The pre-season Purple Row Prospects (PuRPs) voting period has finished, so it’s time to reveal the community’s top 30 prospects in the Colorado system. These prospects will be revealed over the next several
weeks to give fans an overview of players who could make an impact on the Colorado Rockies soon. The trade of Josh Grosz for Jake McCarthy took one PuRP off the board before the votes were tallied, so his votes were re-distributed.
First up: an introduction to the list and then a rundown of every single-ballot player to get votes (ranking from T-54 to 47). Later this week, I will reveal the multi-ballot players who landed outside the top 35, then I’ll reveal the five honorable mention PuRPs and move to the top 30 after that, one at a time. I’ll conclude the series with a voting summary and a state of the system post.
There were fewer ballots (19) than at mid-season (23), but this was an only slightly below average response volume when looking over the last few years, even considering the sorry state of the 2025 Rockies. There were 55 players named at least once on a ballot (down from 65 in the mid-season 2025 list). There were 46 players named on multiple ballots (down from 50), while 31 were listed on at least 7 ballots (down from 37) and therefore had unmodified point totals. There were 19 different prospects receiving a top 10 placement on at least one list (down from 22), with the top 18 PuRPs all receiving at least one top ten vote. The top 20 made it on over 80% of ballots, so the top group was more or less a consensus. Here is a link to this list’s polling thread.
30 points were granted for a first place vote, 29 for second, etc. Until a player was named on seven ballots, his vote totals were modified on a sliding scale to avoid an individual ballot having too much say over the community forecast. If necessary, the first tiebreaker went to the player who was ranked on the most ballots, then to the one who ranked highest on an individual PuRPs ballot, the third tiebreaker was the mode ballot — multiple ties were broken in the top 30 this time around.
All prospects in the system who retained their Rookie of the Year eligibility (fewer than 130 ABs, 50 IP, and 45 days on the active roster — IL time is not included) were eligible for selection on this list. Since the mid-season 2025 balloting, an unusually high six PuRPs lost eligibility.
For each player on the PuRPs list, I’ll include a link to individual stats and contract status (via Baseball-Reference) and notes on their scouting reports, if applicable. For the sake of full disclosure, I’ll also include where I put each player on my personal ballot. With players receiving votes, I’ll provide the B-Ref link and voting stats, plus a short blurb. All ages will be as of the day the article is posted.
Remember, statistics are not the end-all, be-all when evaluating these players. Context is hugely important (notably, the player’s age relative to the league’s average, the league’s average offensive numbers, or the player’s 40-man roster calendar), as is the fact that injuries to prospects can affect both their tools and their stats. I’ll try to make mention of instances where this is the case as we go on.
Without further ado, here are the single ballot players in 2026 pre-season PuRPs voting:
Single Ballot Players
T-54. Lebarron Johnson Jr (0.6 points, 1 ballot) — the 23-year-old right-hander was Colorado’s fifth rounder in 2024 out of Texas, receiving a $500k bonus. The 6’5” hurler threw 72 1⁄3 innings at UT in 2024 across 17 appearances (15 starts) and posted a 5.60 ERA, 1.70 WHIP, 10.5 K/9 rate, and 5.5 BB/9 rate in the Longhorns’ final year in the Big 12.
As a pro, Johnson was assigned to Low-A Fresno to start 2025, where he was good enough in nine starts (43 2/3 IP, 3.50 ERA) as an older than league average player to get a bump to High-A Spokane in late May, where he was about league average age. In seven starts with Spokane, Johnson posted middling but acceptable results with poor control (35 IP, 4.89 ERA, 1.60 WHIP, 9.5 K/9, 6.7 BB/9).
MLB Pipeline ranked Johnson 30th in the system at mid-season (before adding 2025 draft picks to the Rockies list) as a 40 FV prospect:
At 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds, Johnson certainly looks the part and shows glimpses of big league starter stuff. While he sat around 93-95 mph at Texas, he was parking his fastball more in the 94-97 mph range in the early stages of his pro career. It’s shown some good action at the bottom of the zone and has generally been harder to square up than in school last year. His upper-80s slider with two-plane depth could be a real separator, already missing a ton of bats, and his firm mid-80s splitter with late action has been more consistently nasty during his first pro season.
With an upright, high-tempo delivery and high arm slot, it remains to be seen if Johnson will be able stick in a rotation, and he struggles with landing his stuff in the zone enough for him to pitch deeper into games. The Rockies will keep letting him work on his command and full repertoire as a starter for the time being, but it wouldn’t surprise anyone if he ends up in the bullpen at some point.
Johnson is ranked 37th in the system by Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs as a 35+ FV player (and future reliever) with a 60 slider and 55 fastball grade:
A two-year member of the Longhorns’ starting rotation, Johnson is perhaps better suited for the bullpen in pro ball. He has a heavy mid-90s sinker with extreme downhill plane — he has a vertical release height just shy of seven feet tall. He’ll bump 98-99, but tends to live in the 93-96 mph range. Johnson’s upper-80s slider runs downhill with even more vertical finish, and is as hard as 90-91 mph. As his fastball is more of a grounder-getter, Johnson’s slider is his lone realistic bat-misser, and he barely throws a changeup. He walked 4.8 per 9 IP in college, another indication that Johnson is headed for a relief role.
Johnson’s profile is a mixed bag. On one hand, his high release point and carry on the fastball can play well in the thin air if spotted correctly. On the other hand, the lack of extension and a delivery that gets upright at times can make the heater flatten out, leading to the kind of hard contact that turns into extra bases. If the command ticks up, Johnson has mid-rotation starter upside. If the walks remain a hurdle, his fastball-slider combo could make him a late-inning weapon sooner rather than later.
T-54. Fidel Ulloa (0.6 points, 1 ballot) — the 23-year-old right-handed reliever was Colorado’s seventh-round pick in 2024 out of LSU, snagging a $295.3k bonus. That was on the strength of a single season in Baton Rouge, during which the 6’2” pitcher threw 23 1/3 innings across 19 relief appearances, striking out 26 with 11 walks with a 4.63 ERA. Unlike his fellow 2024 draftee Johnson, Ulloa got a cameo in pro ball down the stretch with Low-A Fresno, pitching 12 relief innings across eleven games with a 4.50 ERA.
In 2025, Ulloa returned to Fresno as a league average age player and was a California League All-Star, throwing 35 2/3 innings of 1.77 ERA, 1.15 WHIP relief with a 11.6 K/9 rate and earning a promotion to High-A Spokane in late July after a brief stint on the 7-day IL and a rehab stop in the complex league. In 13 games with Spokane down the stretch, Ulloa got even better results, posting a 1.06 ERA and 1.00 WHIP with 23 strikeouts against five walks in 17 innings of work.
Ulloa is a pure reliever with a compact, aggressive delivery. He attacks with a fastball that sits in the mid-90s, but it’s the high-spin characteristics and heavy nature of the pitch that generate the most whiffs. The secondary stuff is still a work in progress (he primarily relies on a sharp, biting slider that tunnels well off the heater) but when you’re sporting a 1.06 WHIP and allowing only two home runs over 55 innings, you don’t need to get too fancy.
53. Garrett Acton (0.9 points, 1 ballot) — the 27-year-old righty reliever was one of the first transactions of the Paul DePodesta era, getting picked off waivers from the Rays in November. Acton is a bit older than your typical prospect (and indeed appeared in the big leagues in both 2023 with the A’s and for one inning in 2025 with the Rays), but after missing all of 2024 recovering from Tommy John surgery, Acton had a nice bounce-back year in the Rays system. In 58 2/3 innings across 45 games, Acton posted a 3.68 ERA with a 1.13 WHIP and 10.9 K/9 rate.
Acton is an extreme fly-ball pitcher who lives and dies by the strikeout. Before his surgery, he was pumping 95–96 mph heaters; in 2025, he averaged a slightly lower 93.7 mph, but the swing-and-miss stuff was still there. He posted a 30.7% strikeout rate at Triple-A Durham, leaning on a high-spin fastball and a sharp breaking ball to navigate high-leverage spots. While his walk rate (11%) is a bit higher than you’d like to see, he managed to post a career-best 8.6% home run rate in 2025.
When writing up the Rays’ system last February, Longenhagen of FanGraphs listed Acton as a prospect of note, noting that “At his best, [Acton] has a rise/run mid-90s fastball that plays up thanks to his violent, deceptive delivery.”
The “extreme fly-ball” tag isn’t great for a reliever at Coors, so if Acton’s fastball flattens out his margin for error disappears. Nonetheless, if he’s still around (not guaranteed considering the flurry of waiver claims and trades the Rockies have made this off-season), Acton will be thrown into the scrum for a spot in the big league bullpen this spring. If the elbow holds up and the velocity returns to form, Acton (who is a 35+ FV prospect in my eyes) could be a sneaky-good waiver claim who provides much-needed stability to a relief corps that is always in need of reinforcements.
52. Isaiah Coupet (1.0 points, 1 ballot) — the 23-year-old lefty pitcher was the Rockies’ fourth-rounder in 2023 out of Ohio State, getting a $600k bonus. After a professional cameo in his draft year, Coupet had a full season in 2024 with Low-A Fresno, throwing 86 innings over 19 games with a 5.34 ERA and 1.34 WHIP. He did miss a lot of bats, posting a 12.5 K/9 rate against a 2.8 BB/9 rate. In 2025 though, Coupet was limited to just three appearances with High-A Spokane due to injuries. He threw 9 2/3 frames with a 4.66 ERA, striking out 11 and walking eight.
Coupet doesn’t blow you away with velocity, but his breaking balls are legitimate weapons that can make professional hitters look like they’re swinging underwater. His curveball is a vertical monster with elite spin rates, and he pairs it with a slider that tunnels exceptionally well. Coupet’s fastball sits in the high-80s to low-90s, which usually wouldn’t cut it, but the “invisiball” effect of his breaking stuff allows the heater to play up.
Longenhagen of FanGraphs ranks Coupet 32nd in the system as a 35+ FV player with a plus-plus grade on the slider and a plus on the curveball:
Coupet is a low-slot lefty with a huge breaking ball who struck out 12.45 per 9 IP across a career-high 86 innings in 2024. He never worked more than 64 innings at Ohio State and struggled with walks as an underclassman, but he’s thrown enough strikes the last two years to merit development as a starter. Another potential barrier: Coupet has a fastball that only sits about 90 mph. His two breaking balls are both fantastic, especially his tight, low-80s slider, which Coupet commands to the glove side with consistency. He can subtract velocity and bend in a nasty mid-70s curveball, which is a good first-pitch weapon against righties, but Coupet’s arm slot, plus his lack of velocity or a changeup, make him otherwise vulnerable to significant platoon splits. He’s likely a bulk reliever who specializes in lefties.
Coupet is an intriguing case, given the huge spin rate on his breaking balls, but his fly-ball lean is a big concern. If he isn’t pinpoint with the command of his secondaries, those high-spin flyouts can turn into homers very quickly at Coors. He still has the ceiling of a back-end starter or a funky multi-inning reliever who can neutralize left-handed power hitters. 2026 will be all about health and proving that Coupet can be effective in the upper minors.
51. Roynier Hernandez (1.3 points, 1 ballot) — the 21-year-old lefty batting, righty-throwing second baseman signed for a $100k bonus out of Venezuela in 2022. After hitting .339 in rookie ball in 2023 and .305 in the ACL in 2024, Hernandez made his full-season debut with Low-A Fresno in 2025 and did exactly what he always does: he put the barrel on the ball.
Hernandez possesses a compact, line-drive swing that is built for contact. In 75 games with Fresno, he hit .293/.358/.366 and showed remarkable consistency for a 20-year-old in the California League (1.2 years younger than league average). The most glaring stat in his profile, of course, is the zero in the home run column. Hernandez has yet to hit a professional home run in over 880 career at-bats. He’s a slap-and-dash hitter who relies on finding holes and using his 5-foot-10 frame to stay short to the ball. While Hernandez did rack up 11 doubles and 5 triples in 2025, his lack of game power puts a damper on his offensive ceiling.
Longenhagen of FanGraphs ranks Hernandez 25th in the system as a 40 FV player:
Hernandez is a stocky, low-to-the-ground athlete with plus defensive hands and terrific feel for the barrel. After two years in the DSL, he slashed .305/.417/.360 and managed a 93% in-zone contact rate on the complex in 2024, but he’s still looking for his first pro homer. Hernandez’s style of hitting is geared more for opposite field line drive and groundball contact, but he squares the ball up in that direction and is incredibly difficult to make swing and miss. Roynier is compact and strong, but his frame lacks typical strength projection; he has a Yonny Hernández or Neifi Perez type of build. The Rockies have been deploying him all over the infield, and he is slick and sound at every spot. Hernandez’s size will limit his impact, but his defense gives him a sort of floor as a low-impact utilityman.
A player with zero home run power might seem like a strange fit for Coors, but Hernandez offers something rare among Rockies prospects: high-level bat-to-ball skills and a disciplined eye. He posted a respectable .358 OBP in 2025, and his ability to spray line drives into the gaps at Coors Field could turn many singles into doubles. Defensively, Hernandez spent the majority of his time second base in 2025. He’s a reliable glove with high baseball IQ, though his lack of elite twitch means his long-term fit is likely as a utility infielder and as a 35+ FV player for me, just off my top 30 list. Hernandez will be Rule 5 eligible after the season, so he’ll need to show well in High-A Spokane to get on the 40 man roster protection list by then.
50. Mason Albright (1.6 points, 1 ballot) — Albright was one half of Colorado’s trade return from the Los Angeles Angels in 2023 for Randal Grichuk and C.J. Cron (the other was the more heralded Jake Madden, who didn’t appear on a PuRPs ballot this time around). The 23-year-old 6’0” lefty starter was the lone high schooler in LA’s famed all-pitcher draft in 2021, an over-slot signing in the 12th round for $1.25 million. No individual pitch stands out in Albright’s mix (maybe the curveball); rather it’s the overall polish and feel for pitching he displays that sets him apart.
Since the trade, Albright has steadily moved up the minor league ladder. He began 2025 by repeating at Double-A Hartford, where he was 2.9 years younger than league average, but six strong starts (32 1/3 innings, 2.51 ERA, 1.05 WHIP) was enough for the Rockies to promote Albright to Triple-A Albuquerque in mid-May. Pitching in the notoriously hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League against batters who are on average over five years older than him, Albright understandably got beaten up a bit. He posted a 7.80 ERA (6.18 xFIP), 1.82 WHIP, 6.9 K/9 rate, and 3.7 BB/9 rate in 85 1/3 innings across 21 games (19 starts).
Longenhagen of FanGraphs listed Albright as a prospect of note (a “Funky Lefty”) last year:
Albright was a 2021 Angels draft pick out of high school and was traded to Colorado in one of the 2023 Last Ohtani Gasp deadline deals, this one for Randal Grichuk. He’s pitched as a starter up through Double-A, but his stuff is more akin to the T.J. McFarland type of second lefty.
Before the 2024 season, MLB.com wrote this about Albright:
Albright is not your prototypical high school projection case, as the six-footer is more about his feel for pitching than raw stuff. His fastball typically has been sitting in the 90-92 mph range, though it can get as high as 94. It also plays up because he can command it and misses bats thanks to deception in his delivery. His curve has the chance to be a solid pitch, though it can get slurvy at times, and he has feel for his changeup and is developing a cutter.
Albright is a fly-ball pitcher, but his high-spin, high-carry fastball is designed to get whiffs at the top of the zone. In theory, that ride should play well at altitude, provided he can locate it. The problem in 2025 was the home run ball: he surrendered 28 homers in just 85.1 innings at Albuquerque. For Albright to survive in Denver, he has to prove that his stuff can still sneak past bats in a very tough hitting environment.
On one hand, you have a 23-year-old lefty with advanced feel who reached Triple-A at a young age. On the other, the 2025 stats are screaming “organizational depth”. The ceiling remains a back-end starter who relies on guile over guts (he’s a 35 FV pitcher for me), but the floor has shifted toward a situational lefty reliever. 2026 will be a defining year: he’ll likely head back to Albuquerque to see if he can tame the PCL, with a potential MLB debut as a bulk option if the Rockies’ rotation faces its usual attrition. I expect him to make it to the big leagues one day, at the least as a spot starter down the road a la Tanner Gordon.
49. Sandy Ozuna (1.7 points, 1 ballot) — the 19-year-old righty pitcher signed out of the Dominican Republic for a mere $45k in 2023, but he has emerged as a real prospect who has been limited by injury to just 75 1/3 innings across three seasons. In 2025 with the ACL team, Ozuna made two appearances and threw six innings, allowing one run on six hits and a walk with six strikeouts.
Ozuna is a 6-foot-3 projection play with a smooth, whippy delivery that generates easy velocity. His fastball sits 93–96 mph and has touched 97, but it’s the gyro slider (a legitimate bat-misser in the mid-80s) that really has scouts excited. Ozuna is the rare Rockies prospect who combines projectability with present command and a repeatable delivery. The fringy ride on his fastball is a bit of a concern, as it doesn’t have that elite vertical carry that survives the thin air perfectly, but his spin profile suggests he’s a prime candidate to develop a heavy sinker down the road.
Longenhagen of FanGraphs ranks Ozuna 38th in the system as a 35+ FV player:
Ozuna had among the best stuff of Colorado’s complex-level group in 2024 but his ultra-long, inconsistent arm action creates a lot of relief risk. He worked 37 innings in 10 games (half of them starts), striking out 45 and allowing 48 baserunners. Ozuna’s control is worse than it performed on paper, but he has a lightning-quick arm and a shot to develop a nasty fastball/slider combo despite his slider’s lack of raw spin. For now, he’s a developmental starter prospect with arm strength and not a lot else.
If Ozuna can add a reliable third offering (the changeup is currently a work in progress at best), his ability to fill the zone with a 97-mph heater and a good slider gives him a big league starter’s ceiling (or a late inning reliever as his Rule 5 timeline draws nearer). That’s a big if of course — Ozuna is both far away from Coors and hasn’t been healthy thus far, which is why he’s a 35 FV player for me. We’ll see if that changes in 2026, when Ozuna will likely make his full-season debut at some point.
48. Derek Bernard (1.9 points, 1 ballot) — the 20-year-old Dominican outfielder signed (as a second baseman) for a $185k bonus in 2022, even though he was largely raised in Brooklyn. After two strong years in the DSL, Bernard returned stateside in 2024 to the ACL team, where the lefty hitter/righty thrower was about two years younger than league average and put up a solid 104 wRC+.
In 2025, Bernard had a nine game cameo in the ACL before getting assigned to Low-A Fresno in late May, where he was 2.2 years younger than league average. Against a higher level of competition as a teenager, all Bernard did was produce a more potent batting line than he did in 2024. His .302/.385/.448 line in 290 PA with Fresno, including 24 extra-base hits and 13 steals, was worth a 133 wRC+. In the field, Bernard played mostly in the outfield corners with four errors but also six outfield assists.
Longenhagen of FanGraphs ranks Bernard as a 35+ FV player, 39th in the system, highlighted by a plus future raw power grade (and 55 future game power):
Bernard is a hard-swinging corner outfield prospect who leveled the 2023 DSL (his second year in the league) because of his physicality and bat speed. He slashed .296/.360/.440 in Arizona in 2024 but K’d a terrifying 32% of the time. Of fullback build, Bernard has a rare combination of short levers and big strength, and he’s going to get to power in games by virtue of this. However, he lacks traditional physical projection and has exhibited some strikeout red flags so far. He swings with big time effort and can lose track of the baseball during the process. After playing mostly second base in his first pro season, Bernard largely shifted to left field in year two and played exclusively in the outfield corners in 2024. Bernard’s ability to punish the baseball makes him a notable young prospect, but he’ll need to cut the strikeouts to profile toward the bottom of the defensive spectrum.
Bernard has a football player’s build (5-foot-11 and a solid 190 pounds) and he uses every bit of that frame to generate plus raw power. In 2025, he posted a 90th percentile exit velocity of 106.3 mph, which is already above the Major League average. The high batting average showed that he isn’t just a swing for the fences guy but can also find the barrel consistently when he’s on time. The red flag is the swing-and-miss. Bernard’s aggressive approach led to a 24.1% strikeout rate in Fresno and he struggled specifically against high-velocity heaters and quality breaking balls, which won’t get any easier as he moves up the minor league ladder.
Bernard has strong power projection, but there might be too much swing and miss in the profile to make the defensive utility play. It’s been good to see his offensive improvement this year (he cut his strikeouts from 32% to 24% year over year while walking 3% more), so perhaps Bernard (who is a 35+ FV player for me) can make a case after the 2026 season to be protected from the Rule 5 draft with a strong year (probably) in High-A Spokane.
47. Marcos Herrera (2.0 points, 1 ballot) — the 21-year-old right-hander is another 2022 signee for the Rockies (six players in that class received PuRP votes this time around), this time out of Venezuela for a $100k bonus. Herrera is a 6-foot-2 righty with a high-waisted frame that suggests there is still room for more “oomph” as he matures. His current bread and butter is a two-pitch mix that centers on a fastball in the 91–94 mph range and a potentially plus tight, late-breaking slider.
After two years in the DSL and another year in the ACL, Herrera made his full season debut in 2025 for Low-A Fresno, where he was 1.7 years younger than league average. He was quite good in 21 games (19 starts) for Fresno, throwing 100 2/3 innings with a 3.93 ERA, 1.42 WHIP, 9.1 K/9 rate, and 4.7 BB/9 rate. Those are great numbers for a 20-year-old in full season ball and the workload is a good sign for his long-term viability as a starter, even if his command needs refinement.
In his April 2024 system write-up, Longenhagen gave Herrera a 40 FV grade with a plus grade for the slider:
One of a couple hard-throwing youngsters in Colorado’s talented Arizona complex contingent is Herrera, who sat 93-96 and touched 97 during an extended spring outing just before list publication. He also has a plus mid-80s slider that Herrera really only has feel for landing in the zone right now. It leaps out at the ribs of right-handed hitters before diving back into the strike zone as they bail on the pitch. His upper-80s changeup needs to improve and Herrera needs to find a chase breaking ball in addition to his promising in-zone offering. As a medium-framed guy, he’s more likely to wind up in relief than the rotation, but he has exciting stuff for a teenage pitching prospect.
To retain that starter viability, Herrera will need to develop a strong third pitch to complement that fastball/slider mix. I have Herrera as a 35+ FV player but we’ll see how he performs in 2026 in his 40-man roster evaluation campaign.
Thanks to all who voted this time around! Next time I’ll reveal the multi-ballot players who rank between 46 and 36.
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