Lyons Share: The plan for Zac Veen with the 2023 Colorado Rockies and Kris Bryant's injury update

Since being selected by the Colorado Rockies in the first round of the 2020 MLB Draft, the buzz surrounding Zac Veen has been loud. And it’s grown even louder following his 2022 season. 

Drafted out of Spruce Creek High School in Port Orange, FL, the 18-year-old had been rumored to go as high as second overall to the Baltimore Orioles. When he fell to Colorado at the ninth pick, a great draft class was ensured. 

Veen has shined in his two years of pro ball. With Low-A Fresno in 2021, he became only the 17th Rockies minor leaguer to hit for the cycle en route to winning the organization’s Doug Million Award for most outstanding MiLB performer.

Last year was met with a standout performance in the MLB Futures Game. Playing in a showcase contest featuring top prospects from all 30 clubs, Veen went 2-for-3 with two stolen bases. His regular season success at High-A Spokane was enough to promote Veen to Double-A Hartford for the final six weeks of the regular season. (Even with his final game with Spokane coming with a month-and-a-half remaining, Veen had already done enough to be named the Northwest League MVP.)

Top @Rockies prospect Zac Veen hit the 40 stolen-base plateau for the @spokaneindians.

And then for good measure, he nabbed another one to take the High-A lead: pic.twitter.com/eVXhuzaHjb

— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) July 15, 2022

For the first time in what’s probably been the only time in his life playing baseball, he really struggled while in the Double-A Eastern League. According to Colorado’s Director of Player Development Chris Forbes, this was not a bad thing. 

“It was good for him to get his ass kicked and having to learn that this is gonna be the type of player you’re gonna be facing,” Forbes said. “You get to the next level and he’s gonna have to acclimate to AAA and then the big leagues, and you face these guys every night like that. (It’s) learning.”

Veen took two weeks to regroup from his .496 OPS in 34 games with the Yard Goats before joining the Salt River Rafters of Arizona Fall League. Known as the finishing school for prospects before they reach the Majors, Veen’s inclusion on the roster suggests his arrival at Coors Field may be sooner than later. Maybe summer of 2023?

“Zac will tell us when he’s ready…. when Zac’s ready to take on the next challenge, he’ll tell us that,” GM Bill Schmidt said of Veen’s Major League trajectory.

The bounce back over those five weeks was so high that Veen earned the Arizona Fall League’s Offensive Player of the Year Award after posting a .333 batting average (27-for-81) with one home run, 10 runs batted in and 16 stolen bases in 18 attempts.

Colorado supported Veen during this time with coaching from all levels of the organization, including several from Bud Black’s big league staff in Denver.

“We sent (first base coach Ron Gideon) down there to work with him a little bit in the outfield. We were running instructs in conjunction for a little while, so (Minor League Defensive Coordinator Doug Bernier) kind of worked with him a little bit, talked about some base running, and obviously having (third base coach Warren Schaefer) on staff managing that club,” Forbes shared. “That little tick in the Eastern League was ultimately really good for him.”

Despite playing in 147 games between April and November, more than any other player in the Rockies’ farm system last year, not to mention an additional two months spent in Spring Training with other minor leaguers who reported in February, Veen did not wear down. 

“He’s very enthusiastic,” Forbes said of his young outfielder. “At the end of a long year, and a long year mentally, I felt like he handled the Fall League and he looked the exact same. In fact, he looked like he had a little more energy playing in the Fall League.”

A lot of that energy was witnessed on the base paths with the Rafters, including on a two-base walk that showcased his aggressiveness and athletic ability.  

Have you ever seen a player work a walk and steal a base on the same pitch? Well, @zacveen did just that!

Watch as the @rockies prospect shows off his blazing speed! #AFL22 pic.twitter.com/8qxlg1m09o

— MLB's Arizona Fall League (@MLBazFallLeague) October 26, 2022

Across his two seasons in the minors, including the Arizona Fall League, Veen has 107 stolen bases with a 79% success rate. 

“You don’t take away the aggressiveness, but you want to add such a huge intelligence component,” Forbes responded when asked about refining Veen’s skills. “Because it’s not easy to score runs in the big leagues and he can’t give up a bunch of outs on the bases. And so that’s one of the basic areas he’ll grow.”

As for his defensive tools, the 21-year-old is still working through the minutiae involved in the game of inches: catching the ball over the right shoulder, efficiency with the crow hop and overall footwork.

Even if his development goes precisely as hoped, playing center field may still not be in the cards for him. In his more than 200 games in the outfield, he’s yet to play even in a single inning in center field. If his track record throughout the minors isn’t enough of an indicator, the sense throughout the front office is that he’ll play right field.

“I think he can play center, but I think he’s gonna grow into a corner. The body’s intriguing because it’s such a ranging frame, I can’t even put tabs on what its gonna look like. It’s hard to gauge,” offered Forbes. “He’s got a lot of room to pack on muscle. He’s got one of those metabolisms. He eats a cupcake and it’s gone in like four minutes.”

With fellow outfield prospects who have a pedigree of playing center field like Brenton Doyle, who’s now on the 40-man roster, and 2021 first-round pick Benny Montgomery, the need for Veen to play center simply isn’t there.

“That’s what we hope,” Forbes said of the plan. “It’s on me if we don’t.” 

It’s no secret the Rockies have been interested in adding an impactful left-handed hitting outfielder to their lineup this season. The search has not been fruitful so far. Might Veen be that solution for Colorado at some point in 2023?

“With talented players I’m never surprised,” Schmidt shared before adding, “But it will be up to him.”

Injury Updates

After being limited to only 42 games last season due to three stints on the injured list, including the last one for plantar fasciitis that sidelined him for the final 58 games of the season, the early reports on Kris Bryant’s health has been good.

“He’s doing fine. Healthy, normal off-season,” Black said during the Winter Meetings. “There’s some things that he needs to do, I think, moving forward as he gets (older), in the off-season – he’s aware of this – to give him the best chance to stay healthy and stay on the field. But he’s in a good spot, and he’s working.”

It was puzzling to many around the baseball world when a postseason perennial like Bryant signed a seven-year, $182 million deal with a team lacking a clear path to their next playoff appearance. What made it all the less sensible was the signing occurred only a year after shedding payroll with the trading of Nolan Arenado and the remainder of his eight-year, $260 million contract – plus $51 million – to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Fans of the Rockies seem to have given Bryant a pass for his 2022 absence and, to a degree, the entire organization for this move. Should KB23 go missing once again, the response may not be so polite.

The news on Lucas Gilbreath has also looked positive following his recovery from a left elbow flexor strain that sidelined him for the remainder of the season on August 28. 

“He’s doing great. He’s in Denver going to the ballpark three times a week with our strength guys there and our trainers,” Black shared. “He’ll be 100 percent ready to go come Spring Training.”

Since making the transition from starting pitcher to reliever between the end of 2019 and the start of 2021, Gilbreath has posted a 126 ERA+ through his first two big league seasons. For much of his time in the big leagues, he’s been the only left-handed reliever in the bullpen.

Following the pickup of fellow southpaw Brent Suter this offseason, Black could be able to deploy a healthy Gilbreath in positions more favorable to the both the player and the team.

Rule 5 Rationale

Colorado was quiet once during the annual Rule 5 Draft once again, but that should be expected based upon their track record. 

While they did selected RHP Kevin Kelley from the Cleveland Guardians, he was immediately traded to the Tampa Bay Rays for cash considerations. This was the fifth time the club had dealt their pick. 

Historically, the Rockies have not been active in selecting the kind of players made available in this draft for their big league club. Only Luis A. González (2003), Tommy Kahnle (2013) and Jordan Sheffield (2021) have been drafted and kept for the entirety of a season by the team. 

According to Schmidt, who had room to select as many as two players in last December’s Rule 5 Draft, such a move has become even harder with the current roster restrictions.

“The thing you got to remember with the rules, being that you can only have 13 (pitchers) is limiting to Buddy’s flexibility. Because sometimes you’re really playing with 12 knowing that you can’t send that guy down. So, that has to play into it. And, really, where is the guy in terms of the mental – can you handle it – and is he a strike thrower? It’s a tough situation.”