After revealing the players who appeared on a single ballot and then those who appeared on two to four ballots, it’s time to talk about five players who were just outside Honorable Mention status as voted by the Purple Row electorate in the mid-season 2025 Purple Row Prospects (PuRPs) voting.
For each player, I’ll include a link to individual stats and contract status (via Baseball-Reference), as well as notes on their 2025 season. For the sake of full disclosure, I’ll also include where I put each player on my
personal ballot. All ages are as of the day the article is posted.
Multi-Ballot Players
40. Cole Messina (14.4 points, 5 ballots) — the pre-season 2025 number 27 PuRP fell off the list with increased prospect competition. The 6’0”, 230-pound catcher, who signed for a slot bonus of just over $1 million after getting picked 77th overall in 2024, came to the Rockies after two-straight successful years in the toughest conference in NCAA baseball at South Carolina. That included a platform year in which Messina hit .326/.465/.701 with 21 HR in 286 PA and earned second team All-SEC honors.
Messina was anemic (33 wRC+) in a 56 PA cameo in High-A Spokane after signing, so he was sent back there for 2025, where he is of league average age. This year, the 22-year-old has a better line, hitting .257/.353/.384 with six homers among his 27 extra-base hits in 364 plate appearances while walking in 11% of PA, good for a near league average 95 wRC+. He’s caught 70 games, committing seven errors with nine passed balls while throwing out 40% of would-be base thieves.
MLB.com ranks Messina 29th in the system as a 40 FV prospect (he was 100th overall on their draft board):
Messina is a strong right-handed hitter who put up those good power numbers despite struggling with his approach during his junior season. There was a lot more swing-and-miss overall compared to his 2023 campaign, with higher whiff rates against fastballs than previously, and he’s always had a hard time with softer stuff. There’s plenty of power for him to tap into, especially to the pull side, and he may always have a power-over-hit approach with some walks thrown in.
With a take-charge attitude behind the plate, Messina has the right mentality to catch at the next level. He’s a solid receiver with an average arm and shows enough agility to block well even though he’s not fleet afoot.
Keith Law of the Athletic ranked Messina 19th in the system back in February:
Colorado’s third-round pick in 2024 has plus power and a big body already, so catching is going to require some body maintenance going forward. I don’t love the setup at the plate, as his hands are high and his bat is behind his body, so his path to the ball is longer and uses up too much time; he could benefit from dropping his hands the way Condon and Thomas did in their draft years. His defense behind the plate is already fringy, and if he gets any bigger he’ll have to move to first.
Baseball Prospectus listed Messina as a “person of interest” in January:
A bat-first college catcher who mashed for the Gamecocks the last two seasons, Messina made some defensive improvements last season, but the setup and swing is very reminiscent of Kevin Parada’s and Messina has struggled against non-fastballs at times. His poor post-draft showing in the Northwest League didn’t assuage the offensive concerns, but as third-round college catchers go, he was a reasonable pick.
Messina was listed as a prospect of note by Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs in January:
Messina got a shade over $1 million as Colorado’s third rounder in 2024. He has above-average power, but I was bearish on his hit tool and defensive fit prior to the draft, and Messina didn’t do anything in pro ball to dissuade me from that notion.
First of all, if this isn’t Messina’s MLB walk-up song, I’m going to be disappointed. Messina could be a strong offensive player, but it won’t work as a profile if he can’t stay behind the plate. The scouts seem to think the work ethic is there to do it though and the other intangibles are lauded as well. I lean more toward the skeptical side and he’s not on my list. If he can hit well against Double-A pitching next year, I’ll re-evaluate.
39. Benny Montgomery (27.5 points, 5 ballots) — it pains me to write that the pre-season number 16 PuRP has fallen off the list entirely thanks to a tough 2025 season. Montgomery, as evaluated by scouts before he was drafted, possessed three plus tools (run, arm, field) with above-average power and athleticism that would keep the righty in center field defensively. The problem was that the 6’5”, 230-pound 22-year-old had massive hit tool risk that hasn’t broken the Rockies’ way so far. Still, the rest of the profile led the Rockies to give Montgomery a slightly under-slot $5 million bonus as the eighth-overall pick of the 2021 draft.
Montgomery’s pro career has been marred by injuries that limited him to just 196 games in four seasons entering 2025, including a knee injury in 2023 and a shoulder injury in 2024 that cut short his Double-A debut after just 48 plate appearances. He was assigned back to Double-A Hartford this year, where he is 1.6 years younger than average.
Unfortunately, the swing and miss exacerbated by a timing issue in his swing load has been a big problem, as Montgomery has struck out in 36.5% of his plate appearances (walking in 8%). Those strikeouts have led to a .211/.278/.273 batting line with three homers in 266 PA (65 wRC+). Outside of a two-week IL stint in early June, Montgomery has been relatively healthy, but he just hasn’t hit Double-A pitching. In the outfield, he’s played more right than center with a few games in left, committing one error with one outfield assist.
Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs ranked Montgomery as a 35+ FV player who is 45rd in the org, highlighted by 60 grades on speed and raw power, albeit with a bottom of the scale evaluation on his bat control:
Montgomery went to Puerto Rico for winter ball after the season, and though he had clearly spent a lot of his rehab in the weight room, his swing is still noisy and odd. Montgomery’s added mass hasn’t cost him much speed, but he’s still a tentative and clumsy defender in center field. Missing 2024 reps because of his injury really stings. Rust accumulates with months off, and Montgomery is returning from a severe injury he suffered while playing defense; it’s fair to give him time to get comfortable out there. Still, even if he does, I fear it will be rendered moot by the lack of functionality in Benny’s swing. He’s a 64% contact rate guy combined in 2023 and 2024 (Cactus League, Clemente League, scraps from Hartford), which is a pretty scary number. Because he’s so young and physically impressive, and plays hard, Montgomery is still a prospect, but it doesn’t appear he’s going to actualize his tools into real production without a swing overhaul.
John Trupin of Baseball Prospectus ranked Montgomery 19th in January:
It’s frankly impressive to still have as little certainty on Montgomery as we do, entering his fifth year as a professional. Montgomery has gotten good results as a pro, with a .310/.385/.494 line in 2022 and a hot week and a half to start Double-A at just age 21. Of course, Montgomery ran BABIPs over .400 both years, and saw his season swiftly cut short this year by surgery on his left shoulder. The unorthodox mechanics Montgomery employs at the dish did not deter Colorado, with a load that seems to require powering a hand-crank radio before it can begin, but few players get better results when they make contact than Montgomery. He’ll be just 22 when he returns from surgery to Hartford, hoping to whiff less than 40% of the time so his brilliant tools can shine.
Montgomery was ranked 16th before the season as a 45 FV player by MLB Pipeline, though he’s no longer in the top 30:
Strong and athletic at 6-foot-5, Montgomery utilizes a leg kick and a hand pump from the right side of the plate. Rather than trying to remove those from his mechanics, the Rockies worked hard with Montgomery to get them synced up. It was something that started to click before he hurt his shoulder, and when they were in unison, he was more regularly on time for the fastball, which helped him adjust better to softer stuff. He’s always been able to register high exit velocities, but the ball was often on the ground. When he was in sync, he was able to get his barrel out in front more and drive the ball, with the hope that he’d tap into his raw power more organically.
A nearly top-of-the scale runner, Montgomery took his rehab time seriously in the weight room and has continued to pack on strength to his frame without sacrificing that speed. He can play center, but will likely keep moving around all three outfield spots. If he can retain his timing and cut down on his swing-and-miss, there’s still untold offensive ceiling here.
Montgomery is quickly approaching Rule 5 draft eligibility this off-season and the Rockies have an unappealing decision to make as to whether to continue molding the impressive athletic clay represented by Montgomery or risk losing him to another team who would try to do the same. Unfortunately, Montgomery’s 2025 performance hasn’t shown much and the Rockies have a mob of early MLB career or upper minors outfielders who seem more obvious candidates for playing time and roster spots at this point.
If he’s back in 2026, Montgomery will likely be at Hartford again. Given his tools, Montgomery could yet be a pleasant surprise, but hope is fading and he’s been bumped down to a 35+ FV player (down from 40+ for me) and off my list.
38. Braylen Wimmer (34 points, 8 ballots) — the 24-year-old righty utility player (he’s played six positions this year, with 2B/3B/RF/LF seeing about equal action) was Colorado’s eighth-round pick in 2023 out of South Carolina and received a $157k bonus. The 6’3” Wimmer has been lower on the organizational priority list (as evidenced by the utilityman treatment), but he’s been hard to ignore this year in what has been a breakout campaign.
Wimmer began the year with High-A Spokane, where he was 1.7 years older than league average. Playing all over the field, Wimmer was tough to take out of the lineup as he hit .302/.376/.503 with 14 homers among his 38 extra-base hits along with 26 steals in 27 attempts in 386 plate appearances, good for a 130 wRC+ and a mid-July promotion to Double-A Hartford.
At a league average age in Hartford, Wimmer has mashed even harder so far, posting a .338/.395/.426 batting line in his first 77 PA with a homer and three doubles, which is a 142 wRC+. Wimmer has murdered lefty pitching in particular, posting a 1.227 OPS with four homers against them in 65 ABs. In the field, Wimmer has committed seven errors across his six positions in 94 games defensively — especially impressive since he’d only played one professional inning in the outfield entering this year.
Longenhagen of Fangraphs grades Wimmer as a 35+ FV prospect, ranking him 37th in the system:
It’s fair to be skeptical of Wimmer’s 2024 Low-A performance — .285/.362/.435, 14 home runs, 34 stolen bases — both because of his age and his big school background, but his ability at shortstop is a constant that will play at every level. He has poise, grace, good hands, and plenty of arm. Expect Wimmer’s strikeouts to climb as he traverses the minors; he lacks bat control but has enough power to be dangerous against pitches down and in. It should be enough offense for Wimmer to play a bench infield role.
Wimmer is an easy player to fit onto a Major League roster given his ability to play premium defensive positions while providing some pop offensively. I’m not sure he’s a big league regular anywhere, but he’s already succeeding offensively in Double-A, which is a good sign for the sustainability of the profile against more advanced pitching. Wimmer wasn’t on my list as a 35+ FV player, but his arrow is pointing up. I’d imagine he’ll start 2026 back in Hartford, with a big league debut possible next year if he keeps this up.
37. Dyan Jorge (39.8 points, 6 ballots) — the pre-season number 21 PuRP falls off the list after struggling in Double-A. Jorge, who signed in January 2022 out of Cuba as a 19-year-old, received a $2.8 million bonus from the Rockies — the largest such bonus they’ve ever handed out to a Latin American amateur free agent. The 6’2”, 170-pound 22-year-old shortstop is an athletic player and a likely up-the-middle defender with good bat speed but no power to speak of.
After a mediocre offensive showing in 2024 as a young player in High-A Spokane, organizational weakness up the middle and Jorge’s pedigree no doubt helped him get a bump to Double-A Hartford for 2025, where he is 1.6 years younger than league average. This season, Jorge’s speed has continued to be an asset (15 steals, though in 23 attempts), but he’s only hit two homers (one in the second game of the year) and 13 doubles in 350 plate appearances. That has limited his offensive impact to a sub-Mendoza .188/.271/.249 effort while striking out in 21 % of PA (58 wRC+). In the field, Jorge has split his time between shortstop and second base, committing eight errors in 93 games defensively.
Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs once ranked Jorge as high as a fringe top 100 player with a 50 FV, but he’s now dropped Jorge all the way down to a prospect of note in January due to the lack of power:
Jorge was a multi-million dollar signee out of Cuba with a lanky, prototypical build and one of the weirder statistical profiles in the org. He makes a lot of in-zone contact but nothing else; his swing isn’t really functional and only allows him to contact the ball in a narrow window of the zone.
Baseball Prospectus listed Jorge as a “Person of Interest” in January:
This is a precipitous fall for Jorge from the seventh spot in the system given he more or less Xeroxed his Low-A line in High-A, but we really would have hoped to see some additional ability to impact the ball in the last calendar year. We didn’t and he looks more like a second baseman than a shortstop now. Sometimes the Very High variance strikes early.
Jorge slotted in at 15 in the MLB Pipeline pre-season system list as a 45 FV player:
Long and lean, Jorge has shown a good feel for finding the barrel, with an approach that speaks to him being a bit more seasoned than many young players because of his time with the Cuban national team. He has a solid line-drive approach and can work counts and draw walks, but there hadn’t been too much impact in the early stages of his career. He’s starting to show little flashes of added strength and came to the Rockies’ high performance camp to continue to work in that area, though the hope is he won’t start trying to hunt for power. There is some leverage in his swing, so a little might come naturally.
Jorge has good speed and instincts, which make him a dangerous asset on the basepaths. He also should be able to play shortstop for a very long time thanks to his agility and instincts, to go along with a solid arm, good footwork and steady hands. The ingredients are there for him to be a starting shortstop in the big leagues, with how much offensive impact he grows into key to determining his ceiling.
At the end of the day, Jorge needs to be able to do damage at the plate if he’s going to be a big leaguer. The speed and defensive utility are positives, but they alone aren’t carrying tools. At some point, Jorge needs to be able to hit for power for him to actualize into the fringe top 100 prospect he was considered to be as recently as a year and a half ago. To me, he’s a 35+FV prospect because of the projection in his frame, but I’d like to see it actualized in game results. Jorge has another season before his Rule 5 eligibility deadline, so he’ll probably be back at Hartford next year, maybe after some off-season strength training.
36. Yujanyer Herrera (45 points, 8 ballots) — the pre-season number 29 PuRP is in the midst of a Tommy John surgery recovery period, so it’s not unexpected that the new draft class would push Herrera out of the top 30. Herrera will turn 22 in a few days, but he has been a professional for six years, having been signed in August 2019 out of Venezuela by the Brewers for only a $10k bonus.
Due to the pandemic, Herrera didn’t throw a pitch in affiliated ball until 2021 and he didn’t come stateside until the next year. Indeed, the 6’3” right-hander was Rule 5 eligible after the 2023 season but not selected. I don’t blame anyone, as Herrera truly didn’t pop up on the prospect radar until 2024. He seemed like a strong candidate to be added to the Rockies’ 40-man roster last off-season, but he underwent Tommy John surgery in October 2024 and has missed the 2025 season.
Herrera’s breakout 2024 began in Low-A Carolina, where he quickly showed that he was ready for a new challenge with 17 innings of 2.12 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, and 14.3 K/9 rate ball over four games. A promotion to High-A Wisconsin followed, where he was 3.1 years younger than league average. In 12 games there, Herrera threw 51 innings with a 3.18 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, 8.8 K/9 rate, and 3.0 BB/9 rate.
That was enough for the Rockies to acquire Herrera as part of the Nick Mears trade (along with Bradley Blalock) in July. After the trade, Herrera made six starts with Spokane, throwing 32 2⁄3 innings with a 3.31 ERA (3.41 xFIP), 1.13 WHIP, 9.1 K/9 rate, and 3.0 BB/9 rate. Those were strong results that pointed toward an upper minors placement this year before his arm injury scuttled those plans.
Herrera is currently 21st in the system as a 40 FV player according to MLB Pipeline:
The 6-foot-3 right-hander has three pitches in his arsenal that he was just starting to really learn how to use effectively when he went down. He typically throws his fastball in the 92-94 mph range and uses his hard above-average slider with bite as his go-to pitch. He misses plenty of bats with the pitch, showing the ability to backfoot lefties with it. He has a changeup, but it’s behind the other two offerings.
Because of that slider, Herrera’s strikeout rate took a nice step forward in 2024 and he uses the two-seam variation of his heater to get a lot of ground-ball outs. He threw a lot more strikes as well last year, but the Rockies will have to wait until 2026 to see if that sticks and if he can refine a third pitch so that he can stick in a rotation.
Longenhagen of Fangraphs was bullish about Herrera when he was acquired, ranking him as easily the best of the prospects Colorado received at the deadline (11th out of 92) as a 45 FV prospect despite not even ranking him in the Brewers system back in March. The injury caused him to back off that grade somewhat — now he ranks Herrera 30th in the system as a 40 FV player with a 60 slider grade:
Herrera is listed at 175 pounds but is more like 250. He’s a below-average athlete who has struggled to throw strikes at various points during his career, and he still looks like he has below-average command despite his reasonable walk total from 2024. Herrera’s best pitch is his slider, a tight mid-80s hellraiser with late bite and good length for how hard it is. Still, too many of his sliders back up on him right now. He has a well-demarcated four-seam/two-seam fastball mix, but no cogent third pitch yet. Herrera’s velo keeled off at the very end of the year and he was put on the IL with elbow inflammation in September (he also had a hamstring issue last season); the Rockies left him off the 40-man roster. There’s a little too much development needed here to comfortably project Herrera as a starter, but he should be a fine sinker/slider middle reliever in time.
Herrera represents the kind of pitching prospect the system needs more of and I’m excited to see how he reacts to the challenge of Double-A once he recovers from the Tommy John surgery, assuming he is either protected or unselected from the Rule 5 draft after this season. I ranked Herrera as a 40 FV prospect, 28th on my ballot, due to the possibility he remains in the rotation and the quality of the stuff.
Next time, we’ll reveal the Honorable Mention PuRPs for mid-season 2025!
