How Brendan Rodgers could go from top prospect to season-changer

It looks like the boyhood dream of Brendan Rodgers is finally coming true.

The Colorado Rockies are expected to announce on Friday that they have called up the top prospect in their organization and one of the most highly touted in the history of their franchise to make his MLB debut.

He was also recently rated by MLBPipeline.com as a Top 10 prospect in all of baseball.

A hitting phenom in high school, Rogers was taken in third overall by the Rockies in the 2015 draft behind the two other shortstops who are already making waves in MLB, Alex Bregman and Dansby Swanson. (Both players had college experience and Rodgers did not at the time of the draft.)

Battling through a few minor injuries throughout his professional career, he has done nothing but rake ever since the Rockies first called his name, quickly rocketing up the levels despite his young age and a few spots of missed time.

He has hit 66 home runs and 102 doubles across 385 minor league games and was sporting a .356/.421/.644 slashline for the Albuquerque Isotopes this season.

While his box score results in individual years might not blow you away upon first observation, when you take into account that he was regularly on average three years younger than his level of competition, it is nothing short of extraordinary how fast he has made his way to this moment, even though for many fans it feels like four years that have lasted an eternity.

Expectations still ought to be tempered for the 22-year-old facing major league pitching for the first time. We have seen recently from Ryan McMahon and Raimel Tapia that brilliant numbers in the minor leagues don’t always immediately translate. But we also saw now that long ago Trevor Story, and most of the Rockies rotation, take the big leagues by storm.

It’s not fair to expect Rodgers to be a catalyst that sparks a renaissance in the lineup but it would also be prudent to recognize that he has the talent to do so.

With still a bit of confusion over who he will replace, there is also uncertainty on how long he should intend to stay. A hot streak could make that a moot point but, as it stands, the Rockies don’t have a place for him to play every day and he needs to play every day. It does him and the team no good to place him in a utility role, allowing his bat to cool off.

So this may be a short stint. Or it may be the beginning of a brand new era. Or somewhere in between.

Rodgers could be back in Triple-A in 10 days or he may never go back.

One thing that should be well understood though, is that he should not be seen as a cure-all nor should he be seen as a stopgap. It’s not impossible that he shows the world a Cody Bellinger-esque breakout and forces everyone to take notice but it’s also not impossible that he looks the same as other young players who have been called up this season after injuries to others only too look not quite ready for the competition.

But let’s also not mistake that Rogers represents an extraordinary ceiling of potential for the Rockies offense.

They’ve been on a good run for a couple of weeks (some high strikeout totals notwithstanding)  but have still been searching for some more consistent dynamics in the bottom half.

Rodgers should not be considered a replacement for Ryan McMahon who has shown more than a few signs of positive momentum at the plate and well above average defense at second base; his third most-played position.

Not only can they ill-afford to abandon a development project of McMahon’s caliber, but it would also send a bizarre and poorly-timed message to Rodgers even if he could manage to win the job after some ups and downs the way McMahon did, a job could be ripped from him after a month-and-a-half.

It may not feel like it after the early struggles and the fact that the club remains under .500 as the Dodgers are getting hot, but Colorado still does have the time to experiment a bit with what their best roster looks like. It’s still early enough to give Rodgers this chance and see what happens. Worst case scenario, he struggles a bit and is sent back as the team regains health to work on some things.

The best-case scenario is that he becomes a key cog in a Rockies machine that is about to roll through the National League.

The truth is, nobody really knows what a ballplayer is made of (big leaguer or no?) until the day they finally stare down a major league fastball.

All of us, including Rodgers himself, are about to learn a lot.