Colorado Rockies Top 44 Prospects

In a draft light on high-upside position players, Holliday was perhaps the singular exception. He’s been tooled up since his days as an underclassman at Stillwater High, when crosscheckers coming in to see his brother Jackson left almost more impressed with the freshman manning the hot corner. Colorado, understandably desperate for a franchise player, selected Holliday fourth overall and paid him $9 million to sign, the highest bonus in last year’s draft.

Holliday’s physicality stands out immediately. Four inches taller and a few dozen pounds of muscle bigger than his brother, Ethan has the strength and the build of a player in his mid-20s. He’s no stiff either, a fluid mover who looked great defensively this spring, and may even have a chance to stay at short. He has a fast bat and there’s loft in the path, which feeds the immense power projection listed above. He even shows a little feel for manipulating the bat head and using the whole field.

But while Holliday hammers the ball when he does connect, it’s the lack of contact that looks most worrisome here. His numbers weren’t particularly good on the showcase circuit, and anybody who hoped that a cameo at Low-A would render that moot will have to keep waiting. Holliday’s .239/.357/.380 line in 18 games at Fresno is more than fine on its own, but 33 strikeouts in 84 plate appearances suggests that there’s a long path ahead. Speaking of long paths: Holliday’s bat travels a considerable distance from the time his hands get going. He has a long and deep load with a hand loop, and then long levers on top of that. Once he starts, there’s real venom in the swing, but right now pitchers are throwing pedestrian velo right past him.

Holliday will likely need to make an adjustment, either to the length of his path or to his load; in his current form, he just looks too vulnerable to velocity. The bet here is that Holliday finds a way to make it work. He’s so strong and talented in other ways in the box that we’re in on him as a potential star, even with the red flags lurking. Consider this grade more of a reflection on his upside than our conviction in his likelihood to reach it.

Condon put up cartoonish numbers at Georgia, homering 62 times in two seasons, including 37 times in 2024 alone, when he hit .433/.446/1.009 in a Golden Spikes-winning campaign. He was considered by many the top prospect in that year’s draft, and when he fell to the third overall pick, Colorado seemed a perfect match of offensive upside and future park.

It may still prove to be. Eric was (and remains) skeptical of Condon even while he was riding roughshod over the SEC, and his first year-and-a-half of pro at-bats have only validated pre-draft concerns about a grooved bat path and trouble recognizing spin. You can wave away a rough pro debut, as post-draft cameos are kind of awkward, and he was battling through a bone spur in his finger at the time anyway. But even as a wrist fracture last spring complicates the evaluation of his 2025 performance, it’s becoming fair to wonder how much pop Condon will bring into games.

There’s little doubt about his raw impact. Condon is a big guy with plus bat speed and a powerful swing that produces data commensurate with the visual evaluation. His 90th-percentile exit velocity was nearly 106 mph last year and his max was over 112, both of which are plus. He also had a 44% hard-hit rate and a 13 degree average launch angle that looks, well, like a match for a guy who bashed 60 homers in college. Still, he only homered 14 times in 99 games while running a 131 wRC+ across High- and Double-A, which are both fine in the aggregate, but underwhelming for a player with this skill set. This coincided with a move to first base — perhaps just to protect the wrist, perhaps not. We’ll see what Colorado’s new regime decides to do here, because Condon has played elsewhere and looked like a perfectly fine corner outfielder as a pro.

Ultimately, the power potential here is too great to ignore despite everything else. There’s enough noise and hand injuries lurking to think that there’s some small chance of a big breakout coming, but even if there’s not, Condon projects as a 2-3 WAR player with 35-plus homer potential, even if he’s flawed elsewhere.

Something to admit at the outset: Brito is my favorite player in the minors, a talented, versatile, and projectable spark plug on both sides of the ball. Every generation has a super utility player or two who produce enough to warrant a 50 FV grade (or higher) even absent a consistent defensive home: Chone Figgins, Ben Zobrist, Tommy Edman, etc. It’s early in his career, but if you had to pick a single minor leaguer to follow in those footsteps, you might choose Brito. He’s a switch-hitter with projectable power, 70 speed, and already a nuanced feel for two middle-of-the-diamond positions. He crushed the complex last summer and then hit .375/.442/.463 in 33 games following a promotion to Low-A Fresno.

Brito is a medium-framed plus athlete, twitchy with deceptive strength. At the plate, he has a lovely trigger on both sides and is a line drive shooter to all fields. He’s a threat to do everything. He’ll flash the short game, he’ll fake bunt and swing, he can take a walk, he’ll shorten up with two strikes, he can drive a ball to the gap — if variety is your thing, this is your guy. There is some risk in his approach, and not just with respect to his swing decisions, which are aggressive. On his best swings, Brito incorporates his lower half well and is direct to the ball. His swing can get pushy, though, and particularly from the left side, he’ll pull off the plate, almost like a softball player already thinking of beating out a groundball. There’s some swing-and-miss to his game, and he hasn’t yet translated his raw power into over-the-fence damage. For better and worse, he’s a very aggressive hitter, and he’ll need to dial it back a little, particularly with two strikes.

Defensively, Brito projects above average in center field and at second base. His jumps in center are good, and while he’s still learning the finer points of the job, he looks like he’ll have the speed and tracking skills to be good out there. He’s also shown solid instincts and range at the keystone: In one standout sequence, he raced far to his right on a chopper up the middle, backhanded a short hop, and flipped accurately behind his back to second. He’s also got a very quick transfer and enough arm strength to at least think about whether he could play short as well.

This is an aggressive valuation. There are markers in the data — a 74% contact rate, 47% chase with two strikes, an unsustainable BABIP that is obviously floating his topline production in a way that won’t translate like this to the higher levels — that justify skepticism, and we wouldn’t argue with evaluators inclined to pump the brakes a little bit. But while every 18-year-old has warts, few can do as many things as well as Brito can. This is an absurdly well-rounded collection of tools, and he already has a few skills to go with them. Brito projects as an everyday guy in some capacity, and has several ways to be useful in a reserve role if the bat falls a little short of projection.

Dalis was a young, small-dollar signee who had a rough debut season in 2023, which has made his subsequent development at the plate a pleasant surprise. In his first stateside season, the Venezuela native mauled the complex and then held his own over two months at Low-A Fresno, where he posted a league-average line as an 18-year-old. He’s an athletic kid with quick hands and a whippy swing, and he has a puncher’s chance to turn into a low-end five tool player.

Dalis is a switch-hitter with similar swings from both sides of the plate. He has a lofted cut and direct path, with some ability to flatten the barrel on balls up. As it is for many his age, spin is a problem, and the way he pulls off the plate limits his ability to cover the outer half slightly. These are relatively minor quibbles for a teenager with above-average bat speed and bat-to-ball skills, though.

Defensively, Dalis has bounced all over the infield as a pro, and a future at shortstop isn’t out of the question. He has the actions and range of a middle infielder and just enough arm for the left side of the diamond. The safest guess is that he winds up at second, but if given 10 chips and an assignment to place bets on his ultimate home, I’d have tokens on all three spots.

Dalis was a standout this spring. In our looks, he took good at-bats, showed the capacity to make adjustments, and demonstrated that he can square up a good fastball above the belt. More tangibly, after posting a max exit velo of 108 mph last year, he hit a few balls that hard or close to it in the handful of at-bats we observed. It’s early, and caveats about going nuts on spring training looks apply to minor leaguers too, but the arrow sure looks like it’s up here.

Brown pitched sparingly in college and then missed the better part of two pro seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery. That pushed him well off the radar, even though he was once a third-round pick with arm strength and projectable stuff. Back fully healthy at the start of 2025, he had a breakout season, posting a 2.47 ERA with 12.33 strikeouts per nine in 20 minor league starts. While his initial big league foray went poorly, the context makes me inclined to cut him some slack; he’d made just 11 starts above High-A prior to his big league debut and was rushed into a very difficult environment.

Brown has a starting pitcher’s frame, build, and motion. His delivery is short and clean, his arm swing loose and repeatable. If anything, his stroke is a little too slow, which makes him easier to time than you’d like. On stuff, he returned from surgery with everything intact, if not a little crisper. He sits 93-97 and touches higher with good extension on the fastball, though without bat-missing shape. All of his secondaries at least flash above-average, and while there isn’t a killer out pitch, the way he can work different sides of the plate and hit the zone with his breaking balls gives him a lot of ways to get ahead in counts. The change is worth a mention by itself, as he has good arm speed, velo separation and tail, but he tends to miss badly with it; improving his command of that pitch would do wonders for his future as a starter.

The ultimate role here remains murky. Brown has the arsenal depth to turn a lineup over, but his endurance remains a big question mark. He averaged fewer than four innings per outing in 2025, and he tended to fade significantly over the course of his starts — not just from turning the lineup over, but also with marked dips in his velocity, command, and execution. Rockies fans should be heartened that there are sources within the org who think he’s a no. 4, and that as he gets further removed from surgery, he’ll be able to stay fresh deeper into his outings. That’s in play, but at this point, I feel more comfortable projecting him as a backend guy or mid-to-high-leverage short-stint reliever. Regardless, Brown looks like a rare win for the former pitching dev group. A shoulder problem delayed his start to spring training and landed him on the IL to begin the season; he’s reportedly progressing toward a rehab assignment.

Jimenez is a loose and projectable righty who signed out of Venezuela back in 2019, but the pandemic and a series of injuries have limited him to 139.1 innings in pro ball. He dials it up into the upper 90s without much obvious effort, and has the athleticism and body control to project average control and a future in the rotation. Jimenez’s fastball shape isn’t great, but he throws hard enough — at least early in outings; his velocity tended to tail off toward the end of his outings last year — to get away with it.

After working with mostly average secondaries last summer, Jimenez showed up to camp with a plus sinking changeup, which is thrown with late action and good arm speed. His breaking balls are slurvy and can run together, but his best flash average; he has enough feel for spin to project here, and his relatively short track record gives me hope that time and reps will work their magic. He’s an exciting, arrow up arm, one who could find himself in the mix for the Top 100 someday if he can sharpen the slider, hold his stuff deeper into games, and leave the injury bug in his rear view mirror.

Regardless of who else is on the field, you can’t help but notice Carrigg, as he’s a vocal and ferocious competitor who plays at a hundred miles per hour. He steals a ton of bases, he takes a big swing, he runs everything out, he isn’t afraid to crash into walls — there’s nothing subtle about his game.

Carrigg is a switch-hitter with a similar low-ball swing and average bat speed from both sides. He’s aggressive and ran fairly low contact rates, particularly against spin, last season. He’ll whiff more as a lefty than as a righty, but not so much more that it’s time for him to drop the former, particularly since he does a similar amount of damage from both sides. The middling power/high strikeout blend is a tough skill set to make work, and it will likely limit Carrigg to a reserve role. After stints behind the plate and at shortstop in pro ball, he almost exclusively played center field last year, where his speed and arm strength give him a chance to be above average. He was the starting shortstop for Team Israel at the WBC (and has seen time there this spring as well), and it would elevate his floor considerably if he could flex on and off the dirt as needed. He looks a little raw at present, but the range and arm could get him to average there, too.

Carrigg’s intensity works for and against him. His motor will help him leg out hits, take extra bases, and bring energy throughout the dog days of a long season. But he’ll also get into it with umpires, fire his bat or helmet when things aren’t going well, and occasionally take his frustration with him out into the field. Even sources who tend to like their players spicy have their concerns about this side of Carrigg’s profile; whether he stays this punchy or not, time will tell. As is, he has the skill set of a quality reserve, one with a bunch of ways to impact a game.

Thomas was a draft-eligible sophomore and after beating up on Big 12 pitching for a couple years, he signed for $2 million as the 42nd overall pick of the 2024 draft. He has the skill set of a power-hitting fourth outfielder, with above-average raw and a little defensive versatility but a shaky hit tool. Thomas has a big move in his swing, with a high leg kick, a big hand load, and a long path. The combination of that and average bat speed makes it hard to direct the barrel and adjust off the fastball. We got a glimpse of the challenge ahead when he was promoted to Double-A midway through last year. After dominating High-A, he struck out in 34.6% of his plate appearances in Hartford and his slugging percentage tumbled more than 100 points.

Defensively, Thomas is average in a corner and stretched in center field. He’s an average runner with underbaked reads and tracking skills, and in Coors specifically, you’d much rather have him in left or right. One other thing to note: Thomas broke his hamate in the Arizona Fall League last year and saw limited game action this spring. The effects of this particular injury can linger, and so it behooves all parties to be patient if Thomas starts slowly in 2026. Regardless, he’s tracking like a low-variance fourth outfielder.

Riggio became famous when he committed to UCLA ridiculously early (he was in eighth grade). He didn’t end up a Bruin and instead matriculated to Oklahoma State, where he hit very well for two years as he embraced a sort of grinder/heel persona. He transitioned well to pro ball, and after homering 17 times in 60 games split between High- and Double-A last year, the Yankees dealt him to Colorado in the Jake Bird trade.

At the plate, Riggio has a desirable blend of short arms and above-average power. He swings hard but is under control. His closed finish allows him to cover the outside part of the plate, and his bat is quick enough to leave him no worse for wear on balls in. He’s able to manipulate his path on balls up and has enough loft in his swing everywhere else to project average game pop. While he’ll start to expand late in counts, Riggio is judicious early in at-bats and had some very impressive takes on pitches just outside the zone this spring. He may hit too many fly balls to hit for a high average, but he should get on base and hit for power.

Defensively, clunky actions, a slow internal clock, and just fair range limit his projection; there’s enough here to play second, but not in a way that shines. With those limitations, Riggio looks more like a good sub or a second-division guy than a 50. At the same time, he is also the kind of player who gets the most out of himself. He plays hard, and he does the little things. For just one example, he ran a perfect banana route to first on a dropped third strike in a game this spring; he didn’t reach, but the way he made the play more difficult on the catcher speaks to his feel for the game. Plus, the way he’s added a leg kick and learned to cover the outer half of the plate in pro ball speaks to his aptitude for improvement. He’s in the right place to get a shot at an everyday role, which could come as early as later this summer.

Veen had a tough 2025 season. Though he made his major league debut and smacked his first homer, big league pitchers ate him alive and he was just okay at Triple-A. Moreover, he drew attention to himself in a variety of less than flattering ways, from his marijuana-inspired double celebration to a running joke in the scout section about whether or not he could ready himself for the first pitch of an at-bat without needing to burn his timeout. Veen’s feel for contact had regressed in the upper minors, and long-awaited strength and power development hadn’t materialized. A once-promising career appeared on the skids.

Veen was almost unrecognizable in spring training this year. Per Thomas Harding’s story on MLB.com, over the winter, he made a variety of positive lifestyle changes, including getting sober, gained 40 pounds (he played 2025 at an “unhealthy” 202 pounds), and ditched his colorful hair (the blond and purple look didn’t bother me, though one could argue there was a Nuke-Laloosh-shower-shoes dynamic at play). There’s a lot to digest there, and it remains to be seen how his size in particular changes the equation. He somewhat famously mauled a ball nearly 470 feet this spring, so it seems that there’s a real uptick in his power. His swing remains long, though, and that extra pop won’t suffice to address the 41% whiff rate he posted on spin last year, which is arguably the biggest red flag in his game right now. It’s also unclear at this point whether he’s retained his 70-grade speed, which has been an important part of his game both offensively — he didn’t run as much last year as in previous seasons, but still swiped about a bag per week — and defensively, where quick wheels and reckless abandon compensate for his below-average ball tracking skills. My gut tells me that physically and mentally, Veen is broadly in a better place now. On the field, I’m concerned enough about the bat path and pitch recognition to keep Eric’s topline grade from last cycle intact, though the high-end outcomes are perhaps both a little louder and more within reach than before. We’ll have to wait a couple weeks to find out, as he’ll start the year on the IL recovering from a contusion in his knee that he sustained making a sliding catch.

Perez and Dyan Jorge entered the organization months apart with similar profiles as glove-first Cuban shortstops. They have progressed, if not quite in lockstep, then at least with some overlap since. But while Jorge had bigger amateur hype, it’s Perez who has quietly developed into the intriguing middle-of-the-diamond prospect.

Perez has grown into his large and lean frame very slowly. Even with somewhat long levers and just average bat speed, he has great feel for contact and has some of the best spin recognition I’ve encountered in a player his age. It’s a see-ball, hit-ball approach, though, and his 62% swing rate was the highest in the system among players who are actually prospects; for an idea of what that tends to look like, Ezequiel Tovar is in a similar territory and he’s run a 4.1% career walk rate in the majors. Tovar has a lot more power, however, as Perez’s remains below-average, and unless he gets significantly stronger, he looks like he’s going to tap into weak outs on pitches he’d be better off leaving. Better discernment or strength gains are useful for anyone, but could have an exponential effect in this case; perhaps new voices in Colorado’s player dev group can unlock something here.

Defensively, Perez’s work with the glove should get him to the big leagues. He’s a rangy defender with a powerful and accurate arm and a very quick release given the first two parts of this sentence. He’s played around the diamond a bit to accommodate other shortstops — including Jorge, who he’s long since passed defensively — and that experience should serve him well in a utility role. If you’re feeling optimistic this spring, Perez’s frame and athleticism give him latent everyday upside in a way that’s unusual for a guy who has consistently posted pedestrian numbers in the box.

Thompson has long been a strange player to evaluate. He isn’t especially athletic, and with no defensive home, he’s had a ton of pressure on his bat since he signed. The visual evaluation of his hit tool is complicated, because he has average bat speed, a grooved path that doesn’t generate a ton of lift, and trouble picking up lefty spin. And yet there are times he looks downright hitterish. He has a knack for hitting the ball hard when he connects, he tends to take good at-bats against righties, and he’s always performed. Outside of a brief complex stint in 2022, he’s never struck out 25% of the time at any level, he’s hit at least .290 everywhere except Double-A Hartford, and he has posted an above-average wRC+ at each stop. He’s also measurably added power, as he bumped his EV90 to 105 mph and his max exit velo to 112 last year — an important and surprising development for a guy who didn’t look like he had much projection left.

While Thompson has always hit, he’s rarely mashed. He’s played his entire career in friendly hitting environments, but has never slugged 20 homers in a year nor registered the kind of monster season that gets a guy promoted quickly. As a fringy left fielder, Thompson needs to bring the 120ish wRC+ he’s tended to notch at every level with him to the big leagues to have any sort of role at all. The forecast here is that he’ll manage something like that in a strong-side platoon where he’s mostly facing righties (he has just three dingers against lefties in the past two seasons combined). There isn’t much middle ground here. He’ll either do that, or find himself on the Billy McKinney career path in short order.

Blanco signed for $600,000, the fourth-highest bonus in Colorado’s 2025 international class. He was among the top performers in the DSL last year, hitting .345/.449/.453 and playing solid defense, mostly at shortstop. At the plate, he makes a ton of contact, 82% last year, with feel for the barrel and advanced pitch recognition skills. He hasn’t grown into much power or bat speed yet, but he has time on his side and some physical development left. Defensively, he has quick hands, clean actions, and a strong arm; he looked solid at short in my brief look, and scouts I sourced expect him to stay there. There’s everyday upside if he has enough growth ahead of him to add meaningfully more power, with a utility projection if he winds up with a lighter bat. He’s among the more intriguing hitters in the ACL this year.

Andujar signed for $1.7 million as part of Colorado’s 2024 international class. International scouts liked his glove and feel to hit, and both of those have translated to pro ball. Last year, he hit .319 and ran an 80% contact rate as one of the youngest players in the ACL. Defensively, he has above-average range at short and a strong arm.

How much power can Andujar develop? Physical projection looms large for every teenage prospect, but the gap between where he is now (thin with 20 pop) and where could go (he’s a projectable 6-foot-1 who could grow into anything from 30 power to 50) makes him a prospect of extreme variance. Presently, his lack of strength is apparent from the way he needs extra hand movement to generate the modest bat speed he has, and his flat swing produces plenty of singles but not much else. There’s real upside here if he grows into even fringy power, though, and even some of the messier parts of his offensive game, like the indirect start to his bat path, may fall into place as he gets stronger. And in any case, with his contact skill, speed, and defensive chops, he doesn’t have to do much damage to profile as an everyday bat. Were I scouting for a team, I’d put a low-conviction 50 on him, with nods to a volatile offensive future and the long developmental timeline ahead. For us, he belongs in this FV tier as a slow-burn person of interest.

Herrera is a six-foot, three-pitch lefty. After years at the lower levels, his dominant 2025 season put him on the prospect radar. Herrera posted a 2.64 ERA with a 36.4% strikeout rate and a 4:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio, mostly at Double-A Hartford. His dominance earned him a spot in the Futures Game and the AFL, where he was wild. Control is a big question: Herrera is athletic and powerful for his stature, but he’s close to a max-effort guy with an unbalanced finish and a long stroke with recoil at the end. If he can stay around the plate, he’ll generate plenty of misses and chases, because the stuff is good. His tailing fastball has late life, and the slider either has very tight depth or runs away from lefty bats when he locates low and away. Even the change, which he rarely uses, looks nifty at its best, with bat-missing sink when he isn’t missing badly. He has late-inning ceiling if his command exceeds this projection; more likely, he settles in as a solid lefty reliever.

Bernard is a volatile prospect with a mix of big tools and significant hit risk. At the plate, he’s a compact, explosive athlete with an enticing blend of short arms and above-average raw power. For better or worse, the 20-year-old swings very hard. He produces big exit velocities when he squares one up (his max was just shy of 113 mph last year), but the effort level involved seems to limit his barrel accuracy. It’s a steep swing, and Bernard doesn’t manipulate the path much, though plus bat speed lets him get away with it and stay competitive on fastballs up. He’s an aggressive hitter and will expand the zone, but he seems to recognize spin okay and can adjust off the fastball. He isn’t awful against lefties, but he has run noticeable platoon splits thus far.

All of these competing traits played to a truce at Low-A Fresno last year, as he managed to hit .302, though with just six homers. His 24.4% strikeout rate and 67% contact rate are both concerning, but were also improvements over his marks on the complex in 2024 (32% and 65%). Even if directionally positive, it’s tough to project a player with that much swing and miss as a regular, particularly since Bernard is more of a doubles hitter at this point. Defensively, he’s faster than most players already confined to a corner, and his speed, arm, and average instincts should get him to a 55 on that side of the ball. Add it up, and you have the makings of a good platoon outfielder.

Herrera has a similar broad outline to Angel Jimenez, with a strikingly similar pitch plot. Herrera isn’t as polished, though, more a development project with enviable arm strength. The righty touches 99 and can comfortably hold 95-98 over starts, but it doesn’t come with bat-missing shape, and his open stride and recoiled finish limit his deception and command, respectively. His best secondary is an above-average changeup with wiggle and sink. Herrera also has a curve, but it’s slow — 15 mph or so of velo separation — with soft shape. He doesn’t have great feel to spin it, but I tend to think there’s a more effective power breaking ball in him, because he’s throwing his curve with noticeably less effort than the rest of his arsenal and may benefit from trying to rip off a harder slider. This is the kind of arm who can tick up considerably — and quickly — with the right coaching, because he has plus arm strength, one viable secondary, and enough athleticism to project at least fringy control. Herrera has late-inning ceiling in a relief role and is as good of a case study as any for how the new regime is (or isn’t) developing pitchers differently than the old guard.

Brecht was among the college game’s elite strikeout pitchers while he was at Iowa, which prompted the Rockies to pop him in the first round back in 2024. Back injuries interrupted his debut season, but when he did get on the mound, A-ball hitters struggled to make contact, striking out (36.7%) and walking (13.5%) half the time. Brecht’s upper-90s fastball, tight upper-80s north-south slider, and sinking change all flashed plus. This spring, he’s added a mid-80s curve, with good depth but also a big hump; it should be effective, if not a big bat-misser.

While Colorado should make every effort to start him, Brecht looks like a reliever. He’s an open strider, and the way his delivery works often leaves him pulling the ball with him, where he’s prone to missing badly glove side. He only sporadically locates his fastball arm side, and his catchers are constantly backhanding his slider in the dirt. On movement, both the slider and change grade well, but the lack of deception and predictable locations limit Brecht’s ability to leverage that quality. All of that will still matter, if a bit less, in the bullpen. He projects as a solid middle reliever with upside from there if his control jumps ahead of where I’m forecasting.

Castellano was Minnesota’s Rule 5 pick last year, though he ultimately didn’t make the Twins roster and was returned to Philly. He opted to become a free agent after an uneven 2025 season, which led him to Colorado. He got some run with the big league club this spring, where he flashed his usual mix of sharp breaking balls as well as an improved change with sink and tail. It’s somewhat unusual for a pitcher to generate sharp break in both directions, but the Venezuelan righty is able to do it, and his curve in particular has aesthetically pleasing late bite. While he has average arm strength, Castellano’s fastballs don’t really play and he sometimes has trouble setting up his secondaries. That and below-average command likely ticket him for the bullpen in the long run, though he has the arsenal depth to start and Colorado has used him in a length role thus far. If starting is what he wants to do, he’s certainly found the right org to get an opportunity. He has the ceiling of a no. 4 or 5, and regardless of role, he has a shot to debut in the back half of 2026.

Cox signed for nearly $2 million in the 2022 draft but had only thrown 31 innings prior to last year, as Tommy John surgery shelved him for most of the previous two seasons. Back on the bump in 2025, he notched a 3.39 ERA with a 27% strikeout rate and a 7.3% walk rate in the Cal League, throwing a little less than four innings per outing.

Cox touches the mid-90s and generates excellent raw spin rates. At this year’s Spring Breakout Game, his breaking ball pallet looked a little different than it did a year ago. He still has a projectable 11-5 curve, but in lieu of the low-to-mid-80s slider that missed so many bats a year ago, he was throwing a hard cutter instead. It’s a promising offering, just a tick or two slower than the fastball with barrel-dodging late break, but I hope the slider continues to be part of the mix as well. With average arm strength and mostly average stuff, Cox will need as many weapons as he can muster. Another key going forward is his command. Everything besides the change tends to wind up arm side. He’s a good enough athlete to project on this a bit, and the forecast is for enough improvement here to develop into a no. 5. He has the ceiling of a no. 4 if that undersells how much growth he has left in him.

Hampu was a great find in the 2024 draft, as you don’t normally get a flamethrower with a razor-sharp slider in the 18th round. There’s some effort to his delivery, and he can spray the ball around, but while he’ll never have great command, he was actually a fair strike-thrower after a rough April last season. The former Governor is even a little deceptive, as a glove throw just prior to release is distracting and helps his already considerable stuff play up further. The developmental key going forward is getting his change and slider in good locations more consistently. Hitters did absolutely nothing with either of them last year, but he had too many noncompetitive misses to fully leverage their effectiveness. There’s work ahead, but Hampu has big league stuff, and modest improvements in his control will put him on track to reach his middle relief projection.

Eaton has a well-rounded mix of average stuff and strike-throwing. He has both fastballs, and while he touches 96 mph with the four-seamer, both have round-down shape limits their utility. His change and slider are both average and play a little ahead of that grade due to his ability to move them around the plate. The southpaw is also good at some of the old school stuff, like sequencing and changing speeds. In my looks, his control tended to be great right until it fell apart completely, and between that and the lack of an out pitch, he looks like more of a one-time-through guy than a reliable starter. There’s also a chance everything plays a half-grade better than this projection in short stints.

Herring came over to Colorado in the Ryan McMahon deal. The southpaw does his best to give hitters a weird look, and to be clear, that’s intended as high praise. He works on the extreme third base side of the rubber, where, like a swimmer testing the water on a cool day, he barely dips his big toe on to the slab. He has a big crossfire that helps him hide the ball, and there’s a little hitch at the top of his release to further challenge a hitter’s timing. He gets down the mound well and has plus extension; a very high release adds one more wrinkle to the puzzle.

All of that deception seems to be helping, as Herring mowed over Low- and High-A hitters with mostly average stuff last year. His fastball sits 89-92 and barely touches higher, but it generates plenty of whiffs and chases despite the velocity. His best sliders are above average, with tight shape and spin that makes the break come late. His changeups have good fade, but he has to lower his slot to generate the movement; we’ll see if better hitters notice and spit on it.

We’d feel better about Herring’s prospects if he was able to locate this mix surgically, as command and deception together can compensate for below-average arm strength. His control is ahead of his command, though, as he often misses the target even when he’s hitting the plate, and he’s prone to missing badly. The whole package is more intriguing than convincing — though to be fair, it is very intriguing — but if you’re inclined, you can talk yourself into projecting the command to arrive late, as he may still be acclimating to the adjustments he’s made in pro ball (he’s changed his placement on the rubber, raised his slot, and is throwing more breaking balls). He projects as a no. 5, with more variance than your typical soft-tossing lefty.

Hughes went 10th overall in the 2022 draft, which was a surprise, as most evaluators had him ranked at least a dozen picks lower. He’s occasionally looked like that kind of pitching prospect — including in a lights-out look against the Dodgers’ big leaguers the following spring — but for the most part, Hughes has tracked like a backend arm. His long and deep arm stroke limits his ability to hit spots, which isn’t ideal for a guy with no plus pitch on the ledger, particularly since Hughes’ stuff was also down in his return from Tommy John last year. He was sitting just 90-93 and with correspondingly less bite on each of his breaking balls than he had at his pre-surgery peak. He didn’t miss many bats at either Double- or Triple-A, and barring a significant bounce back in the quality of his repertoire, he’s now tracking like a no. 5 with middle relief fallback.

In a trade that should suit both parties, Rumfield arrived in Colorado from the Yankees this January in exchange for reliever Angel Chivilli. He’s a hitterish first baseman with fringy power, and after three years of consistent production at the upper levels, it’s time to see if he can pull off this tricky skill set at the highest level. Rumfield has fringy bat speed (in the way that scouts have traditionally used the term), but strong bat-to-ball skill and pitch recognition. He doesn’t strike out much and can take his walks — or at least, he’s been able to do so thus far. Elite velocity will be a real test, and if he has to cheat on the fastball, it could eat into his approach. While he rode a torrid spring to a spot on Colorado’s Opening Day roster, he projects as a bench bat in the long run. He could also be a masher in the Asian leagues if he doesn’t hit enough to hang on in a reserve role here.

Mahoney’s slow and steady progression through the minors hit a speed bump in 2025, when he suddenly stopped missing bats in Double-A Hartford. He’s a good example of a prospect whom we might have fallen harder for 15-20 years ago, because while he touches 98 and sits in the mid-90s, the shape isn’t great. Moreover, his cutter is a little soft and the breaking stuff can roll together, which limits the utility of what is on paper a pretty deep arsenal. All that said, we still like him in a bullpen role. If he can live close to the top of his velo bands in shorter stints, he’ll have a few above-average offerings to lean on and more pitchability than you often get out of a middle reliever. He’s still starting down on the back fields, and perhaps the new dev group can find a path forward for him in the rotation, but he has the look of a guy who could move fairly quickly if Colorado changes course.

Middleton had a huge junior year at Southern Miss, where he moved into the rotation and posted a 2.31 ERA while striking out more than 10 per nine. The undersized righty was a popup guy, and a little extra velo down the stretch may have earned him a bunch of money, as he signed for a little more than $2 million.

Changeup aside, Middleton’s stuff looked fringy this spring. His fastball sits 93-95 without bat-missing shape, and he’ll likely need to air it out in short stints to reach higher than that over the long haul. He’s added a curve and flashes an above-average slider, though neither looks like an out pitch. He has good arm speed on the change, and the sink and fade he generates gives him a legitimate weapon for lefties. It’s the pitch mix and repertoire depth of a starter, and a backend starter outcome is in play. Middleton’s stature raises durability concerns, and his somewhat bland blend of stuff and command suggests that the second and third trips through the order could get ugly. For those reasons, a middle relief outcome seems most likely.

Sullivan has just about every deceptive trick in the book. He has a huge crossfire, he hides the ball well, and his low slot gives him both a flat release angle and plus extension. Jarringly, for a tall drink of water without the world’s most fluid looking delivery, he’s got great command. He can hit all quadrants with his fastball and adeptly runs the sweeper on and off both sides of the plate. The change and slider give him a starter’s complement of pitches, and he’s had success out of the rotation through Double-A. He sits 86-88 and barely scrapes 90 in that role, though. While I’d love to project for it to work at the highest level, that’s too narrow of a tightrope for me, even before considering he’ll need to make the high-wire act work at Coors Field.

Sullivan sat in the low 90s in shorter stints this spring and had some pretty good Dodgers hitters off balance in a multi-inning relief outing a couple weeks back. Doing that in a once-through-the-order gig seems more sustainable, and it’s a particularly valuable job in Colorado, where there’s often a need to piggyback or otherwise bail out the starter. He’s on track to debut sometime in 2026.

After a rough debut season in the DSL, Arguelles did what big-bonus guys are supposed to do down there in his second spin, hitting .422/.528/.652 with five homers and more walks than strikeouts. He was young when he signed and is still just 18, so while he isn’t young for the complexes, he’s not a man playing against boys either.

Arguelles puts the ball in play. A short swing facilitates near-elite contact (84% last year), and he adjusts off the fastball as well as any young hitter you’ll find. He’s aggressive and will expand when behind in the count, but he has the hand-eye coordination to project as a hit collector. How much power is coming? Arguelles is projectable but has 30 power right now, and his swing isn’t geared to drive the ball. His speed gives him a shot to develop into a fourth outfielder, with a chance for more if he finds a way to hit the ball harder than I’m projecting.

Cabeza signed for $250,000 in the 2023 international class, a hefty sum for a pitcher in that market. Even though he’s missed a ton of time since — he’s thrown 21.2 professional innings and made just one appearance last year — he’s fairly polished. He’s got a fast arm and touched 97 on the backfields, and his ability to land a mid-80s north-south breaking ball and flash a useful fading change stood out. The shape of his change is an odd fit for his slot, and this probably isn’t the final form for his breaking ball(s), but that’s okay — he’s years away and has plenty of runway to sharpen the secondaries. It’s a starter’s blend of arm strength and feel, and while the size and injury history aren’t ideal, he’s on the short list of the top arms ticketed for the ACL.

Calaz was a big-bonus prospect in the 2023 international class, signing for $1.7 million thanks to a powerful frame and the chance to grow into 70 raw. He had a great debut season in the DSL, ripped through the ACL in 2024, and after a great two-week cameo in Low-A to round out that season, he entered 2025 with no small amount of hype. On the surface, his .259/.338/.399 line, good for a 105 wRC+, is perhaps a tad disappointing but not especially illuminating. Beneath the surface, red flags lurk everywhere.

While Calaz held his own in the Cal League, his lack of feel in the box looms as a real problem. He’s an aggressive swinger with poor pitch recognition and strike zone judgement. His contact rate was just 66% last year, and he whiffed more than 30% of the time on both fastballs and breaking balls. He’s a see-ball, hit-ball hitter, and across several looks over the two seasons, he’s shown no growth in his ability to make adjustments mid-at-bat. His uphill swing is powerful, but also stiff and grooved; he’ll hammer a mistake in his wheelhouse to the moon, but there are a lot of ways to get him out.

While Calaz saw time in center field again last year, he’s slowed considerably in pro ball, and is ticketed for right. He’s presently poor there, as he often struggles to field bouncing or rolling balls, much less track stuff adeptly in the air. He has a cannon for an arm and a shot to be playable overall with a lot of reps, but as with his bat, he’s a long way off. Overall, his power and arm strength give him paths to help, most likely in a bench role. On both sides, though, his feel for the game is very raw and needs significant growth if he’s to have any chance of tapping into his power.

Belyeu was drafted 74th overall last year and signed for a little over $1 million. The former Longhorn was the Big 12 player of the year in 2024, but he had a tepid half-season in 2025: His strikeout rate surged from 17.7% to 25%, and his slugging percentage fell by 91 points. Belyeu also broke his thumb in April, which knocked him out for most of the back half of the college season. He returned briefly before the draft and played 21 games at High-A after signing, homering four times but striking out out in 32 of his 90 plate appearances.

It’s possible that the injury, combined with the start-stop-go-pause-okay-let’s-play-again nature of Belyeu’s 2025 season destroyed his rhythm at the plate in a way that made his pro debut unrepresentative of what he’ll look like under normal circumstances. All parties should hope so. Visually, he looked lost and unbalanced in Spokane, and took some of the most bizarrely bad swings I’ve encountered in a high-level college prospect. A cursory review of the tape shows him swinging at fastballs above his helmet and in the dirt, and lunging at all manner of soft stuff, all while leaving much more hittable pitches aside. The stats bear this out, too. It was a relatively small sample, but the gap between his overall swing rate (49%, which is normal) and his swing rate on balls in the heart of the plate (59%, which is 20 grade) is alarming and strange in equal measure. His chase rate also exploded with two strikes, raising additional questions about his zone control and pitch recognition.

Athletically at least, there’s plenty to like. Belyeu has above-average bat speed, a chance for above-average power, and, strangely for someone with a huge strikeout rate, a flat and manipulable bat path. He’s also a decent runner and projects to be just fine in a corner. That hit tool, though. As much as I want to give him a pass for 2025, the numbers and the look are just too concerning to do anything other than stick him down here and hope last season was a fever dream.

After a quiet career as an underclassman at USC, Hedges feasted on Big 10 arms and rode his junior year breakout to a $950,000 bonus. Despite big numbers at the plate, he stands out more with the leather than the bat. On that side of the ball, he’s a plus defender with good range, supple hands, an ability to make plays when leaving his feet, and a 70 arm (he was the Trojans closer last year and touches 95 off the mound). At the plate, he’s quick to the ball with a short but not especially powerful swing. It’s tricky for even great defenders at the hot corner to profile if they’re not thumping at least a little bit. The paths forward are thus either coaxing a little more pop out of the bat or, more likely, working Hedges in at other positions in preparation for a utility role. If all else fails, you could put him back on the bump, though we’re presumably a couple years from needing to seriously revisit that possibility.

Of all the interesting infielders Colorado had at the lower levels last year, Hernandez has a case for the best hit tool of the group. He hit .293/.358/.366 with an 85% contact rate as a 20-year-old at Low-A Fresno, good for a 106 wRC+, with strong pitch recognition and bat-to-ball skills. For a guy who hasn’t homered in more than 1,000 career plate appearances, he’s not completely punchless either, as his 30% hard-hit rate and 101 mph EV90 attest. But his swing is flat and the path is long in a way that directs a lot of his contact into short left field. Singles hitters have a pretty low ceiling if they’re not complete freaks in the Luis Arraez mold, and it’s taking nothing away from Hernandez to take the under on that.

Defensively, Hernandez is a smooth fielder at second and has dabbled at third as well. If he could play short, he’d grade out as a traditional 40 utility infielder. His arm is light, though, which makes this a tricky skill set to fit onto a roster. His ability to hit and cover a middle infield spot should carry him to the upper levels, where he projects as an up-down guy, with paths for more if he finds a way to get to more power.

Prosecky is a fun watch. He’s a high-slot guy with a Bugs Bunny sinking change and a slow curve that practically takes a nap on its way to the plate. Arm strength is an ongoing concern here, as he touched 95 at times but was sitting in the upper 80s by the end of last season. His fastball doesn’t have bat-missing shape, but he does hide the ball well, so it’s a viable weapon if he can just keep it in the 90s. While his command isn’t bad, it isn’t sharp either, and the result is a lot of nibbling and more fastballs leaking over the heart of the plate than he can afford. It’s the skill set of a crafty lefty who isn’t quite crafty enough to start. He projects as a spot starter or swingman, roles Prosecky will likely be ready for by 2027.

Thanks to an arm injury and the pandemic, Shields had a six-year college career, and he signed with the Yankees as an undrafted free agent after his super-duper senior season. He quickly scooted to the upper levels and performed at Double-A last year, striking out 50 and walking 16 in 40 innings at the Eastern League. He came to Colorado as part of the Jake Bird deal.

For a guy who throws a ton of strikes, Shields isn’t the loosest pitcher, and his delivery looks kind of like a less exaggerated version of Alex Wood’s. Despite that, he’s able to hit both sides of the plate with both pitches, which lets him fully leverage his pitchability. He’s good at tunneling and sequencing, and can manipulate the shape on his slider to look like anything from an 11-5 curve to a nearly flat sweeper. His execution is good, if not quite great, and between that and fringy arm strength — his tailing fastball sits either side of 90 — he likely fits best in lower-leverage situations. He projects as a second lefty in the ‘pen and could also fill a swingman type role.

Wimmer was playing in the Arizona Fall League last year when he suddenly started hearing noises and felt his face seize up. What he initially thought was a panic attack was actually a brain tumor. Wimmer soon underwent surgery, battled through what can only be described as a frightening rehab process — for all the details, please check out Charlotte Varnes’ fantastic piece at The Athletic — to recover his speech and cognitive functions, and is miraculously already back on the field and playing. Though he says that the physical and mental exertions of a full baseball game leave him feeling more tired than before, he’s otherwise back, healthy, and playing like a real prospect again. It’s a remarkable story and I’m thrilled for the guy.

It feels a little jarring to move from that to discussing tools and projection, but if Wimmer can get himself back on the field, we should too, at least metaphorically. Wimmer was a fourth-year junior when the Rockies selected him in 2023, and he has been old for his level at every stop until Double-A last year. He’s performed — his .284/.346/.389 line in 45 Double-A games was good for a 114 wRC+ — and on tools and peripherals, he has the skill set of a solid utility player. Limited pop curbs the upside here: He has fringy raw power, his flatter swing doesn’t let him get to all of it, and there’s a chance that good spin eats him alive. Still, he’s crushed lefties, and he saw time at six defensive positions last year: He played everywhere but first, catcher, and pitcher in 2025 and has the chops to handle short. He’d have made an ideal bench player in the three-man bench era, and even now, he does enough to give managers a lot of flexibility in a reserve role.

Smith’s velocity climbed several ticks in his final year of college ball, propelling him from near obscurity and onto Atlanta’s draft board. He’s had an uneven pro career, as Tommy John and recurrent velo dips and surges have slowed his ascent through the minors. He came to Colorado at the deadline last year, and at last glance was again sitting in the mid-to-upper 90s and touching 99 with good extension and a fairly flat approach angle. Smith isn’t a marksman, but he has a plan and enough command to generally hit the region he’s targeting. He’s trying to locate the heater up in the zone, he can find either side of the plate with his breaking pitches, and he likes to start the change on the outside corner for lefties and get them to bite as it fades off the plate. No one of these offerings lights up scouts or models on its own, but everything’s effective and has a purpose, and the sum of the parts is good enough for middle relief work if he can hold peak velocity. The aforementioned volatility — he also lost all feel for the zone in the AFL last fall — slides him into this value tier.

Crim was a pre-pandemic, $5,000 signee out of Division II Mississippi College. He’s climbed the minor league ladder slowly since, and after three years of Steady Eddie production at Triple-A, he finally got a look in the big leagues. Claimed off waivers from the Rangers, he hit .241/.295/.556 with five dingers over 15 games as Colorado played out the string, adding as much of a jolt as one possibly could to a team in that situation. His strikeout rate also doubled, from 18.3% in Triple-A to 36.1% in the majors, so something has to give here. I’ve always had a soft spot for him, and even with a couple swing markers I don’t love (looping hand load, front side leak), I think he’s a little more hitterish than most first basemen who get lumped into the Quad-A bucket. He annihilated Triple-A lefties last year to the tune of .417/.478/.854, and if he can nestle himself onto the right roster, he could have a career as a short-side platoon and bench bat. The margins will be thin, though, and if he scuffles, KBO scouts will surely be lurking around. They’ll have to wait at least a few weeks, as Crim is still on the mend from an oblique injury, and started the year on the 10-day IL.

It’s starting to feel like the Rockies have cornered the market on pitchers named “Herrera.” This 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. Overall, he threw 100.2 innings, allowed 85 hits, struck out 110 with 34 walks, and posted a 3.04 ERA. Unfortunately, he blew out at the end of the season and missed almost all of 2025. He returned for instructs and then made a dozen appearances in the Venezuelan Winter League, where he was effectively wild.

Herrera is listed at 175 pounds, but he looks more like 250. He’s a slow-twitch, below-average athlete who has struggled to throw strikes at various points during his career. Even though he has mostly started, his effort level and the way he falls and spins off the mound have made him scattered in a way that’s almost always better suited for the bullpen. His stuff looks down a tick or two this spring, but in shorter stints, he could have two 60’s in the holster, as he touched the upper 90s and his slider missed a ton of bats back in 2024, even though visually it looks more average or 55 than plus. He has experimented with a change but hasn’t used it a ton, and neither the action nor the arm speed scream “projectable.” He’s a middle relief prospect who could move quickly if he’s moved to the bullpen.

Palmquist’s deceptive, low-slot attack didn’t translate in his first big league stint. He both nibbled (25 walks in 34.1 innings), and surrendered a ton of hard contact when he did find the zone (45 hits, 10 homers). His fastball and cutter in particular got walloped to the point that it’s hard to project him as more than a low-leverage option. His sweeper and change are both above average, though, which gives him a way to attack both lefties and righties in some sort of role if he leans on them.

Three years ago, Vargas was one of the top teenage pitching prospects in baseball. With a mid-to-upper-90s fastball, a hammer curve, and an athletic frame, he had the arm strength and physical projection of a mid-rotation starter with a chance for more. Unfortunately, he blew out that summer in the Cal League, didn’t return until 2025, and hasn’t looked like his old self since getting back on the mound. His velocity is down a few ticks, and the corresponding decrease in sharpness on his breaking stuff has rendered what were once plus offerings fringy or average. Once a great strike-thrower, his control collapsed at High-A last year, and he’s been hit around on the backfields this spring. There are enough ingredients — athleticism, feel for spin, vague hopes of a bounce back — to keep Vargas on the radar, but the arrow is down substantially here.

Petit was the first selection in this past winter’s Rule 5 draft, plucked out of Detroit’s system. The ironically named (though it’s pronounced like Andy Pettitte, not Yusmeiro Petit) 6-foot-8 right-hander was the Tigers’ 14th-rounder out of Charleston Southern back in 2021. He pitched his way to Triple-A Toledo in 2025, amassing a 2.44 ERA across 66.1 innings of work. When healthy, he has a pretty standard mid-90s fastball (94-97 mph, touch 98) and a plus slider. He utilizes his slider in all counts because his size creates a hittable plane on his fastball, though the addition of a second fastball type (he throws both elevated four-seamers and in-zone two-seamers) helped limit opponents’ contact quality against his heaters in 2025. Petit also creates enough sink on his changeup to keep lefties in check, so his role isn’t at risk of being minimized to that of a righty specialist if he throws enough strikes (no guarantees) to profile. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait until 2027 to find out, as Petit blew out this spring and recently underwent Tommy John surgery. He’ll remain with Colorado and will try the whole Rule 5 thing again next season.

This is one is from Eric’s update on the 2026 international class: De Los Santos is an exciting athlete with a blend of present physicality and long-term projection. He could develop plus raw power at peak, and he already has something approaching a plus arm. Potential swing-and-miss issues will become a bigger deal if he ends up outgrowing shortstop. He signed with Colorado for $1 million.