Colorado Rockies news and links for Wednesday, December 11, 2024
What would you do with the number one overall pick? That was a question the Colorado Rockies had the best odds to try and answer heading into the draft lottery on Tuesday after their 101-loss season in 2024.
Unfortunately, sports are designed to break your heart and a groan of despair could certainly be heard over the state of Colorado after Colton Cowser announced the Rockies had dropped to the fourth overall pick in the 2025 draft, with the Washington Nationals winning the first overall pick.
The implementation of the lottery draft in 2022 as part of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement has had an interesting effect over these last three drafts. In 2022, the Rockies dropped one spot to pick ninth. In 2023, they were set to pick third based on their record and remained in the third spot even after Oakland and Kansas City fell out of the top two slots in the lottery.
As a small to mid-market team, the draft is important to the Rockies, as luring top-tier free agency talent is difficult. So, this leaves the team to pursue a draft and develop mentality while picking up lower-tier free agents along with trades and waiver pickups.
It’s understandable to say it’s disappointing not to get the number-one pick after a dreadful season and even more frustrating to know that without the draft lottery process, the Rockies would have had the second overall pick behind the Chicago White Sox. The lottery’s purpose was to discourage tanking rather than rewarding it, and it is doing that, but it also emphasizes the fact that struggling teams have to make every draft pick count, regardless of where they pick.
In their three decades of existence, the Rockies have never had the first overall pick, despite some fairly lean years. Whether by design or just sheer dumb luck, they’ve picked in the top 10 plenty of times because of their record, including a couple of top-three picks. Unfortunately, the Rockies haven’t exactly had the most success in the first round in their history and they have yet to truly yield any fruit since the 2020 draft.
On the projected 2025 roster at this time, the only Rockies first-round picks are Kyle Freeland (2014) and Michael Toglia (2019) among the 11 drafted players and a handful of international free agents.
The Rockies have definitely had some hits in the draft during their history, but as I mentioned, we are still waiting to see results dating to 2020. To their credit, the Rockies continue to emphasize a youth movement when all is said and done. They cite outfielders like Zac Veen, Jordan Beck, Sterlin Thompson, Yanquiel Fernandez and Benny Montgomery. The team also has a glut of drafted starting pitchers on the way and has a group of young relievers that are making waves.
There is no question that the Rockies are good at identifying prospective talent and potential. 2024 saw the team have Charlie Condon fall in their lap at the third overall pick. The fact of the matter is that while the top pick would have been quite beneficial, there are matters for the Rockies to solve that go beyond just getting the top pick from the lottery.
Time and time again, we hear the adage “We just need to play better.” That phrase can certainly hold some weight but the root of the team’s current struggles can stem back to the adage that the team needs to draft and develop better.
The development part is likely the part the Rockies are struggling with the most, particularly when it comes to offensive players. Issues that plague the big league club have permeated through the organization and rookies struggle once they reach the big leagues. An inability to hit the ground running out the gate leads manager Bud Black to rely more on whatever veteran is within sight. They lack the patience to let prospects and rookies grow at the big league level, figuring they have to cook until just right in the minors.
The reason Toglia excelled in 2024, Brenton Doyle and Tovar in 2023, and numerous players dating back years, is because they got chances to develop. The draft is always a crapshoot, and there is no guarantee a top pick will pan out. Truly special talents can easily make a top pick worth it, but more often than not it takes more work and investment from the team to make a pick worthwhile.
If the Rockies had been able to select first overall and they took a player like Ethan Holliday, could any of us be 100% confident in saying that Holliday would become an impactful and franchise-changing player with the Rockies?
Raw talent can only take you so far. The Rockies have a tendency to pick certain types of players with specific flaws they know about and then wonder why those flaws are still present at the big league level. Development is an ongoing process and one the Rockies have to learn to do well at every level of the organization. Development does not stop when they are drafted and it does not stop at the big league level. It’s an evergreen process that the team needs to prove can be done consistently and effectively.
The team is taking steps in the right direction and there is reason to hope that the players on the way. However, the Rockies must find a way to fix their franchise through an ability to make players better no matter who they are or how old they are. The hope of getting a top draft pick from the lottery won’t save them, the only way to do it is by saving themselves.
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Rockies, INF Estrada agree to 1-year pact with ‘26 option (sources) | MLB.com
The Rockies reportedly made a move on Tuesday, signing infielder Thairo Estrada to play second base.
Affected by Altitude Episode 142: Making us ask “Why-ro Estrada?” | Rocky Mountain Rooftop
Before the Rockies signed Estrada, Evan Lang and I spent time over the weekend talking about him and the debacle at second base on the new episode of Affected by Altitude.
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