First up, the single-ballot players!
Now that the mid-season Purple Row Prospects (PuRPs) balloting period has concluded, it’s time to reveal the community’s top 30 prospects in the Colorado system. These prospects will be revealed over the next couple of weeks to give fans an overview of players who could make an impact on the Rockies soon.
First up: an introduction to the list and then a rundown of every single-ballot player to get votes from number 72 to 59. In two posts later this week, I will reveal the multi-ballot players from 59-36. Next I’ll reveal the five honorable mention PuRPs and move to the top 30 after that, five at a time. I’ll conclude the series with a voting summary and a state of the system post.
There were far more ballots than there have been in some time — 35 ballots this time around (up from 23 last time). The amount of the responses and the depth of the system led to a record (at least since 2010 when I took this process over) 72 players getting named at least once on a ballot (up from 57 in the pre-season 2024 list). There were 58 players named on multiple ballots (up from 42), while 31 were listed on at least 12 ballots (even with last time) and therefore had unmodified point totals. There were 20 different prospects receiving a top 10 placement on at least one list (up from 19).
For the first time since pre-season 2016, one of the top 30 PuRPs wasn’t named on at least a third of the ballots, indicating a greater difference of opinion than usual in the electorate. With that said, the top 20 made it on over 90% of ballots, so the top group was more or less a consensus. Here is a link to this list’s polling thread.
30 points were granted for a first place vote, 29 for second, etc. Until a player was named on eight ballots, his vote totals were modified on a sliding scale to avoid an individual ballot having too much say over the community forecast. If necessary, the first tiebreaker went to the player who was ranked on the most ballots, then to the one who ranked highest on an individual PuRPs ballot, the third tiebreaker was the mode ballot.
All prospects in the system who retained their Rookie of the Year eligibility (fewer than 130 ABs, 50 IP, and 45 days on the active roster — IL time is not included) were eligible for selection on this list. Since the pre-season 2024 balloting, four PuRPs lost eligibility while the Rockies added players through the draft, trades, and free agency (domestic and international).
For each player on the PuRPs list, I’ll include a link to individual stats and contract status (via Baseball-Reference) and notes on their scouting reports, if applicable. For the sake of full disclosure, I’ll also include where I put each player on my personal ballot. With players receiving votes, I’ll provide the B-Ref link and voting stats, plus a short blurb. All ages will be as of the day the article was posted.
Remember, statistics are not the end-all, be-all when evaluating these players. Context is hugely important (notably, the player’s age relative to the league’s average, the league’s average offensive numbers, or the player’s 40-man roster calendar), as is the fact that injuries to prospects can affect both their tools and their stats. I’ll try to make mention of instances where this is the case as we go on.
Without further ado, here are the players who ranked 72 to 59 in 2024 mid-season PuRPs voting:
Single Ballot Players
T-69. Jarrod Cande (0.1 points, 1 ballot) — the nearly 25-year-old right-hander was Colorado’s 17th rounder in 2021, receiving a $125k bonus. The 6’2” hurler has stuck as a starter so far in his professional career, including a decent showing this year for Double-A Hartford. Pitching at a slightly below league average age, Cande has 102 1⁄3 innings across 21 starts with a 4.13 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, 8.0 K/9 rate, and 3.9 BB/9 rate. In other words, Cande has done exactly what he needed to do to move up and stay in the starting rotation. He’s still among a number of similar depth arms in the system, but his continued success at a more advanced level is making him stand out a bit.
T-69. Sandy Ozuna (0.1 points, 1 ballot) — the 18-year-old righty starter is a 2023 international free agent out of the Dominican Republic. After a year in the Dominican Summer League, Ozuna came stateside this year, where the 6’0” pitcher was assigned to the Arizona Complex League team. So far against hitters that are on average 3.1 years older, Ozuna has 37 innings pitched across 10 games (5 starts) with a 4.14 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, 10.9 K/9 rate, and 2.7 BB/9 rate. He’s held his own against older hitters this year — if he does it in full season ball next year, he’ll turn heads.
T-69. Welinton Herrera (0.1 points, 1 ballot) — the 20-year-old lefty reliever has shown well this year in his first taste of full-season ball. The 2020 international free agent from the Dominican Republic has split the season between A and High-A, throwing 52 1⁄3 innings in 37 games to hitters who are on average 2-3 years older. He’s been dominant, producing a 3.27 ERA and a 83:18 strikeout to walk ratio (14.3 K/9 rate) with a low arm slot from the left side and mid-90s velocity. Jack Etkin wrote earlier this month about Herrera’s strong start in Fresno this year, in case you’d like to read more about his arsenal and Rockies personnel quotes about him. The Rockies system currently has a bunch of high upside relief arms, and with this year’s performance Herrera has joined that list.
T-69. Derek Bernard (0.1 points, 1 ballot) — the 19-year-old (as of a few days ago) outfielder was an international free agent out of the Dominican Republic, signing for a $185k bonus in 2022, even though he was largely raised in Brooklyn. After two strong years in the DSL, Bernard returned stateside this year to the ACL team, where the lefty hitter/righty thrower is about two years younger than league average. Bernard’s .296/.360/.440 ACL line in 175 PA has thus far been slightly above league average (104 wRC+).
FanGraphs ranked Bernard as a 40 FV player back in April, and he now sits 38th in the system on their ranking, highlighted by a plus future raw power grade:
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.
In a shallower year for the system, I’d have ranked Bernard in the back few slots on my list as a notable power prospect with room to grow. As it stands, he’s in the fringes of the top 30 for me but is a strong candidate to watch as he enters full season ball.
68. Brendan Hardy (0.2 points, 1 ballot) — the 24-year-old right-hander was acquired by the Rockies from the Mets system in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft late last year. The 6’4” reliever, a 31st rounder in the 2018 draft, had somewhat of a breakout year in 2023, pitching across three levels and reaching Double-A for the first time. This year, Hardy has spent the year in Double-A, where he has a 4.00 ERA and 1.22 WHIP in 36 innings across 29 games with a 9.8 K/9 rate and 3.5 BB/9 rate.
Hardy was ranked 37th on Fangraphs’ Mets list in mid-season 2023 as a 35+ FV pitcher:
Hardy’s inclusion here is all about long-term projection and athleticism. He isn’t especially young and doesn’t throw all that hard, nor does Hardy have even average command right now. What he does have is plus-plus athleticism, a perfect pitcher’s body, a delivery that exhibits huge hip/shoulder separation and crossfire action similar to Freddy Peralta or Adam Ottavino, and plus-flashing sweep on his slider. Athletes with frames like Hardy’s tend to dial things in enough over time to play some kind of big league role. At this age, it’s unlikely Hardy will have a velo boost that propels him into higher-leverage work, but his current stuff puts an eventual middle-inning role within reach if his command improves.
Baseball America highlighted Hardy as an intriguing minor league Rule 5 pick with this scouting report:
Hardy sits 92-93 mph in his four-seam fastball and the pitch really performed in 2023 with a 26% in-zone whiff rate, a 33% called+swinging strike rate and an xWOBA against of . 223. His primary secondary is a low-80s sweeper that generates lots of chase swings out of the zone.
As you’ll see repeatedly throughout this list reveal, there are a number of highly interesting relief arms in the system, Hardy among them.
T-66. Mason Green (0.25 points, 1 ballot) — the 25-year-old lefty was Colorado’s 12th round pick in the 2021 draft ($125k bonus) after going a combined 27-0 for Central Missouri in college, including a 16-0 record in his draft year. While he hasn’t stayed undefeated as a pro, Green has done well this year in a repeat campaign in High-A Spokane, where he is 1.8 years older than league average. The 6’1” southpaw has a 2.97 ERA and 1.33 WHIP in 91 innings across 19 games with a 9.3 K/9 rate and 4.1 BB/9 rate.
Like Cande, Green represents a depth starter arm that can soak up innings in a pinch (he has two complete games this year), though he sits comfortably below my consideration list.
T-66. McCade Brown (0.25 points, 1 ballot) — put simply, the nearly 24-year-old right-hander shows potential big league rotation stuff on the mound but hasn’t been on the mound enough (even in college, when he managed just 67 2⁄3 innings in 3 years). After a decent full season debut in Fresno that saw the 6’6” hurler post an 11.8 K/9 rate in 89 2⁄3 innings, Brown had Tommy John surgery in April 2023 took him until May 2024 to return.
This year, the 2021 third rounder has only thrown 14 1⁄3 innings in eight games between the ACL and Low-A Fresno as he worked his way back from the TJ surgery, with a six-week IL stint in the middle that landed him back in the ACL (his most recent appearance was on July 24th).
Despite the injuries, FanGraphs ranks Brown as a 40 FV prospect, currently 40th in the system on the back of a plus curveball projection:
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.
Brown (who is Rule 5 eligible after this year) has been on the periphery of my lists the last couple times, but I’d like to see him healthy and productive again before he makes the cut again.
T-62. Jace Kaminska (0.33 points, 1 ballot) — the 22-year-old right-hander was Colorado’s 10th rounder in the 2023 draft ($150k bonus) out of Nebraska. Here was Keith Law of the Athletic writing about Kaminska after the draft:
Nebraska right-hander Jace Kaminska (10) transferred last winter from Wichita State and cut his walk rate by about 40 percent. He pounds the zone with a four-pitch mix, nothing plus, and his low-90s fastball gets hit a little hard, but the command/control are enough to roll him out to A-ball as a starter and see if you can improve the stuff.
The Rockies did indeed put Kaminska on Low-A Fresno as a starter, where he is league average age. The 6’2” hurler has a 2.78 ERA and a 1.05 WHIP in 87 1⁄3 innings over 17 games with a 10.7 K/9 rate and a 1.2 BB/9 rate with Fresno, so I’d say it’s gone pretty well so far. He’s shown mastery over that level, and normally I’d say Kaminska should get moved up to High-A, but he just went on the IL last week.
It’s a great sign the Rockies are getting such a good performance from a lower-round pick a year ago, especially one so likely to stick in the rotation. The real test for Kaminska will come as he reaches the upper minors, which is an opportunity his performance thus far has earned him.
T-62. Cade Denton (0.33 points, 1 ballot) — the 6’3” 22-year-old right-hander is a reliever through and through, one of the best acclaimed such arms in the 2023 draft. The Rockies took Denton in the sixth round out of Oral Roberts University and signed him for an over-slot (by $163k) bonus of $500k.
Denton threw 64 innings with ORU as a junior with a 1.83 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, 12.1 K/9 rate, and 2.1 BB/9 rate. This year, Denton had his season delayed to May to strengthen his shoulder. After a build up stint in the ACL, he has pitched in Low-A Fresno, where he is league average age. Denton has a 2.83 ERA with a 1.22 WHIP in 28 2⁄3 innings, striking out 29 with 9 walks.
MLB.com places Denton 29th in the system with a 40 FV grade:
A 6-foot-3 right-hander, Denton relies heavily on two above-average pitches that move in opposite directions that work against hitters on both sides of the plate. His fastball tops out at 99 mph and typically sits in the 93-95 mph range, coming to the plate on a flat angle before veering right. He complements the heater with a low-80s slider that’s a tick better than his fastball. It breaks left and features good depth.
Denton does have an upper-80s changeup that he’ll use on occasion, but he’s mostly a fastball-slider guy who misses bats and gets weak contact on the ground with those two offerings. He’s athletic on the mound and finds the strike zone consistently working from a lower, almost sidearm slot that adds funk and deception. Assuming Denton remains healthy, he should be able to climb the Rockies’ ladder rapidly.
Fangraphs ranks Denton as a 35+ FV player, currently 47th in the system:
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.
After the draft last year, Keith Law of the Athletic said that Denton was:
A sidearming right-hander up to 94 mph with a sweepy slider that’s pretty effective against right-handed batters. He doesn’t have a weapon for lefties but didn’t show much platoon split this year. He’s a reliever due to the delivery but what sort depends on whether he can continue to get lefties out at all.
Denton is another guy on the pile of relief arms amassing in the system.
T-62. Antoine Kelly (0.33 points, 1 ballot) — the Rockies clearly like the 24-year-old lefty reliever, as they claimed Kelly off waivers from the Texas Rangers last month. The 6’5” pitcher was originally a second rounder by Milwaukee in 2019 before getting traded to the Rangers in 2022 as part of the Matt Bush trade. Kelly pitched in the 2022 Futures Game and was excellent in 2023 across Double and Triple-A for the Rangers, to the point where he was listed as one of the 10 best closer prospects in minor league baseball by MLB.com before the season (right below Rockies prospect Jaden Hill).
Unfortunately, this season has been nightmarish for Kelly. A forearm injury sidelined him for a while, and when he was healthy, Kelly lost his command. After posting a respectable 3.6 BB/9 rate in 2023, Kelly has walked more hitters (24) in just 18 2⁄3 innings than he did in 57 1⁄3 innings in 2023. In two outings with Triple-A Albuquerque so far, Kelly has two walks in 1 1⁄3 innings.
Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs listed Kelly as an “Arrow Down” guy in his writeup of the Rangers system last month, right around the time of Kelly getting designated for assignment (after listing him as a 40 FV prospect previously with a plus plus fastball and plus slider):
Kelly was a junior college draftee who struggled to stay healthy during his time with the Brewers. He was traded to Texas as part of the 2022 Matt Bush swap and aside from 2023, when he first moved to the bullpen, his feel for release has been so out of control that he’s walked a batter per inning or more for huge chunks of his career. He has an ideal pitcher’s build, rare mid-90s arm strength for a lefty, and a huge-breaking slider.
It’s a good gamble for the Rockies to take a chance on a lefty with the arm talent possessed by Kelly (he’s a late inning terror if he figures it out), but it admittedly seems like a lottery ticket given the command struggles he’s dealing with right now. Kelly has two minor league options left, so if the Rockies want to keep him in a roster spot but not in the big leagues, they can do so for multiple years of control.
T-62. Juan Guerrero (0.33 points, 1 ballot) — the 22-year-old righty slugger from the Dominican Republic was a notable prospect who has now been exposed to Rule 5 twice but went unselected both times. After signing for $650k in 2018 as an infielder who primarily spent his debut season at third base, Guerrero was moved to full-time corner outfield duty in 2021 in the Arizona Complex League. After a year of struggles in High-A in 2023 (87 wRC+), Guerrero was assigned back to Spokane to start 2024, where he was still slightly below league average age.
This time around, Guerrero was more ready for Spokane. In 385 PA, he posted a .302/.341/.399 line (109 wRC+) with four homers and 23 steals, earning a promotion earlier this month to Double-A Hartford. In three games with Hartford, Guerrero has gone 7 for 13 (all singles). That tracks with his high average, low slugging ways at Spokane.
Guerrero mostly stands out for the potential of his hit tool, which hasn’t truly manifested itself in full season results yet. In the past, Guerrero has shown up on national scouting radars, but that chatter faded away during his tough 2023 season. He’ll be eligible for minor league free agency if the Rockies don’t add him to the 40 man roster this off-season.
61. Jesus Ordonez (0.4 points, 1 ballot) — the 24-year-old catcher was signed as an international free agent out of Venezuela in 2019, so he’s already been Rule 5 eligible for a year. The 5’8” righty hitter didn’t get to full season ball until last season, when he split time between Fresno and Spokane. This year, Ordonez has served as the back-up catcher to Bryant Betancourt in High-A Spokane (1.5 years older than average), where he has acquitted himself well offensively. In 169 PA, Ordonez has a .270/.353/.372 line (110 wRC+) and a downright reasonable 7% walk/15% strikeout plate discipline mix.
For me, Ordonez sits pretty far down the org’s catching prospects, but the advanced approach at the plate is something that would be great if we saw more Rockies prospects display.
T-59. Ryan Rolison (0.7 points, 1 ballot) — the 27-year-old lefty starter was the number one PuRP as recently as 2021, but it just hasn’t worked out for him. Injuries are a big contributor as to why Rolison slid off the PuRPs list entirely instead of exhausting his rookie eligibility two years ago, but so too are reports that Rolison’s stuff had taken a step back after said injuries (per Longenhagen).
Rolison has accrued two full years of service time on the IL and was limited to just 11 innings across four appearances in 2023. He was outrighted off the 40-man roster last off-season as his health struggles continued, as the Rockies decided they couldn’t wait for Rolison to get back to the pitcher he was when he seemed on the fast track to the big leagues in 2021.
This year, he’s made appearances in the ACL, High-A, and Triple-A — mostly in a relief role as of late without too much distinction (5.14 ERA in 28 innings across 19 games). It remains to be seen if Rolison can recapture his first-round form and stuff to force his way onto the big league roster, but it seems pretty unlikely to me at this point. I’d love him to prove me wrong.
T-59. Case Williams (0.7 points, 1 ballot) — Willams is likely best known as Colorado’s fourth-round pick out of Douglas County HS in 2020. The 6’3” right-handed starter was traded to the Cincinnati Reds before he debuted in Colorado’s system, then was re-acquired in late July 2021 as part of the Mychal Givens trade. He spent all of 2023 pitching at age 21 in Double-A Hartford, where he wasn’t good per se, but the fact he was in Hartford at all was an accomplishment. He’s been hurt all of 2024, so that’s the most recent impression he’s been able to provide Rockies fans.
Williams was listed as a potential reliever in the June 2023 Fangraphs system write-up:
At points during the past couple of years, Williams (who has gone back and forth in trades from Cincinnati) has looked like one of the better pitching prospects in the system. At times, he’s been into the mid-90s with plus breaking stuff, while at others he’s in the low-90s and getting shelled. Maybe a shift to the bullpen will help him find consistency. The Rockies don’t really have to decide until next season, Williams’ 40-man evaluation year, at the earliest.
Williams has been one of the younger players in the league in all three of his professional seasons. Even with his injury issues this year, in 2025 he could well be a factor in the upper minors for the Rockies (assuming he doesn’t get selected in Rule 5, which is quite unlikely) at age 23. Once Williams is back on the mound, he’ll be another option in the innings eating crew that is being amassed by the Rockies in their system.
★ ★ ★
Thanks to all who voted this time around! Next time I’ll reveal the multi-ballot players who rank 59 to 47, who were on 2-3 ballots.