Inside The Diamond’s most recent Top 100 prospect rankings has seven Colorado Rockies prospects, including the team’s most recent first-round pick, Charlie Condon. The Rockies have only made the playoffs five times in their 31 years of existence and most recently made the playoffs in 2018, six years ago. The Rockies currently have one of the best farm systems in the entire MLB, and fans should be thrilled about the potential of these players and the new mountain tops they can bring this team to. Below will be a brief synopsis of each of the seven players ranked in the top 100.
31 – RHP – Chase Dollander
Dollander is the team’s highest-rated prospect on the list and was their 1st round pick a year ago in 2023 out of Tennessee. Dollander has not started 20 games in the minor leagues across two levels, with his most recent start being with the AA team. Across those 20 starts, Dollander has a 5-1 record with a 2.47 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP. For a franchise that historically has subpar pitching, these are great numbers. One statistic of his that jumps off the page at me is his K% (strikeout percentage). In his 14 starts in A+, his K% was 37%, and in his six starts in AA, it is 29.2%. Those numbers are incredibly high; for reference, the starting pitcher currently on the Rockies with the highest K% is Ryan Feltner, who sits at 20.1%. Another phenomenal Dollander statistic is his batting average against him. At his highest performance (AA) level, opposing batters only hit .177 against him.
Though it is still a somewhat smaller sample size, there has been one glaring issue. Dollander is allowing way too many free passes. He is currently walking 9.2% of all the batters he is facing. According to FanGraphs, a 9% walk percentage or 4BB/9 would be considered “awful.” But like I said, the sample size is small, so fans should not write Dollander off because of this. There are still plenty of redeeming numbers in favor of Dollander.
52 – 2B/SS – Adael Amador
Amador is one of two prospects that the Rockies have on the top 100 list who has gotten the opportunity to make their MLB debuts this season. Amador only played ten games with the Rockies before he was optioned back down to the minors and struggled mightily in those ten games. In Amadors first MLB stint, he had a -5wRC+, 2.8 BB%, and a .171 batting average. Each one of those statistics are poor. For example, a 100 wRC+ would be an MLB player who creates runs at an average level.
Amador was called up straight from the AA team, and the talent gap between AA and the MLB is tremendous, so this was a huge step up for him. He was almost bound to struggle once he was called up. This year in the minor leagues, Amador has done some things nicely; right now, in AA, he has a 105 wRC+. His percentages are also much better in the minor leagues; in AA, he walks 13% of the time and strikes out 20% of the time. So he is at least seeing the ball better against the lesser competition, but you would still like to see him strike out less. Still, at only 21 years old, Amador has plenty of time to work out some flaws and be a great MLB player.
55 – OF – Charlie Condon
Condon is the organization’s newest kid on the block, as he was the team’s most recent 1st round pick out of Georgia. Condon played two seasons at Georgia, where he swatted 62 total home runs, drove in 145 runs, and hit for a .433 average. Within the organization, Condon has only played in 15 games but has hit his first professional home run in that time. There is no doubt that this kid can slug with the best of them, and because he is a more polished college bat, he should be able to make his way through the organization fairly quickly.
57 – OF – Yanquiel Fernandez
Thus far in 2024, Fernandez has played in 106 games across two levels (AA and AAA) and is hitting .277 with ten home runs and 55 RBIs. In years past, Fernandez has shown that he has some pop in his bat. In 2022, he hit 21 homers, 25 in 2023. His numbers have dipped a little bit since he was promoted to the AAA team, but it has only been 17 games at that level.
Through his years of development, Fernandez has done an excellent job improving how much he strikes out. In 2023 Fernandez played 56 games in AA where he struck out 32.9% of the time and in 2024 he played 89 games in AA where he only struck out 19.1%. Although the number of games in those two sample sizes isn’t quite the same, it is encouraging to see the numbers improve. Now only a level away from the majors, it will be interesting to see if he will get a call-up by season’s end or early in the 2025 season.
67 – OF – Jordan Beck
Beck is the other prospect, along with Amador, who debuted during the 2024 season. Beck also shares his alma mater with the Rockies’ highest-rated prospect, Chase Dollander, who played at Tennessee. In 2024, Beck played 32 games in the big leagues and 39 games in AAA. In AAA, Beck was hitting .319 with a 136 wRC+; in the MLB, Beck was hitting .215 with a 46 wRC+. When looking at his splits, a few things stand out. Firstly, Beck has reverse splits (meaning he hits the same hardness pitching better than opposite-handed pitching). Secondly, Beck hits significantly better at Coors Field than when the team plays away games (.290 home vs. .184 away).
Beck has also struggled with the same issues many young players struggle with strikeouts. He is currently striking out at an alarming rate of 35%, and he has not been drawing many walks either, only getting walked 5% of the time.
85 – OF – Zac Veen
Colorado fans should expect to see Veen debut sometime during 2025; he has only recently been promoted to the AAA team. Veen is profiling as a guy you would love to have towards the top of your lineup. His collective minor league numbers show that Veen steals a lot of bags, and he walks at a high percentage. As recently as 2022, Veen stole 50 bags in a season and has had 128 through his 324 career minor league games. Veen has also consistently drawn a walk percentage of around 12%, which FanGraphs would consider tremendous and well above average. It is refreshing to see at least one of these highly rated prospects in the system be able to draw walks at a high rate. It is something the other position players struggle with.
98 – OF/2B – Sterlin Thompson
Thompson is still a few years away from the big leagues. His current ETA on FanGraphs projects him to make his debut in 2027. Amongst all of the Colorado prospects on this list, Thompson is the furthest away from the majors. Thus far through his minor league career, Thompson has hit for a solid average (career .272 in minors) and has produced an above-average wRC+ at almost every level.
If these prospects can improve on what they need to improve, then the Rockies will have a bright future. I said it earlier in this article as well, but these players are all young, so they have plenty of time to improve. Just because they could have struggled at a certain level or they currently strike out too much doesn’t mean that they always will. Many times, young position players need some extended runway so they can make adjustments at the big league level and build confidence.
