Rockies Development Supervisor Tony Diaz dishes on Gray, Butler, and Estevez

GRAND JUNCTION — Prior to the 2012 season, the Colorado Rockies moved their rookie-level affiliate from Casper, Wyoming (pour one out for the Ghosts) to Grand Junction, Colorado just in time to see an explosion of talent bombard the system beginning with David Dahl and Eddie Butler.

During that time, Tony Diaz moved from managing the team to taking on a brand new role that is unique to the Rockies organization; the Development Supervisor. Diaz takes a big picture look at player development on a daily basis, making his primary focus the long-term interests of each player. Since the change, the Rockies have skyrocketed up prospect rankings lists across the nation.

Now in 2016, the first crop of talent that the city of Grand Junction saw has made their way to the Bigs. Butler, from the inaugural season, along with Jon Gray and Carlos Estevez who debuted the following season, have all been major factors in the Rockies season.

While just about anyone who was paying attention to the minors at the time predicted that Butler and Gray would be MLB contributors at this point, even some of the most ardent MiLB followers could not have predicted what has occurred with Estevez who is now the Closer for the Colorado Rockies.

“The one thing with Carlos that really jumped out at you was his attitude,” says Diaz. “The kid was hungry for information, hungry to improve his skills. When he pitched here, he was mostly just a one-pitch pitcher. Really good downhill plane but his secondary stuff was very inconsistent. He wasn’t as dynamic as now. But when the kid has that type of desire to get better, you go ‘he’ll be alright, at some he’s gonna get it.'”

So, despite some high struggles at times, Diaz is among the least shocked people in the world about where Estevez is now.

“I’m definitely super proud of him but it doesn’t surprise me that he got in that quick,” he says.

With an ear-to-ear smile Diaz unabashedly speaks of the joy that he and his staff feel when tuning into the Major League product these days: “To see Eddie kinda rebound and doing better than last year and Jon also stepping up and doing what we expected him to do — three years ago, those guys were here and now they are impacting the Major League club — that’s what’s truly gratifying about our jobs here. That’s why we do what we do.”