Amador has special hand-eye coordination and bat-to-ball skills, as well as a tremendous idea of the strike zone, and those attributes, combined with the mechanical simplicity of his swing, give him one of the better hit tool projections in the minors. Amador is one of those compact switch-hitters who is so short to the ball that he gets an extra beat to diagnose pitches before he has to commit to swinging, and he takes advantage of this. He’s walked more than he’s struck out every year of his pro career, and ran a microscopic 5% swinging strike rate in 2023. Over the past two years, Amador has thickened like a roux and become stronger, but he still doesn’t have great power. At least some of that lack of thump in 2023 was likely due to the after effects of a mid-season hamate break, but Amador is still much better at spoiling pitches than he is at actually squaring them up. He can move the barrel all over the place but his swing isn’t often well-connected in a way that allows him to punish the baseball. Now that he’s close to physically maxed out, any leap he takes in the power department will need to come from improving his feel for loft, and it’s much more likely that Amador will hit dozens of doubles at maturity than lots of homers.

While he’s on the 40-man roster, Amador is still probably a couple of years away from finding his big league footing. He lacks some field awareness (he bat-flipped a walk down six or seven runs last week against Bowie) and Double-A looks fast for him in the early going of 2024, but he only turned 21 at the very start of the season and has just one totally healthy year of reps at a full-season affiliate under his belt. The bat control savants who play second base need to hit for power to truly be a star; the Joe Panik/Adam Frazier types who Amador perhaps comps to tend to pan out like 50-grade players over a long period of time. I considered altering Amador’s grade and sliding him within the Top 100, but because of the context here (Amador’s age and relative inexperience, he’s coming off injury, it’s freezing cold in Hartford in early April), I want to let things air out and give him time to adjust to the Eastern League before doing so.

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 range. Out the gate in 2024, he’s been steady in the 95-96 range with arm-side ride. Dollander’s hard cutter/slider looks more like the latter the deeper into games he pitches. As that pitch slows down from the 87-89 mph range to the 84-86 mph band throughout a start, it tends to add length and have more typical slider shape. An upper-70s curveball and mid-80s changeup sit in the back seat together; each had less than 10% usage in 2022, and combined for just 14% usage in 2023. He’s going to have to lean on those pitches more in pro ball — Dollander’s fastball is good, but not so good that he’ll be able to deploy it 65-70% of the time (his 2023 and early 2024 marks) against big leaguers. Dollander’s arm speed portends changeup growth, but the ones he throws now tend to sail on him. His curveball has distinct shape from his slider and has fine depth for an upper-70s curve, he just doesn’t consistently land his location with this pitch either. Dollander’s very similar to the high-variance developmental arms on a typical Top 100 list, a potential no. 3/4 starter with pretty clear developmental checkpoints (fastball command, third pitch quality) to hit on his way there.

As a prospect, Fernandez is the hot person you know it’s a bad idea to date. He has a sexy and explosive swing that produces absurd pull power for a college-aged hitter, and the broad-shouldered Fernandez might yet have more room for muscle on his frame. He is also among the more aggressive, free-swinging hitters in the minors, and his lack of plate discipline, as well as a top-of-the-zone hole in his swing, threaten to either limit (as with Marlins outfielder Jesús Sánchez) or undo (as has been the case so far with White Sox outfielder Oscar Colás) his whole profile. Fernandez’s 18.5% swinging strike rate across last season was impossibly close to his overall strikeout rate (17.9%) while he was raking at High-A Spokane, and the latter was clearly not sustainable given the former. My fear here is that Fernandez doesn’t even have to be tricked in order to be beaten — you can also beat him executing fastballs up and away from him in the zone because his swing is so geared for low-ball contact that he can’t get on top of them. This is where a gap between someone like Heston Kjerstad (who also chases a lot, but is a power threat all over the zone) and Yanquiel comes from in terms of evaluation. I think there has to be adjustment here in order for Fernandez to succeed, but he’s young enough that there feasibly could be. His best swings are, I’m not kidding, Griffey-like in their explosion and beautiful finish. The power-hitting potential here is so strong that I think Fernandez will find a way to produce like a corner platoon guy despite his flaws, and if he can improve on those as he gets deep into his 20s, he’ll have a monstrous peak. This is a pretty volatile player who the Rockies should be patient with, as he’s likely to have some pretty severe early-career struggles against big league arms.

After Goodman mostly played first base and left field rather than catch in 2023, he’s played roughly half his games at catcher so far in 2024, with time spent at first base and in right field as well. If Goodman can improve enough as a defender to be a viable big league catcher (not even a good one, just passable), then he’s going to be a primary backstop for as long as he can remain so.

Goodman’s power is sensational. He takes epic, max-effort swings and is capable of putting balls out to all fields. This style of hitting leads to lots of swing-and-miss, enough that if he were only an outfielder and first baseman, then we’re talking about him more like Matt Davidson 데이비슨 instead of Mike Napoli redux. Goodman’s best throws produce plus pop times, but he doesn’t handle the baseball especially skillfully and his throws are often ruined by inaccuracy or a fumbled exchange. He’s still not a very good receiver but he looks a bit better this spring, and he’s a gung-ho ball blocker who throws himself around in order to smother the baseball.

A couple of list-making details that helped inform the way Goodman stacks here: He has a better chance of actually playing a premium position than the younger, seemingly more famous prospects in this system like Jordan Beck and Sterlin Thompson. His contact rates have been slightly superior to Beck’s, and Goodman is able to pull the ball with power on the regular whereas Beck’s swing is longer and he pushes contact to the opposite field. Goodman has the upside that all but a few prospects in the Rockies system lack, and if you believe in the old adage that catchers tend to develop late, he still has some defensive growth coming and should compete for playing time at a host of different positions relatively soon.

Vargas is a loose, ultra-projectable, strike-throwing starter prospect with a curvaceous breaking ball. He had Tommy John late in 2023 and will probably miss most, if not all, of 2024 to rehab. At age 18, Vargas was already sitting 93-95 mph with disruptive tailing action, and he held that velo as his innings load and per-start output grew in full-season ball. His 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, but Vargas is too young to really worry about that. The ease of his delivery and his ability to throw strikes both facilitate starter projection, and his extremely lanky, broad-shouldered build not only generates hope that he can maintain mid-90s heat under a starter’s workload, but also that he may continue to throw harder as he matures. He had the look of a guy with mid-rotation ceiling when he was healthy, with time and the risk associated with teenage arms pulling down his FV grade even before he got hurt.

For the same reasons you should be skeptical of offensive performance at Spokane, we can forgive Chivilli (pronounced “chivee-YEE”) for having an ERA approaching 6.00 there in 2023. Chvilli went from a developmental relief prospect with the makings of a good changeup to a 40-man rosteree with a plus-plus changeup in one year. He sat 93-96 throughout 2023 and is back there again to start 2024, and while he lacks precise feel for fastball command, his delivery is direct to the plate and Chivilli’s style of fastball utility doesn’t require him to dot his heater east and west. I actually wonder if Chivilli can start. He’s kept his walks under control during his time in the minors, he’s loose and athletic, and in addition to the power mid-80s changeup, he has a fair mid-80s slider that he can land for a strike. He threw 57 innings last year in what was largely a single-inning relief role, which he appears to be in again at Hartford early in 2024. I think the Rockies should consider stretching Chivilli out in long relief to set him up for a potential transition to the rotation if things go well. The problem is that he’s already on the 40-man and it would probably take the better part of his first two option years to actually find out if that’s a good fit. If things don’t work, then you’ve monkeyed with what is otherwise a likely late-inning reliever.

Thompson is a left-handed Miguel Vargas of sorts. He has lovely looking hitting hands but not the power typical of peers at the positions he can play. A career .298/.373/.478 hitter, Thompson was another of the many exciting bats who began 2023 at High-A Spokane and ended it at Double-A Hartford or beyond. He does not miss mistakes anywhere near the middle of the zone and sprays fastballs to both gaps, with Thompson most able to do extra-base damage by ambushing pullable pitches on the inner half. He tends to expand the zone and chase considerably more with two strikes, but in general Thompson is a skilled left-handed hitter to the eye. His underlying data mostly supports this, as his overall contact rate approached 80% in 2023.

Thompson played second base and the outfield at Florida and had mostly played third and some 2B/OF as a pro before 2024, but since the end of spring training, he has split time between first base and left field, and he’s more of a spray doubles hitter than the sort of thumper who is ideal at those spots. He’s listed at 6-foot-3, 200 pounds but is rather slight of build. Can he still get stronger? One of the positives of Thompson’s pre-draft profile was that he was young for a college prospect, and he’s still just 22 as of list publication and already at Double-A. Limited power would mean Thompson’s hit tool would need to be Daniel Murphyesque in order for him to be a foundational piece, and I don’t have it projected to be quite that excellent. It’s important for Thompson to find another gear of power in his mid-20s. Still, I like his bat enough to consider him a strong side corner platoon guy or even just a 1.5 WAR everyday first baseman very similar to Nolan Schanuel.

While some of the spreadsheet darlings who exit velo’d the DSL into oblivion last year are more famous, Reyes looks like the most complete and well-rounded prospect at Rockies extended spring camp in Scottsdale. He’s a potential everyday center fielder who does a little bit of everything, and I currently have him FV’d in line with a typical mid-to-late first round teenage draft prospect.

Twitchy, sinewy, and relatively projectable, Reyes is a converted amateur infielder (per a scout) who has a promising early-career look in center field. He ran right around 4.2 during my week of looks, which is a tick above average for a lefty batter, and he should add some speed as he matures athletically. His reads and routes out there are fine — he nearly made one sensational play on a ball hit directly over his head, but he couldn’t keep the ball in his glove as he leapt and crashed onto the warning track. Reyes is a skilled hitter who tracks pitches and moves the baseball all over the field. I watched him hit a pull-side homer and a single on a drag bunt in the same game the week prior to list publication, and make in-flight adjustments to breaking stuff that he lined over the infielder’s heads. On paper in 2023 he performed right there with the big league average in center field, with a 75% overall contact rate and 85% rate in the zone. I don’t think we’re talking about a star here, but Reyes has a shot to be an everyday player and his floor isn’t all that far beneath that outcome.

Mejia percolated in rookie ball for four years leading up to the missed pandemic season and popped onto the bottom of the Rockies list as a developmental relief prospect starting in 2021. He reached Double-A in 2023 and was added to the Rockies 40-man roster after the season. Mejia has one of the more beautiful 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. His slider is arguably a better pitch, as it has massive two-planed wipe in the 83-87 mph band. That pitch has enough movement to freeze hitters when Mejia wants to throw it for a strike, and enough to miss a bat when he locates it for a chase, which he does pretty consistently even though his fastball command is poor. When you include Synergy’s 2023 and 2024 samples, Mejia’s slider is generating chase and miss at an elite rate, approaching 50%, though a huge chunk of that sample is from High-A. He’ll show you the odd changeup now and again, and I think you can actually project on that pitch over the long haul because of Mejia’s delivery and athleticism. I think he’s going to be a late-inning reliever, and how good he becomes will be determined by whether or not Mejia can improve the quality of his fastball locations.

Hughes looked incredible out of the gate in 2023 and even dominated the Dodgers’ big league lineup during a spring training game, but by the middle of the season he was running an ERA well over 6.00 and a scout source who saw a few of Hughes’ starts in that span had him sitting 91-92 mph. He had Tommy John in July, and a typical rehab timeline would hopefully put him in range to pitch in a competitive setting again late in 2024. Healthy Hughes sits 93-95 mph early in his outings, then tends to fall off into the low 90s late, with cut and sink that keeps him off barrels. I think it’s fair to conclude his huge dip in velocity was a result of injury and not a decline in talent, and Hughes is lined up on the Rockies list under the assumption that his arm strength returns. He also has a two-plane slider that transitioned from being a short, cuttery pitch into a more traditional sweeper that more often has bat-missing length. A slower curveball that Hughes can land for a strike gives him a starter mix that, ideally, could use another weapon against lefties. Hughes’ size, athleticism, arm speed, and stuff were all very exciting prior to the TJ (though his delivery was pretty violent), and I had him projected as a workhorse no. 4/5 starter on a good team. Hopefully we can get an idea as to whether his stuff has returned during the late portion of the 2024 scouting calendar.

Beck’s surface-level stats were utterly dominant in 2023. He especially crushed the Northwest League, where he hit 20 homers in just 76 games before a promotion to Double-A Hartford. He was promoted fairly aggressively to Triple-A Albuquerque (after just 50 Double-A games) at the start of 2024 and is off to a slugger’s beginning there, too.

Beck should get to enough of his power to be a useful big league role player, and he’ll probably have a peak year or two where he plays more or less every day and hits 30 bombs, maybe more with help from Denver. But same as I wrote last year when he was crushing it at Spokane, I am apprehensive about projecting him to do it consistently and for an extended period of time because of the nature of his swing-and-miss. Beck had more swinging strikes than balls in play last year in a sample that was generated mostly at High-A. His 64% contact rate would rank near the very bottom of the big league outfielder population alongside players whose production is a pretty good comp for what I expect from peak Beck, like Brent Rooker and Luke Raley. Beck is a powerful, tightly wound athlete with thunderous raw power and above-average speed. His swing takes a long time to enter the hitting zone, often leaving him late on fastballs either at the belt or on the outer third of the plate. He has the pop to do opposite field damage when he actually makes contact with pitches away from him, but he whiffs out there a ton already even though he isn’t yet seeing big league-level velo consistently.

Beck is playing a mix of all three outfield positions but is destined for a corner in the majors. His speed gives him plus corner outfield range, while his ball skills and hands are below average. Rooker is the cleanest current big league comp for Beck from a production and profile standpoint, as the others are either toolsier (Jose Siri, Tyler O’Neill) or hit left-handed (Raley, Matt Wallner). There are scouts who have average everyday grades on Beck, and while I think he’ll peak as such, I’ll take the under across his years of team control because of the way it looks like his hit tool will trend.

Calaz had among the best present raw power in the 2023 international signing class and reinforced that assessment with his 2023 DSL debut, as he slugged .561, hit seven homers in 43 games, and posted peak exit velocities that would be plus on the big league scale, let alone for a teenage hitter. During looks from minor league spring training and early on in extended spring as I prepped this list, I left with more skepticism around Calaz’s hit tool than I anticipated, but the power is certainly real.

Calaz’s swing is akin to guys like Connor Joe and Elehuris Montero, and you can see the DNA of this swing throughout the Rockies org, as well as Pittsburgh and Toronto. Calaz’s open-striding cut is geared to vaporize pitches middle-in and down, while he tends to inside-out pitches in other parts of the zone. He is extremely vulnerable to high fastballs, and because of his stride direction, he might be vulnerable to better sliders once he sees them. He ran a 71% contact rate in the DSL last year, which is pretty low for a prospect at that level.

But holy cow, Calaz has power. He nearly hit my car in the D-backs backfield parking lot with a homer the Saturday before list publication, and he still has room on his frame for lots of mass and even more juice. He has a rare blend of strength and athletic fluidity; most hitters with this kind of power at this age are stiffer and wound pretty tight. Even before he signed there was industry sentiment that Calaz may ultimately be a DH, in part because of his lack of feel for the outfield, and after watching him all week, I think that’s fair. He should be developed in right field to see if he can improve (there’s no reason to DH him now), but he isn’t an especially instinctive defender. Like Jordan Beck, Calaz has a middle-of-the-order ceiling and hit tool risk that threatens its consistency and attainability. He has the same FV grade as Beck but has proven less in pro ball, and so slots in behind him.

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 him from ever pitching long enough to prove that he had bettered his command. Hill was developed as a starter in 2022 and 2023 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 is nearly a sidearm thrower whose fastball tails. His slider has lacked the depth it needs to miss bats early in 2024, but some of his best Fall League sliders were incredible. His changeup also has a lot of tailing action, and the horizontal split between Hill’s 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. Like a stiffer, stockier Miguel Castro, Hill is more than just a generic reliever but probably isn’t an ideal high-leverage fit because of his command’s inconsistency.

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 with the Rockies he’s throwing a few ticks harder than in college. Both during spring training and in Hartford early in 2024, Halvorsen has been parked in the 97-99 mph range.

All three of his pitches can be nasty. Because he lacks precise command, both of Halvorsen’s secondary pitches have a tendency to finish all over the place. His slider (84-87 mph) is hard enough to miss the barrel even when it backs up, and some of his mis-released splitters act like a two-seamer running off the front hip of lefties and catch 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 that. Halvorsen has become muscular to the point of being bulky, and his delivery is quite violent. I don’t know that this means he’s subject to elevated injury risk (the graceful guys get hurt too), but I do wince watching him throw. That hasn’t impacted his grade here, but if I were a team, it would make me more open to an express lane trajectory to the big league club.

Cracks in Veen’s toolsy profile, which includes electrifying speed and plus 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. Veen rotates with rare ferocity, and his broad-shouldered, 6-foot-3 frame leaves room for immense strength as he matures, projection he began to actualize in 2022. As explosive as most of his body is, Veen’s hands are not, and he tends to be long into the hitting zone. The length of Veen’s swing makes it very difficult for him to catch up to fastballs and limits the locations in the zone where he can do damage. 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. Against the fastballs at 94 mph or above that Synergy Sports has tracked since 2022, Veen has hit .146 with a .171 SLG. Some of this is likely due to the wrist injury, but isolating his performance to 2022 still has him hitting below the Mendoza Line. Veen is habitually late on heaters and really only able to impact ones down-and-away from him when he can get his arms fully extended.

So much else of what Veen brings to the table is exciting and potentially impactful. He is going to wreak havoc on the bases. 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. He added meaningful muscle and strength during the 2022-23 offseason, and has made several adjustments to his swing across the last few seasons, some seemingly because he was trying to deal with injury and others to try to solve his contact and lift issues. He has the straight line speed to play center field but defenders with better feel have pushed him to a corner in the minors. He is most similar to D-backs outfielder Jake McCarthy and Braves outfielder Forrest Wall, with the skillset of a premium fifth outfielder who most often impacts the game with speed, except Veen has more raw juice and in-game power potential in the event that he makes a successful swing adjustment.

Jorge left Cuba in 2019 and was eligible to sign throughout 2020, but most of the money for that signing period was already committed. Jorge and the Rockies decided it was mutually beneficial to wait until the next period to ink a $2.8 million deal, a Rockies’ record and one of the largest bonuses in the class. As most Cuban signees do even though they’re often a little older, Jorge spent his first pro season in the DSL for tax purposes. At age 20, he was a bit old for his 2023 complex-level assignment and torched pitching there. I got overzealous and prematurely elevated Jorge, who has immense physical projection and a body in the Fernando Tatis Jr. mold, into the back of the Top 100.

As he’s been promoted to full-season affiliates some of his issues have become more apparent. He’s more smooth than explosive and doesn’t have the arm strength or range to comfortably project at shortstop, though he does have the flexibility and actions. His inside-out swing makes it difficult for Jorge to turn on anything and it might be tough for him to actualize whatever power he grows into because of the way his mechanics work. His bat-to-ball track record has been impressive even though his swing is atypical. I’m skeptical that will continue, but I’m still sky high on Jorge’s long-term power projection because of his build. I’d like to see him tried in center field and will be keyed to identify a swing change if the Rockies make one. College hitters with this kind of profile tend to be third and fourth round prospects — they’re not fully-actualized baseball players but they have rare physical ability or projection, and that’s how Jorge is graded here.

Hidalgo had a monster second season in the DSL, where he slugged .583 and hit 12 homers, which ranked second in the league. His look on the backfields of Arizona during the spring of 2024 has been one of offensive inconsistency. His swing was a bit out of whack early and is now more in sync, but it’s still uphill and geared for pull power. Hidalgo doesn’t track pitches especially well, but he does swing hard for a potential shortstop his age and his gangly frame has room for a lot of strength. On defense, Hidalgo has the arm strength for short but plays a little high and has medium twitch. He’s a possible shortstop, not a lock. There are far right tail outcomes where Hidalgo stays at short and grows into enough power to overcome what will likely be a below-average hit tool and I want to leave room for that upside in his FV grade here, because there could eventually be an awful lot of power.

I had a fairly bullish pre-signing grade on Andujar even though some international scouts thought he was simply too frail to be a viable offensive player in pro ball. I’m willing to project more growth (literally) and skill development here because Andujar is so young. His skill foundation (switch-hitting feel for contact and great defensive actions) has him primed to break out if he can develop big league physicality. After initial rumors had the Yankees on Andujar, he signed with Colorado for $1.7 million in January.

Casilla has been one of the more exciting pop-up arms of early 2024 backfield action, as the teenage lefty has routinely been in the 95-98 range with his fastball and flashes a nasty two-planed breaking ball. Casilla is a high-waisted, bubble-butted southpaw with a rectangular frame. His body composition is similar to Framber Valdez and Jake McGee — he’s not skinny or sculpted, but he’s still powerful and athletic. Casilla pitches at the top of the zone with his fastball, which sinks down into the zone and finds barrels. He was frustratingly wild and hittable during my in-person look and for the many scouts who have seen him during the spring. Some adjustment needs to be made to Casilla’s fastball or its usage, either something about grip/release that helps it play at the belt the way he seems inclined to use it, or something that leans into his ability to sink the ball. Purely a dev project with a ton of relief risk at this stage, Casilla’s arm strength and raw breaking ball quality are still an exciting foundation for a prospect his age. He has sizable upside if the Rockies can develop him.

A sidearm lefty starter with a Clay Rapada-esque delivery, Palmquist’s repertoire depth should enable him to be more than just a lefty specialist even though that’s what he looks like at first glance. He is capable of missing bats with all three of his pitches, though his ability to do so in-zone is limited to his fastball. Palmquist struggles to command his heater to his glove side, which makes it tough to set up his slider as a chase pitch. Still, his level of funk, as well as his mechanical looseness, athleticism, and repertoire depth look like they could work through a lineup a couple of times, especially if Palmquist uses a more even mix of pitches than he did in college when he was fastball-heavy. He had success in 2023 at a combination of High- and Double-A; Palmquist kept his walk rate below 10% at both stops and struck out more than a batter per inning across just over 90 innings. In 2024, he’s begun the year at Hartford with more early-count sliders against lefty batters, but otherwise he looks the same. This guy is a stable mid-staff pitching prospect whose relatively narrow range of potential outcomes span fifth starter/swingman/long reliever.

Sullivan is an ultra-deceptive cross-bodied lefty with a rise/run heater. His stride direction takes him toward the first base line at an extreme angle, and this, in concert with his low three-quarters slot, makes him very deceptive; it takes hitters a few looks at him to get comfortable. He does most of his swing-and-miss damage with a low-90s fastball that averaged 90 mph across all of 2023. He was sitting more 90-94 during his postseason starts with Wake, but has been back in the 88-91 mph range during the spring of 2024.

In college, Sullivan’s repertoire was fastball-heavy in the extreme at about 75% usage, which isn’t sustainable in pro ball when you sit 89. His mid-80s changeup appears to be coming to the forefront of his secondary offerings early in 2024. Sullivan sells it with arm speed and tends to command it to the arm-side edge of the plate. His slider isn’t nasty on its own, but his arm angle is going to help it play against lefties and it has enough length to play as a strike-stealing backdoor offering versus righties. There aren’t many starters who look like Sullivan in the big leagues — guys like Ryan Yarbrough and Reiver Sanmartin can kind of give you an idea of the role pitchers like Sullivan tend to play. As of list publication, he is off to a very good start at Spokane, and this org is clearly open to exploring starting roles for low-slot guys pitchers like him and Carson Palmquist.

Romo hasn’t looked quite himself on defense for the last couple of seasons, as he allowed nearly 100 stolen bases in 2023 at an 80% success rate. He’s still a fine receiver and his pop times so far in 2024 have been hovering around average even though he’s again allowing stolen bases at a high rate. Romo looked like a potential impact primary catcher upon his entry into pro ball, and even as cracks in his offensive output (less power than I expected based on his high school look) began to show, Romo’s feel for contact and defense still made him a luxury backup catcher prospect. At this point, though, his toolset is more like that of a standard backup. He hit .254/.313/.440 (103 wRC+) at Hartford last year, but his rate of chase suggests to me that he’ll perform below that at the big league level.

Carreras’ carrying tool is his defense. 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 fantastic. For a bit while Carreras was in the low minors, it appeared as though he might grow into meaningful power, but that hasn’t happened and he’s still a relatively skinny, light-hitting offensive player whose propensity to chase is also a bit of a problem. There probably won’t be sufficient offensive impact for Carreras to be a regularly or even oft-used complementary player, but his defense will very likely make him a bench infielder who provides a late-game defensive upgrade.

Montgomery was a relatively divisive amateur prospect who became even more polarizing after his pro debut. The Pennsylvania high schooler was one of the toolsier prep players available, a big-framed center field prospect with rare athleticism and power projection, and fair batted ball showcase performance for a cold weather guy. Detractors were scared of how cacophonous Montgomery’s swing was and thought he’d need an overhaul to hit at all in pro ball. Model-driven teams rounded down on Montgomery because he was nearly 19 on draft day. Even though Montgomery’s swing was odd, he still put balls in play at a pretty good rate against his elite peers. The Rockies picked him eighth overall. Montgomery had a big first full season on paper (.313/.394/.502) aided by a .419 BABIP and the hitting environment in the Cal League, but he K’d at an alarming rate. That carried into 2023, when Benny’s output dipped closer to league average.

I don’t see how this is going to work in an everyday capacity unless Montgomery’s swing changes. His hands are incredibly noisy and active in a couple different directions while the ball is in flight, and I fear he’s going to be very strikeout-prone now that he’s reached the upper minors. He still runs well enough to be developed in center field and should be fine there if he can refine his ball skills, which have looked raw in the past but have been better early in 2024. He needs to take another step forward as a defender in order to hit this projection, but I have Montgomery in as a Jake Marisnick/Keon Broxton type of reserve outfielder.

Carrigg is a superlative athlete with some monster tools, but none on offense. He lit up the Combine athletics testing, especially the throwing drills; he has a legit 80 arm with unbelievable connectivity during max-effort rips. Carrigg is a wiry, sinewy athlete with a multi-positional background, getting catcher, shortstop, and third base reps as an underclassman at San Diego State, while playing center field as a junior. The Rockies let him catch a little bit after the draft, but he is back to playing mostly center field so far in 2024, to mixed reviews. He’s more likely to wind up playing a dynamic right field and a couple infield positions. A switch-hitter with a long lefty swing, Carrigg’s cut is grooved from both sides of the plate. I don’t think he’ll hit enough to be a true everyday guy, but he should be a fun role player with premium defensive versatility assuming he continues to revisit other defensive positions in pro ball, which in a best-case scenario includes catcher.

The Angels spent most of their all-pitcher 2021 draft selecting college arms, many of whom came in under slot. This allowed them to take a late, $1.25 million flier on Albright. Originally from Maryland, Albright played his senior year at IMG Academy in Florida. He spent parts of three seasons with the Angels before he was traded to the Rockies as part of the C.J. Cron and Randal Grichuk deal during the Angels’ last gasps with Shohei Ohtani on the roster. Albright wasn’t an especially projectable or athletic high schooler, but he did have good natural breaking ball movement for a prep lefty, and he now has two different breakers, including a pretty hard slider that looks like it’s coming to the forefront of his repertoire. Albright has surprisingly consistent changeup command in spite of his long arm swing. While his fastball is pretty vulnerable (it sits 91 and Albright tries to use it at the very top of the strike zone), there’s a deep enough mix here to keep considering Albright a future backend starter prospect with a lefty specialist floor.

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 a little bit that year. He held 92-94 and touched 96-97 across 16 starts as a junior. His fastball tails, he commands a short, mid-80s slider sitting 84-86 mph, and he has arm-side changeup feel. His secondaries aren’t all that nasty, but Mahoney’s feel for location is advanced considering his lack of college reps. There’s a backend starter projection here, with a non-zero chance he’s scratching the surface of more. He began 2024 at Low-A Fresno, which is probably beneath his skill level.

Hernandez is a stocky, low-to-the-ground athlete with plus defensive hands and terrific feel for the barrel. His style of hitting is geared more for opposite field 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 in extended spring training, and he is slick and sound at every spot. There likely won’t be enough power to play every day, but the contact and defense foundation here gives Hernandez a relatively high floor as a utility infielder.

One of Eric’s two sons in pro ball (Jared pitches in the Dodgers system), Kyle hit .276/.342/.407 at UCLA and was drafted in the fifth round. He might end up growing into more power, as he’s a strapping 6-foot-5 and still has room for strength on his broad-shouldered frame. His lever length does tend to cause Karros to inside out the baseball the other way, but unlike a lot of long-levered hitters for whom this is true, he doesn’t typically get beat around the hands. He is also a surprisingly slick defender for his size, making up for what he lacks in twitch with elegant footwork, deft hands, and a plus arm. Karros stands a good chance to be a four corners role player and has a puncher’s chance to be an everyday third baseman if indeed he can add power as a pro.

Vodnik’s fastball velocity has vacillated wildly during his time as a prospect but lately it’s booming. He went from sitting 94-95 at the start of 2022 to sitting 97 mph, which he has sustained across the last couple of seasons. Vodnik, who was acquired for Pierce Johnson in 2023, has again been sitting 95-98 during the early going of 2024. His long arm swing is tough to repeat and he scatters all three of his pitches. Both his low-80s slurve and upper-80s changeup can flash plus (the changeup more often), but Vodnik’s poor feel for location causes both to play down. He projects as a pretty standard three-pitch middle reliever and will need to find another gear of command if he’s going to end up in a higher-leverage role.

A rock solid two-way player at East Carolina and on Team USA, Agnos has focused on pitching in pro ball, and has added three ticks of velo. He’s also begun to incorporate a cutter into his pitch mix. Agnos is sitting 93-94 with uphill angle early in 2024, and in part because of his consistent command, he’s capable of missing bats with both his slider and changeup, which descend and diverge from Agno’s high arm slot. His changeup in particular has movement that looks like a lefty’s slider. His repertoire and command are perhaps good enough to consider a move to the rotation, but for now Agnos is the closer at Spokane. He’s a good middle relief prospect.

Shawver is an athletic lefty with a whippy arm action whose uphill fastball punched above its weight even when he tended to sit about 91 mph. This year, his heater has enjoyed a three-tick bump and now looks like an impact pitch. Shawver’s slider flashes above average but not consistently so, though some of his hangers can still trick hitters who give up on the pitch thinking it’s a high fastball. He should be a solid lefty middle reliever relatively soon.

One of a couple hard-throwing youngsters in Colorado’s talented Arizona complex contingent is Herrera, who sat 93-96 and touched 97 during an extended spring outing just before list publication. He also has a plus mid-80s slider that Herrera really only has feel for landing in the zone right now. It leaps out at the ribs of right-handed hitters before diving back into the strike zone as they bail on the pitch. His upper-80s changeup needs to improve and Herrera needs to find a chase breaking ball in addition to his promising in-zone offering. As a medium-framed guy, he’s more likely to wind up in relief than the rotation, but he has exciting stuff for a teenage pitching prospect.

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. After playing mostly second base in his first pro season, Bernard largely shifted to left field in year two, and that’s the only position I’ve seen him at this spring. He swings with big time effort and can lose track of the baseball during the process. Of bulldog build, Bernard has a rare combination of short levers and strength, and he’s going to get to power in games by virtue of this. However, he lacks traditional physical projection and has demonstrated only fair bat-to-ball skill thus far. He’s a young prospect to watch who’s going to have to keep mashing up the ladder to reinforce confidence that his hit tool will hold enough water for Bernard to clear the bar in left field.

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 last season, but he began 2024 on the shelf with elbow inflammation. The southpaw has a short, vertical arm stroke that helps his heater play as an in-zone bat misser despite average velocity. He hides the ball forever and it appears to jump on hitters very quickly. Off of that he throws a classic 12-to-6 curveball, which is virtually indistinguishable from his fastball until it starts to bend with huge, bat-missing depth. Those two pitches give Prosecky a reliever’s foundation. He’s a bit of a short strider and his arm stroke isn’t always well-timed, but so far Prosecky has thrown enough strikes to continue developing as a starter. His third pitch is currently a changeup, which is still below average but has long-term ceiling because of the whip of Prosecky’s arm stroke. It’s perhaps more likely that his ability to spin it leads to a second type of breaker, like a two-planed slider. Either way, Prosecky is probably just scratching the surface of a third offering because of his collegiate role. The median projection for Prosecky is that of a backend starter.

Brown enjoyed a velocity uptick between his freshman and sophomore years at Indiana and sat 92-96 mph before the COVID shutdown. He retained that velo into the fall of 2020, sitting 92-96 at Hoosiers autumn workouts and scrimmages. Brown fell toward the bottom of that range the following spring, averaging about 92-93 and peaking at 97 rather than living near it. It was his first full year of pitching after he had thrown just six combined innings as an underclassman. His ERA was inflated by the Cal League hitting environment in 2022, but Brown struck out a 118 batters in 89.2 innings, mostly with his two great breaking balls. He was shut down late in the year with elbow soreness and had surgery in April of 2023 from which he has yet to return.

Brown’s ticket to the big leagues is his curveball, an upper-70s jawn with a power pitcher’s shape. His delivery isn’t overtly violent, but Brown has never had great touch-and-feel fastball command. There are a couple potential avenues for Brown if you want to use some of the lack of innings/his geographic background as reason to round up on his strike-throwing projection. More likely, Brown eventually moves to the bullpen, where he’ll again sit in the mid-90s and become a nasty reliever.

Jones was a fascinating amateur prospect with a rare speed and power combination who ended up heading to UNC Wilmington because he was extremely raw for a high schooler even though he was a 19-year-old high school senior. Two years later, when he was old enough to be an age-eligible sophomore, there were scouts who thought Jones had the best tools package in the entire 2019 draft, but still his bat-to-ball track record and inconsistent defense made clubs uncomfortable, and he wasn’t taken until the back of the first round. For five years now, Jones has remained that kind of player. He struck out in 35% or more of his plate appearances every year since he was first promoted to Double-A. Last season at Triple-A Durham, Jones had his first above-average wRC+ in a while as he got to enough power to post a .357 wOBA. Given Wander Franco’s legal situation and Taylor Walls‘ health, the Rays could not afford to have a 26-year-old developmental shortstop on their roster and traded Jones to Colorado for lefty Joe Rock not long before the 2024 season.

It’s rare for me to have a hitter this old on a prospect list, or a hitter who has struck out north of 35% of the time, let alone both. But Jones has elite speed, he’s a viable shortstop defender (but not a great one), and I think his athleticism will translate to center field in a big way over time. I think the Rays took too long to deploy him there (they waited until he was 25) and, amid some absolutely insane highlight reel plays early on in 2024, his relative inexperience still shows. He needs to communicate better with the corner guys, take charge of 50/50 balls in the gap, and be more decisive about where the baseball needs to go. These are problems of inexperience. As a shortstop, Jones’ range is incredible, and while his throwing stroke is atypical for a big league shortstop, he finds improbable ways to get the ball over to first base using his body control. This guy is going to hang around the upper levels of pro ball for a while longer just because he’s athletic enough to play two premium positions, and while he’s limited on offense (he punishes the fastballs he connects with, but is otherwise hapless), the tools for Jones to make a situational impact on a big league roster are still here.

Molina’s strikeout numbers haven’t been especially good since he was a teenager on the complex, but his skill level began to climb late in 2022 when he shifted from a long relief role to Tampa’s High-A rotation without losing any of his mid-90s velocity. Molina has thrown his fastball and slider for strikes at a 65% or better clip for each of the past two years, and he’s held above-average velocity during that time despite throwing more and more innings since minor league baseball returned post-pandemic. In a 2023 season split between Double-A Montgomery and Triple-A Durham, Molina worked 122 total innings and posted a 4.50 ERA. He routinely sits 93-94 mph and was touching 97 late in the year. The Rays seem to have tweaked his fastball usage in 2023 because Molina’s groundball rate plummeted; now that he’s a Rockie, it’s plausible he’ll return to his prior approach to pitching. Molina is definitely more of a control-over-command type, imprecisely peppering the zone with his sinking changeup and tilting slider. We’ve had a depth starter grade on Molina for the last couple of list cycles and still think that’d be his role in a vacuum, but given that Colorado badly needs to cultivate starting pitching, he may be given an opportunity in their rotation at some point.

Criswell was a huge part of Michigan’s 2019 College World Series runner-up team and was Oakland’s second round pick in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. After dealing with some early career injuries, in 2022 Criswell was totally healthy and had a better strike-throwing season than he ever enjoyed in college. He was then traded to Colorado for Chad Smith and his control regressed, as he walked 71 hitters in 121 innings at Albuquerque in 2023. During the spring of 2024, Criswell’s delivery looked like it changed. He’s getting deeper into his legs and his arm slot has lowered somewhat. It could alter the way his fastball plays for the better, but it’s too early to tell if it has worked. Criswell is still pretty wild, but he has a four-pitch mix headlined by a plus slider, which has been his best pitch during his entire time as a prospect. Criswell’s changeup and curveball are both average, and he has the mix to start but not the command. So far in 2024, he’s been deployed in multi-inning relief and that’s likely his long-term fit, probably in an up/down capacity.

Cox finally got underway in full-season ball last year, but he only made it through 10 outings before he blew out and needed Tommy John in the middle of the season. If you’re looking for elite spin rates as part of a prospect’s foundation, this is your guy. Cox’s breaking ball routinely spins in the 2900-3100 rpm range and has huge two-plane wipe. His fastball, which will reach 96 mph but sits more 92-93, is relatively true due to Cox’s generic three-quarters arm slot and might get hit a ton without mechanical alteration, which perhaps makes sense to try during Cox’s rehab. A short-strider with a bit of cross-body action to his delivery, it may be as simple as tweaking Cox’s stride length or direction to alter the shape of his fastball, or parlaying his talent for spinning the ball into a breaking pitch that plays better with a sinker. The track record of guys with curveball/sinker combos isn’t great, as those two pitches are typically easy for advanced hitters to parse out of hand. Cox is of medium build, not maxed out but also not in possession of round-up physical projection that might make me think his fastball will play anyway. He fits in Colorado’s system among the other young arms with good curveballs and downhill fastballs.

Mena has had two consecutive Arizona complex seasons with pretty strong peripherals and looks poised to reach a full-season affiliate this year. He’s a medium-framed righty who has shown a slight uptick in velocity this spring compared to 2023, as he’s been more 92-94 and topping out at 95 while working pretty deep into games (for extended spring training, anyway). He also has a plus upper-70s curveball that is going to terrorize low-level hitters. His firm changeup, up to 88 mph, has cut action at times and needs to be more consistent for him to continue to have bat-missing success. The arm strength, strikes, average physical projection and breaking ball quality offer a pretty good foundation for a teenage developmental project. I have Mena projected as adding a second breaking ball here due to his age and curveball quality.

Luciano is a developmental starter prospect near the bottom of the minors. He’s been slow-burning in rookie ball for a couple of years and is in extended again this spring, but he was commanding the baseball well enough in my look to go to Fresno if he’s needed. Luciano has a three-pitch mix headlined by his curveball. He sits 92-94 and is up to 96 with downhill plane, and has feel for locating a firm, mid-80s changeup that he’s comfortable using against righty batters, and Luciano’s upper-70s curveball consistently has plus depth. He can land it for a strike to get ahead or as a chase pitch in the dirt. Modest physical projection likely caps the ceiling on Luciano’s long-term velo, so it’s important for him to either refine that changeup or add a second breaking ball. He has a long-term depth starter look right now, and could be a more stable backend starter with a better third and fourth pitch.

After he was finished pitching at Division-III Adrian College, Darnell pitched in a few independent leagues and worked as a mortgage loan officer (according to his LinkedIn) until he signed with the Rockies in 2021. He has struck out more than a batter per inning since debuting in affiliated ball and has continued to strike out plenty of upper-level hitters so far in 2024. Darnell will touch 97 mph and the uphill angle of his fastball helps it miss bats. His splitter’s movement varies from pitch to pitch, at times looking like a slider, at others like a true splitter, and sometimes it just sort of floats toward the plate and still garners an uncomfortable swing. After his velo was down somewhat late in 2023, it has rebounded early in 2024: Darnell is sitting 94-96 early on at Hartford, where he was essentially demoted after struggling at Triple-A during the second half of 2023. This guy has carved a unique path to the upper levels of the minors and is going to pitch in the big leagues as an up/down reliever.

Utterly dominant as both a sophomore and junior at Oral Roberts, Denton is a low-slot reliever with mid-90s heat and tail. He sports a lateral attack with a fastball/slider combo akin to what readers are used to seeing a low-slot righty do in the bullpen. Righty hitters flinch a lot against Denton. His slider often lacks depth but is still tough to discern from his fastball. He has middle relief projection with a shot to improve his slider’s bat-missing ability in pro ball. He didn’t break camp with an affiliate at the start of 2024, but I didn’t see him pitch during the early part of extended spring training, so he may have an ailment of some kind.

A bat-first college catcher at Texas Tech, Fulford has predictably crushed the lower minors and was promoted to Double-A Hartford in the middle of 2023. While his strikeouts took a little leap there, he maintained a nearly average overall offensive performance. Fulford has gotten significantly better behind the dish since turning pro and now looks like a pretty good bet to stay back there. He has below-average hands and he’s not great at framing borderline pitches or at picking balls in the dirt, but things aren’t so bad that he has to move off the position. He catches on one knee and varies the width of his base. At times, he gets caught flat-footed when he’s splayed super wide, but for the most part his exchange and arm are average. On offense, Fulford has a pull-oriented approach that leads him to swing inside a lot of sliders. He’s got pretty good power for a catcher and is most dangerous in the down-and-in portion of the zone. He should be in the mix for third catcher duties soon.

Coupet is a low-slot lefty with a huge breaking ball whose middle-of-the-road projection is that of a bullpen’s second lefty. Sitting 90-91, Coupet’s mechanical inconsistency points to the bullpen despite his strike-throwing track record at Ohio State. A hamstring injury cost him a chunk of 2023. His best pitch is easily his 78-82 mph slider, which has elite spin and big lateral length. He’s done a mix of starting and long relieving so far at Fresno.

Betancourt had among the DSL’s best stat lines in 2022. Last season he was skipped over the complex and sent straight to Low-A Fresno, where he played a mix of catcher and first base, mostly the latter. This year he’s in Spokane and is catching more than he is playing first base early on in 2024. Betancourt isn’t a lock to catch, with his ball-blocking currently the most undercooked aspect of his defense. He’s close to physically maxed-out and likely won’t have the raw power to profile at first base if it turns out he can’t stay behind the plate. Betancourt can hit, though. He has a compact lefty stroke with a simple toe tap that keeps him on time. His front foot is down super early and he just shifts his momentum forward without a lot of moving parts. He could be a contact-oriented part-time C/1B but is unlikely to be an impact player.