BSN Exclusive: How David Dahl made the most of what seemed like a lost year

When thinking of David Dahl’s 2017, words like “lost” and “setback” tend to come to mind. The 2012 top draft pick and one time top prospect in the Colorado Rockies system, Dahl has shown abilities on the baseball diamond that make scouts drool.

He can run like the wind, hit for contact and power—he’s currently leading Colorado in spring with five home runs—and can field and throw with the best of them. No young player, especially straight out of high school, is perfect, but the possibility to put checkmarks next to all the important boxes one day for Dahl is what dreams are made of.

But, at times, Dahl’s existence in the organization has felt more like a dream than anything else, including his ghostly presence a year ago. Oftentimes teasing a return, exciting the hopes of those in the know, he never did make it out onto the grass at Coors Field but that doesn’t mean he didn’t learn anything.

In an exclusive interview with BSN Denver, Colorado Rockies Senior Director of Player Development, Zach Wilson, explained how Dahl turned his misfortune into opportunity.

“We tell players that are going to be injured for long amounts of time that they are going to be injured at some point in your career,” says Wilson. “So, it’s how you deal with it that is really important.”

The timing couldn’t have been much worse for a player hoping to prove himself at the MLB level. After all, the go-to response for doubters whenever Dah’s name is brought up now is that you “can’t count” on him. But the opinions of the outside world are dwarfed in magnitude by those of his teammates, coaches, and, of course, Wilson.

“In David’s case, the injury happened earlier in his career rather than later,” he continued. “But everybody’s gonna go through it. You have to be able to focus on different things and get the most out of the game that you can. I think David was able to do that last year, I think he was able to gain a different perspective, and when you can start having that type of wisdom, I think those are really important things in a player’s career.”

It means a great deal to an organization when you can gut through the hard times without becoming a drain on those around you. It shows mental maturity, Wilson says, not just that you can get through the inevitable health setbacks over the course of a career but also slumps or even momentary errors.

Furthermore, if you can focus enough on the positives and take in an ocean of information that can later be put to use, coaches will notice that before your statistics.

Also implicit in this statement is a future where we will be looking back on a long, and potentially illustrious career for the young man. Wilson sees 2017 as but a footnote in a chapter of the Book of Dahl.

“He made the most out of not being able to do much,” Wilson summarizes.

Most of the world has seen very little of Dahl since spring training a year ago, or maybe even September the year before that. But Wilson has seen a ton. He’s seen him go through the rehab, and the drills, and the team meetings and the film room sessions. And he has seen, for years now, what David Dahl looks like when he puts it all together on the field.

His good friend Ryan McMahon taught us all last year, through overcoming an admittedly different kind of “down season” what the right attitude, work ethic, and talent can do for someone with something to prove. That man can be a dangerous one, indeed.

There is no one who has come up through the Rockies system in the last half-decade, with the possible exception of Jon Gray, who has more talent than David Dahl. Zach Wilson tells us he is showing the right attitude and work ethic.

And right now, there is certainly no one with more to prove.