Yesterday, we unveiled 8 honorable mentions to our Blake Street Banter Top 40 prospect list, including some of the organization’s hardest workers and even a 16-year-old recent international signing.
With the BSB prospect week officially underway, we’ll unveil a new portion of our top 40 everyday until the top 10 drops on Friday. We have banter sessions set to drop all week and a final top 10 podcast dropping Friday, as well. Stay tuned and be sure to give us your thoughts on Twitter!
Without further ado, let’s get into the top 40.
#40 – Jarrod Cande
Cande has a feel-good story as a 17th rounder that has looked like a player drafted ten plus rounds earlier his entire career so far. Cande won’t blow anyone away with pure stuff but he’s got a pitcher’s mentality and approaches hitters in a measured way. With a 3.25 ERA across 19 starts last year, we saw Cande embody consistency.
The ability to limit walks and locate pitches will keep Cande moving through the minor league system. If he can continue keying into his stuff and refining his pitchability, we can’t rule out Cande ending up as a big league starter as soon as 2025.
#39 – Sam Weatherly
It has been some time since we saw Weatherly in action. The 6-foot-4 lefty pitched just 11.2 innings in 2022 before missing all of 2023 with shoulder injuries, the extent and details of which are unknown. When healthy, Weatherly is one of the most dynamic left-handers in the Rockies system with elite swing and miss stuff. He had been working to polish up his curveball to make it a reliable pitch behind his low-to-mid-90s fastball and devastating slider.
There hasn’t been much word on the former Clemson Tiger and his outlook for 2024 is unclear. Should Weatherly get back on the hill, he’ll likely be used as a reliever to preserve his arm health. The upside as a bullpen guy is through the roof but the first priority is Weatherly’s health and well-being.
#38 – Cade Denton
The 2023 Stopper of the Year award winner–an award given to the best college relief pitcher–Denton has one of the best college track records in the system and talent to match. Ironically, his 2022 campaign, which saw him register a 0.41 ERA in 43.2 innings, didn’t win any national awards, but further cements his case as one of the best reliever prospects in baseball. During Oral Roberts’ historic 2023 College World Series run, Denton’s sinker/slider combo was unhittable and his draft stock rose. The Rockies selected Denton in the sixth round, which is relatively high for a reliever only prospect.
To this point, Cade Denton has only pitched 10 innings in the Rockies farm system, a sample size not large enough to know where he stands. In those 10 innings of work, he struck out 12 batters, meaning his stuff has so far translated. As Denton alluded to in our Banter Session, trying his hand as a starter isn’t off the table though Denton’s sinker/slider combination is a perfect match for Coors Field and he has the potential to be a nightmare for rallying offenses.
#37 – Grant Lavigne
The 6-foot-2 left-hand hitting first baseman was drafted as the 42nd overall pick in the 2018 draft and has performed at every level, posting a wRC+ under 100 just one time. Still, Lavigne has yet to find his potential. Viewed as a 60 raw power guy coming into the pros, Lavigne has has yet to eclipse the 20-homer mark in a season. However, his walk rate is near elite, never letting a season rate drop under 10%, and last year he found some of his power with an ISO of .171 at Double-A Hartford.
The development of Lavigne is taking longer than expected though the silver lining is the Bryant, Montero, Toglia, and Goodman logjam that would keep him from getting MLB time anyway. If Grant can find success at the Triple-A level in 2024, he will be in the discussion for playing time at first base in 2025.
#36 – Chris McMahon
It’s been an up and down path for McMahon since being selected in the 2nd round of the 2020 draft. McMahon was fast tracked to High-A in 2021 where he performed respectably (4.17 ERA over 114.2 innings). However, shoulder injuries have limited McMahon to just 95.2 innings since then.
McMahon was drafted for his ability to command a quality three-pitch mix with his slider and changeup both potentially above-average pitches, backing up his low-to-mid-90s fastball. It appears the shoulder ailments have limited any velocity gains from happening and keeping McMahon from consistently getting into the mid-90s, leading to undesirable results like a 5.91 ERA this year. There is still a shot McMahon can turn the corner and become a back-end starter, but a move to the bullpen is no longer out of the question.
#35 – Ryan Rolison
Originally drafted in the 37th round of the 2016 MLB Draft by the Padres, Rolison opted to attend the University of Mississippi, where he became a first round pick (22nd overall to Colorado) in the 2018 MLB Draft. Standing 6-foot-2, the 25-year-old Rolison has been decimated by injuries in his professional career, limiting him to just six starts last year, in which he only accumulated 11 innings across Single-A Fresno and Triple-A Albuquerque.
One of the biggest “ifs” in the entire Rockies system over the past five years has been Ryan Rolison. If he can stay healthy, Colorado’s front office likes what they have in Rolision as a dynamic left-handed starter. However, he is not with the team in Arizona for Spring Training, and one of the best abilities for a player to have is availability. Here’s to hoping for better health in 2024.
#34 – Jeff Criswell
Jeff Criswell was acquired for Chad Smith after the 2022 season. Leading up to that trade, Criswell was named the Oakland Athletics Pitching Prospect of the Year after he went through three levels, Low-A to Double-A, racking up 119 strikeouts in 118 innings to go along with his 1.29 WHIP. A 2nd round pick in 2020 out of the University of Michigan, Criswell comes with a lot of upside that Rockies fans should be excited about.
A 2023 Pacific Coast League campaign humbled some of those expectations of Criswell. In April, Jeff started 4 games and allowed hitters to OPS 1.263 against him. However, the talent prevailed in the end and Criswell posted a K% of 25.4% and a WHIP of 1.45 in August and September combined. The fastball usually sits 93-96, complimented by a changeup, slider, and the occasional curveball. The slider had a 32% whiff rate in 2023 and has real promise. It would be safe to assume that Criswell is the number 8 or 9 pitcher on the MLB rotation list though a move to the bullpen could be in the cards.
#33 – Anthony Molina
The Rockies MLB Rule 5 selection, Molina will be carried on the 26-man roster barring injury or serious underperformance. Molina sits in the mid-90s with his fastball and backs it up with a mid-80s slider and changeup. The fastball appears to be his best pitch but the other two offerings have the potential to be average or better MLB pitches, especially Molina’s changeup.
In 2023, Molina held a 4.82 ERA over 125 innings between Double-A and Triple-A in the Rays system, though he pitched the entire year at just 21-years-old. The 6-foot-1 Molina isn’t a big strikeout arm (18.2 K%) but he limits free passes (7.7 BB%) and gets his share of ground balls. With his youth and already explosive stuff, there is clearly some upside to Molina. The Rockies will play it slow and use Molina as a long-relief arm, but he’s a starter by trade and could make some starts down the stretch this year.
#32 – Connor Staine
Can we talk about how smooth Staine’s delivery is? A quick, 3-phase windup with big reach and stretch to finish that allows for tunneling and control of all pitches. Staine has a big fastball, averaging around 93 but has seen the ticker get to 97 which is accented by a nice slider and and curveball. He is developing a changeup that will generate strikeouts. Control was an issue early in his first professional season, but Staine turned things around, ending the season posting 9 outings with 1 or fewer walks, in his final 10. He figured something out and will look to carry that success into 2024.
The product of Central Florida stands at 6-foot-4, 200 pounds with a solid frame and a Colorado tattoo on his left wrist. There is a lot of upside that we can all get excited about with how loose and athletic Staine is on the mound. He was rated as the 88th draft prospect in 2022 but the Rockies snagged him with the 146th pick. He’s a sneaky bet to push for a rotation spot in a few years. Expect him to start in Spokane this season and end in Hartford.
#31 – Julio Carreras
Fortunately, Carreras just turned 24 so there is time for him to adapt to higher-level pitching. There is a nice floor with Carreras’s skill set as an athletic defender all around the infield that will knock a handful of home runs a year and his ceiling is that of a high-end utility player. Carreras has started hot in Spring Training and is pushing towards his MLB debut, though he likely gets more run in Triple-A before that happens.
Carreras has been a very steady riser since coming stateside in 2021. The production in-season has been streaky and not flashy overall but he’s athletic and has flashed promise as a rounded player. This past season, Carreras posted an 83 wRC+ in Double-A, which suggests his bat lags behind his speed and defense.
We hope you enjoyed the first set of ranked prospects in our top 40. Look out for numbers 30-21 tomorrow!
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