DENVER -- Rockies No. 18 prospect Kyle Karros has spent the last year and a half confirming the club’s belief in his headiness when it drafted him in the fifth round in 2023. Now the Rockies are asking Karros, a third baseman, to keep his head at Triple-A Albuquerque. The Rockies still love big guys with power, and Karros, 22, is 6-foot-5. But the Draft philosophy in recent years has moved away from players who sacrifice contact for big swings. The right-handed-hitting Karros was promoted last week after slashing .294/.399/.462 with four home runs and 32 walks (against 45 strikeouts) in 55 games with Double-A Hartford. His season was interrupted by an injured list stint and further delayed after he fouled a pitch off his knee during a Rookie ball rehab assignment, but by the time of the promotion, he had settled back into his approach. |
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He even picks friends with the right idea in the batter’s box. “My best friend in pro ball is Chase Meidroth, with the White Sox,” Karros said before the promotion. “I like the way he went about it in the Minors -- similar walks to strikeouts, and he didn’t chase power. He’s a complete hitter first. I think he led the Minors in walks last year [with 105]. “It’s controlling the zone, swinging at the right pitches. If you put a lot of emphasis on power, that takes time to translate. You can grow into that later. When it comes to taking a professional at-bat, I take a lot from my buddy, Chase. That stuff plays.” Last year, the Rockies kept Karros at High-A Spokane for the full year -- and he earned MVP honors while the team won the title. Karros easily settled into a leadership role in Hartford. Karros grew up around the sport, with his father, Eric, a longtime Major Leaguer and older brother, Jared, a pitcher in the Dodgers’ system. That may assist with the transition to an older club. “The [Double-A] Eastern League is a big prospect league,” Rockies player development director Chris Forbes said. “But getting up into Triple-A, you see a pedigree of guys with service time -- and how they pitch, defensively how they play.
“I’ll steal a line from Doug Bernier [the Rockies system’s defensive coordinator] -- they’ll out-baseball you when you get to Triple-A. Plus, you get into a clubhouse with guys with Major League service time, versus being the guy that runs the show in the clubhouse.”
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There will be situations over which Karros has no control. He’s a step from the Majors with the Trade Deadline approaching and teams possibly interested in veteran third baseman Ryan McMahon. The Rockies, however, have the more-experienced Aaron Schunk should they need an infielder sooner than later. The best way to handle the situation is to maintain priorities, like the ones Karros spoke of before the promotion. “You’ve got to look at certain aspects of the game, like defense -- that’s not going to struggle,” said Karros, who is 1-for-11 with a double in his first Triple-A days. “I put a lot of emphasis on that.” |
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During the week before his trip to the All-Star Futures Game in Atlanta, Rockies No. 1/MLB Pipeline No. 21 prospect Charlie Condon practiced and played like a man confident his power would arrive -- not like a guy preoccupied with showing the world that his 37 homers at the University of Georgia during the 2024 season could be immediately converted to pro ball. Batting practice consisted of hits to all fields. In Hartford’s recent three-game series against Portland, he went 4-for-11 with three RBIs, including a go-ahead 10th-inning single on July 10. Condon had hit .312 with three homers in 35 games at Spokane after recovering from a fractured left wrist suffered in Spring Training. He didn’t homer in his first nine games after being promoted to Hartford, yet it didn’t bother him a bit. “You’ve got to understand that you can’t just hit pull-shot homers all the time,” Condon said during the series in Portland. “There are more hits around the yard. It’s important to be able to keep it in the middle and have that hittability -- because if you don’t you’d get exposed really quickly.” But the power was the reason that Condon was the third overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft. And it showed during the weekend. |
Playing in Hartford against Somerset, and facing the Yankees’ Luis Gil -- the reigning American League Rookie of the Year on a rehab assignment -- Condon drove an opposite-way home run to right field for his first Double-A homer. |
On Saturday, he added a pull-shot drive to left field off Somerset pitcher Trent Sellers. |
The Rockies’ weekend series with the Twins was heavily scouted, with teams interested in McMahon, as expected. Several clubs are interested in bullpen help. While the Rockies have some experience in Tyler Kinley, Jimmy Herget and Jake Bird, more popular asks have been rookie Seth Halvorsen, who is closing, and second-year man Victor Vodnik -- two hard-throwing righties. In addition to being capable of hitting triple digits on the radar gun, Vodnik is under club control until 2030 and Halvorsen until ’31 -- and both have Minor League options. With contending clubs always in need of bullpen help and often willing to give up talent for controllable players, it’s possible the Rockies can collect their biggest haul for their young relievers. |
The Arizona Complex League Rockies have reached the playoffs of that Rookie-level league, with plenty of help. On Friday in his one injury rehab start, righty Gabriel Hughes (Rockies No. 14) struck out five in 2 2/3 innings against the Giants in a Rockies win. Hughes will return to the Albuquerque rotation on Thursday. The Rockies’ top MLB Draft pick in 2022, Hughes underwent Tommy John surgery in 2023 and missed last season. He advanced from Hartford to Albuquerque, but went to the injured list with right shoulder soreness -- partly because of a change in arm slot that tends to happen during a Tommy John comeback. The Rockies placed him on the injured list, and Hughes used much of that time at the Scottsdale complex and in the team’s performance lab regaining his proper mechanics. Righty reliever Jaden Hill (No. 16), who saw brief time in the Majors this season before sustaining a right hamstring injury at Albuquerque in early May, made the last of his three ACL appearances on Saturday. He was due to meet the Albuquerque club for Tuesday’s start of a series against Sacramento, and is expected to be a part of the Rockies’ bullpen at some point. |
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