Monday Rockpile: Zac Veen is just around the corner

Colorado news and links for Monday, August 26, 2024

A wise sitcom character once said, “The future is now, old man.”

Over these final weeks of the 2024 season, the Colorado Rockies are moving forward with a youth movement. Over the weekend in New York the Rockies deployed a slew of rookies and younger service-time players and a lineup with few players over the age of 26. The outfield in particular has now regularly featured Nolan Jones in left field, Brenton Doyle in center and Jordan Beck in right. It’s the outfield fans envisioned back in April when Beck was called up, but due to injuries have been deprived of it for most of the season.

Now, with everyone healthy and seeing action, the eyes of destiny point their gaze to the Rockies’ 2020 first-round draft pick Zac Veen.

Recently, Veen was activated from the injured list and found himself promoted to Triple-A Albuquerque. He hasn’t played much in the land of green chiles so far but it brings the 22-year-old one step closer to the big leagues, despite a rough couple of years.

Injuries have hindered the Florida native for the past two seasons. A nagging wrist injury in 2023 led to surgery, limiting him to just 46 games and hindering his production on the field. Following the surgery, Veen enjoyed a normal offseason, spending some time playing Puerto Rico during the winter and preparing for the 2024 season.

Double-A Hartford had proven to be a challenge for Veen when he first reached the level in 2022. His struggles at the plate proved that the young outfielder drafted out of high school had a lot of growing and developing to do on the diamond and with his own physicality. He’s worked continuously to find some consistency at the plate over the past few seasons and has tried to build up his body. 2024 finally started to show some of the fruits of his labor.

Through his first 28 games of the season in April and May, Veen was showing that he was learning to master Double-A. In 110 plate appearances, he was slashing .326/.418/.568 with a .987 OPS, five home runs, four doubles, two triples, and 12 RBI. While he had 28 strikeouts, he also had 13 walks to go along with nine walks. Across the board, Veen seemed primed to potentially make his debut sometime in the summer if things kept going well for him.

Unfortunately, pesky back issues that have plagued the Rockies’ big league team found their way to Veen, sidelining him until June 25 when he began a rehab assignment in the minors. He spent roughly a week rehabbing in the Arizona Complex League as well as with the High-A Spokane Indians. He seemed to have returned without missing a step as he was activated on July 10 to play his first game with the Yard Goats since May.

He struggled in his return to Double-A going 3-for-32 with a double and 10 strikeouts over eight games before a thumb injury sidelined him for a month. It’s been disappointing to see him deal with injuries, but with the surprising move to activate him and move him to Triple-A, Veen is closer than ever.

The question is: has he shown enough to find success at the major league level? If so, how soon could he arrive?

The main point of interest and concern for Veen was his ability to slow the game down and become slightly less aggressive at the plate. While an aggressive approach can be good, Veen was showing signs of a free-swinging individual with a severe lack of plate discipline. This typically meant making contact on pitches better left untouched and groundballs plenty. While he is an absolute speed demon on the base paths, his ability to get on base has been worth keeping an eye on.

Luckily 2024 has shown improvements in that area and his bat-to-ball skills remain strong. He lowered his ground ball rate to 38.6% in Double-A, the lowest mark of his professional career. Strikeouts have hovered in the mid-20% range and his walks about 11%, but there is still room for growth or at least a chance to do more damage at the plate when he does make contact.

The hope is that Veen can follow a similar evolution akin to Brenton Doyle. Strikeouts plagued Doyle in 2023, but as he has worked on making contact and refining his approach at the plate, Doyle has seen his power blossom in 2024 along with an ability to make contact, get on base, and utilize his speed to swipe bags and each stretch a knock into a double.

On Sunday, Veen connected for his first home run in Triple-A, a three-run shot to tie the game in the forth inning.

Finding a place for Veen to play creates a conundrum for the Rockies that is finally coming to a head. Veen is eligible for the Rule-5 draft this winter, meaning the Rockies will need to add him to the 40-man roster if they hope to protect him. Doyle has center field locked down in center field, which leaves just two spots to theoretically give him playing time Beck has a prominent role for the future and while he’s struggled in 2024, Jones still has the potential to be a key player for the next few years.

Add in the likes of Yanquiel Fernandez (also in Triple-A) and players like Charlie Condon, Sterlin Thompson, Cole Carrigg, Benny Montgomery and Jared Thomas a little further down the line and you have a problem that gets a little tougher to sort through.

The good news is that Veen is close to the big leagues and there is a chance he could debut before the season is over. There are ways the Rockies could utilize him early on, perhaps in a platoon of some sort like the Orioles have done with a swath of outfielders. Alternatively, some harder decisions may have to be made to make space for a top draft talent to get the playing time he deserves.

Either way, we’ve been waiting a while for Veen to break through and that future may finally be just around the corner.

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Rockies Journal: Whether Bud Black stays or goes, he’s deserved better | The Denver Post ($)

Patrick Saunders looks back on the tenure of Bud Black and talks about the current status of his contract and uncertain future as the skipper of the Rockies.

Umpire Mahrley sustains concussion after being struck by broken bat | MLB.com

There was a scary scene on Sunday as the home plate umpire in the Rockies vs. Yankees finale was struck by Giancarlo Stanton’s broken bat on the back swing. He was carted off the field and will be evaluated over the next couple of days to make sure concussion systems don’t get worse.

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On the Farm

Triple-A: Sugarland Space Cowboys 13, Albuquerque Isotopes 4

Zav Veen went 2-for-3 with the three-run homer and a walk to lead the offense as the Isotopes scored all four runs in the first two innings. Yanquiel Fernandez and Greg Jones also had a pair of hits in the game with the former knocking a double and the latter also stealing his 38th base of the year. Karl Kauffmann had a rough day, giving up seven runs in 1 ¹⁄₃ innings, including three home runs. Geoff Hartlieb had 2 ²⁄₃ scoreless innings but Antoine Kelly was tagged for four runs on four hits without recording an out. Matt Koch was knocked for two runs in his inning of work at the end of the game.

Double-A: Hartford Yard Goats 5, New Hampshire Fisher Cats 1

Connor Van Scoyoc dazzled on the mound for his sixth win of the year, tossing six shutout innings on en route to the Yard Goats victory. The offense was led by Bladimir Restituyo’s 2-for-4 night while the top four hitters in Hartford’s lineup had a hit and an RBI. Out of the six hits the team had, all of them were singles.

High-A: Hillsboro Hops 5, Spokane Indians 4

Spokane threw out 10 hits, led by Charlie Condon’s 2-for-4 day, but a two-run rally in the bottom of the eighth cost Spokane the game. Alberto Pacheco started on the hill and tossed 5 ²⁄₃ innings with three runs on seven hits with all those runs coming in the sixth inning. The game remained tied until the eighth when Jesus Bugarin knocked an RBI double to take a 4-3 lead, but the Hops scored two runs on Cade Denton who suffered the loss.

Low-A: Stockton Ports 12, Fresno Grizzlies 7

Fresno kicked things off with a five-run bottom of the first, but the pitching wasn’t able to hold up against the Ports as they dropped the finale of the series. Aidan Longwell had a pair of hits, including a triple and a home run, while Robert Calaz had three hits and drove in three runs. McCade Brown started the game and tossed two scoreless innings before giving way to Kannon Handy who was then hit for five runs in two innings. Brady Hill suffered his fifth loss of the year after giving up two runs in his lone inning of work in the fifth.

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