Colorado Rockies Top 25 Under 25: No. 23: Forrest Wall

Welcome to the BSN Denver Colorado Rockies Top 25 Under 25 where we will rank the organization’s best players who will be 25 years-old or younger on Opening Day 2017.

Our parameters for this list are may be different than others it resembles so let us be clear about them:

1. The list was created entirely by the BSN Rockies staff and had no other input from any outside sources.
2. While giving credit for overall (or trade) value, we prioritized an ability to help the MLB club win immediately.
3. In accordance with this, we also prioritized players with fewer question marks but potentially lower ceilings.
4. Statistics were considered on equal level with scouting reports in addition to our own field reporting.

Our observations come through a combination of spending parts of each of the past four (going on five) seasons on the ground on the backfields at spring training and through our regular reporting from Rookie Level Grand Junction, talking to coaches, scouts, and journalists both on and off the record. Of course, countless hours are spent on MiLB.tv and combing over public reports from other credible sources.

No. 23: Forrest Wall, 21 (2B/OF)

Forrest Wall looked to be an emerging star in an already stacked Colorado Rockies farm system before a tumultuous 2016. Now, some evaluators are pumping the breaks on Wall, understandably so, but many remain bearish on his potential moving forward and have even managed to spin this past season as a plus for the 21-year-old.

Playing at High-A Modesto at age 20 — still very young for the level — Wall experienced his first below average season at the plate, slashing .s64/.329/.355 over 120 games, amounting to an 88 wRC+.

In addition to his age giving him plenty of time to develop, the good news for Rockies fans is that Wall’s on-base percentage remained decent due to a good walk rate (7.9 percent) and he continued to show off a good speed tool with 22 stolen bases and four triples. Furthermore, he did all this while learning to play center field for the first time. While he has shown an above average defensive ability at second base, the Rockies appear to be looking to extend his versatility moving forward, most specifically trying to capitalize on his speed.

The promise with Wall has always been the bat that he brings and scouts beliefs that he should develop well above average power for a guy who will be playing at either second base or center field. The power hasn’t shown up in games just yet, though. He has hit just 16 home runs so far in the minors.

It’s getting about to that point in his career where the production on the field needs to start to more consistently resemble the player that he is when he’s at his best, and Wall could absolutely accelerate his path to the Bigs with a breakout season in 2017. But if he doesn’t, he still has plenty of time to figure things out.

Another interesting wrinkle to this story is that Wall is a close friend to fellow Rockies prospect Brendan Rodgers, Rodgers telling BSN Denver that Wall has been instrumental in helping him feel comfortable in the system.

With Rodgers likely in-line for a promotion and Wall possibly needing to repeat (at least to start) they could begin the season as teammates for the first time as professionals. Who knows how that could effect either.

Forrest Wall is gifted, toolsy, athletic and still very young, which means there is still a ton of projection left on him. If we were making this list just on tools alone, he would likely rank much higher but ultimately he is just too far away from MLB for the purposes of this list to crack our Top 20.