimmer’s 2024 Low-A performance — .285/.362/.435, 14 home runs, 34 stolen bases — both because of his age and his big school background, but his ability at shortstop is a constant that will play at every level. He has poise, grace, good hands, and plenty of arm. Expect Wimmer’s strikeouts to climb as he traverses the minors; he lacks bat control but has enough power to be dangerous against pitches down and in. It should be enough offense for Wimmer to play a bench infield role.

One of Eric’s two sons in pro ball (Jared pitches in the Dodgers system), Kyle hit .276/.342/.407 at UCLA and signed for just over $430,000 in 2023. He hit .311/.390/.485 in his first full season, another of the Rockies’ recent college draftees who put up monster numbers at hitter-friendly Spokane in 2024. Karros is very likely not that good a hitter. He’s a stiff-legged athlete whose upright manner of swinging leaves him very vulnerable to secondary stuff at the bottom of the zone. Karros’ carrying tool is his third base defense. He’s not explosive or rangy, but he’s incredibly smooth and capable of making great throws from all kinds of odd platforms. It’s important for Karros to add strength to his 6-foot-5 frame, as he needs to develop power to counter a below-average contact projection. That and the introduction of other corner positions on defense are key developmental variables to watch as Karros treks toward a four corners bench role.

Bernard is a hard-swinging corner outfield prospect who leveled the 2023 DSL (his second year in the league) because of his physicality and bat speed. He slashed .296/.360/.440 in Arizona in 2024 but K’d a terrifying 32% of the time. Of fullback build, Bernard has a rare combination of short levers and big strength, and he’s going to get to power in games by virtue of this. However, he lacks traditional physical projection and has exhibited some strikeout red flags so far. He swings with big time effort and can lose track of the baseball during the process. After playing mostly second base in his first pro season, Bernard largely shifted to left field in year two and played exclusively in the outfield corners in 2024. Bernard’s ability to punish the baseball makes him a notable young prospect, but he’ll need to cut the strikeouts to profile toward the bottom of the defensive spectrum.

A two-year member of the Longhorns’ starting rotation, Johnson is perhaps better suited for the bullpen in pro ball. He has a heavy mid-90s sinker with extreme downhill plane — he has a vertical release height just shy of seven feet tall. He’ll bump 98-99, but tends to live in the 93-96 mph range. Johnson’s upper-80s slider runs downhill with even more vertical finish, and is as hard as 90-91 mph. As his fastball is more of a grounder-getter, Johnson’s slider is his lone realistic bat-misser, and he barely throws a changeup. He walked 4.8 per 9 IP in college, another indication that Johnson is headed for a relief role.

Ozuna had among the best stuff of Colorado’s complex-level group in 2024 but his ultra-long, inconsistent arm action creates a lot of relief risk. He worked 37 innings in 10 games (half of them starts), striking out 45 and allowing 48 baserunners. Ozuna’s control is worse than it performed on paper, but he has a lightning-quick arm and a shot to develop a nasty fastball/slider combo despite his slider’s lack of raw spin. For now, he’s a developmental starter prospect with arm strength and not a lot else.

Sanchez was Colorado’s hardest-throwing DSL pitcher in 2024, a big-framed, high-waisted, long-armed 6-foot-4 righty who works in the mid-90s with sink and tail. He made 13 starts and worked just 33.1 innings, so whether he can maintain that velo across a starter’s share of innings remains to be seen. His release is fairly inconsistent (as is his breaking ball quality) and he is a tad more filled out than the typical teenage pitcher. Both those things add to the relief risk here, but from a stuff standpoint, Sanchez has the foundation of a good young starter prospect. In addition to his sometimes 96-97 mph fastball, he has an average, bullet-style slider in the 82-85 mph range and an impressive power changeup in the 88-90 mph band. He’s a developmental name to know with a great arm.

Villar is a lefty-hitting infielder who is at least as likely to end up at second or third base as he is shortstop. He is fairly projectable and already has some verve and authority in his wrists.