Bud Black's praise of Sam Hilliard hints at evolving organizational philosophy

Through good times and bad over the last three years, one of the central struggles of the Colorado Rockies has been figuring out how to balance a roster that has a lot of young and promising talent that happen to play the same position as already established veterans.

During the run to 91 wins and a Wild Card victory, the most prominent embodiment of this problem arose in a battle for playing time between Ian Desmond and Ryan McMahon.

The Rockies stuck with the vet despite poor performance at the plate and in the eyes of many, cemented the idea that given any opportunity to bury young players, this team will take it.

There is, of course, much more nuance to it than that. We’ve seen plenty of counterexamples, most notably the club giving the starting left fielder job to Raimel Tapia late in 2019 and placing Desmond on the bench… until Tapia got hurt.

Still, there is this lingering uncertainty about whether or not the Rockies will make the tough decision to play less proven players with higher ceilings over guys with sometimes a decade’s worth of experience who also may have a large contract.

But something manager Bud Black said on Tuesday about outfielder Sam Hilliard suggested that there may be even further movement on this issue.

“He’s gonna factor in,” he said. “We believe he is going to be a good player for a long time. He’s gonna have a long career.”

It may seem innocuous but these kinds of lofty statements about players with almost no proven track record in MLB just have not been Black’s style in recent years. Especially one who wasn’t necessarily considered a lock to make the Opening Day roster coming into the Spring.

It sounds like there isn’t a ton of doubt in the manager’s mind. He went on to add that Hilliard isn’t just doing things right at the plate and in the field, but against the toughest opponents.

“He’s gotten some good names,” he said of the high-end pitching that Hilliard hung with last September and so far this Spring.

When you combine this with the Tapia move last season, and other comments from Black suggesting that Josh Fuentes has a real shot to grab some time at first base this year, a clear picture begins to emerge that the Rockies are incrementally moving more and more toward their youth movement.

It makes sense that Colorado would defend their previous decisions by pointing to the win totals and fairly arguing that the handling of this dynamic didn’t stop them from having the best two-year stretch in franchise history. But they can’t rest on those laurels after a disastrous 2019. With so little roster movement in the offseason, getting more playing time for guys like Hilliard and Fuentes makes perfect sense as a strategy designed to change up the results.

We won’t know for sure until the season begins, and there will be plenty of frustration if they roll out the exact same starting lineup for the first few weeks. But it looks like that is far from a foregone conclusion.

Sam Hilliard, and the rest of the 25-and-under players on the 26-man roster, are determined to be difference makers. And the powers that be appear keen on finding out if they are right along with the rest of us.