As Day 1 of the 2026 MLB Draft concluded, Colorado Rockies president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta and assistant general manager Tommy Tanous took questions from media about the day’s work.
Below are highlights from that conversation, which has been lightly edited for clarity.
On drafting Tyler Bell
Tommy Tanous: There was a lot to like about him. First of all, it’s an SEC shortstop — a switch-hitting shortstop with elite on-base ability, brings power, defensive value, strong baseball instincts to the game every
day. One of the remarkable things about Tyler, he played through a significant shoulder injury this year, lost a little bit of time, came back, and really ended up having an extremely productive year. Super talented kid to find a shortstop this productive that can that we feel can stay at shortstop.
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Tanous: There’s definitely a chip on his shoulder when he plays. There is no mistaking his intensity out there, his focus in games, and also what he does on the practice field. We spoke with numerous coaches, summer coaches, his current coaches. This is a very very intense, serious player with a very strong need to succeed.
On who will play shortstop, Bell or Ethan Holliday
Tanous: Both will stay on that. We have plenty of teams, and we need plenty of shortstop. Look, I think a lot of players in this organization going forward are going to move around a little bit, and we’re going to build some versatility. That does not mean they are not shortstops when you put them at in center field for a day or second base. But both of those players are going to get the majority of their time developing at shortstop.
On drafting Daniel Jackson and Jack Natili
Paul DePodesta: Again, not necessarily the plan we laid out going into the day in terms of ‘Hey, we’re going to get two catchers here.’ But those were both players that we had very high on our board that we felt if we had access to, we wanted to wanted to jump on that opportunity. We think both of them have a chance to have very long careers in in the big leagues. I mean, they’re both right-handed hitters, both have power, both can really catch. Maybe I’m showing a little bit of my bias here in terms of where I think a team is built from the start, but these these are two really, really good ones, and they’re both going to get plenty of opportunity with us.
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Tanous: Both of those players have unique characteristics. I mean, Daniel Jackson — Golden Spikes Award winner, first catcher in history to in Division I history to have 25 home runs and 25 stolen bases. So really super, super talented and obviously Jack Natili — big, big power. Both have reasonable decision-making ability that we can build on and hone in on. Both have enormous amounts of power that come easy. The focus when we develop these players is always to be aware of their strike zone ability and how we build on that. Both are two really, really good athletes. That’ll be one of the keys that that we talk about with them because they certainly have a lot of other offensive aspects already in their bag of tricks.
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DePodesta: When we visited last Saturday, I think we were talking about the draft. I talked about the trade-offs that you have to make between players, and that it’s not necessarily going to look cookie-cutter, and that each player is going to look look a little different. In this case, I think we’re really, really excited about the total package for all three (Bell, Jackson, and Natili), and I mean that both defensively and offensively. Defensively, all three premium position players — two catchers and a shortstop — and then offensively, I think all of them actually are good decision makers. A couple of them have really big power. Now, are you going to take some swing and miss with that? Yeah, you probably are. But given the balance here, as we looked at these players, this was that was sort of a trade well worth making. So, like I said, not not every player is going to look exactly the same, but I think these guys certainly get bang for their buck when they when they’re attacking pitches.
On drafting Logan Reddemann
Tanous: He not only developed more velocity, he developed more pitches themselves. This is one of the bigger arsenals you’ll see. It’s incredibly impressive. It’s almost a professional arsenal when he’ll throw a cutter, sweeper, more traditional curveball, changeup. The last six or seven games, he really came on. On top of that, he’s throwing 95-96 (mph). He was the college pitcher of the year, and really what stands out is the ability to throw that arsenal and throw it for strikes. So, kind of a unique guy, especially in today’s college game, where a lot of the pitchers are two-pitch guys throwing very hard, but maybe with a limited arsenal. This this is a much, much bigger pitch arsenal.
On drafting Ben Davis
Tanous: This is a big horse. You watch him, and you do not want to be in the batter’s box against him. It’s a big moving fastball that we feel like we can actually develop even more. It’s swing-and-miss cutter and slider. So he has three pitches that he can go to, but it’s really high-octane stuff.
On what both pitchers bring
DePodesta: I would add on both guys, (they are) very, very good strike throwers. In fact, both spent time as position players. I think Reddemann was a middle infielder. Ben Davis was a catcher, so maybe we took three catchers today. You know, he was a converted catcher when he went to college. So I think both are just very athletic guys. Reddemann has sort of elite repeatability and really good feel for the baseball. As Tommy noted with Ben Davis, I think he has an unusual fastball that we really think is going to play well in our environment.
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DePodesta: We’ve obviously talked about pitchers with a deep mix, which Reddemann certainly has. I do think cutters actually have become more and more prevalent in college, so we saw it with a lot of guys this year. So I wouldn’t say that was something that we were targeting in particular. But it’s not surprising that each of these guys have thrown it and thrown it successfully. We do have a vision in our mind about different pitches that may play better at Coors than others, but that that wasn’t necessarily a strong consideration with these two selections because we also think both these guys have real facility with the baseball in their hands. So I wouldn’t be surprised as they move forward that we make some tweaks to their to their repertoire in order to optimize them.
On the first MLB draft for the Rockies new front office
DePodesta: I think we were thrilled with the way it went. You never know exactly how the board’s going to fall, but we were very excited about the players that we had access to. So certainly Tyler in the first round, and then both Daniel and Logan in the comp and second round area. I think we were we were thrilled with those opportunities. And then even Jackson and Ben Davis. I mean, all these guys were significant players on our board. We had a lot of attention focused on these players throughout the entire spring, and then certainly even throughout this past week, I don’t think any of us woke up this morning expecting that we would have gotten all those guys. So I think we’re we’re thrilled with how it went.
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DePodesta: I think it’s hard to say (if there were any surprises) because we never really know, right? We have our own board. We know there are 29 other boards out there, and we hear a lot of rumors and talk to folks. We see all the mock drafts like everyone else does. So I think you at least get a sense of where you think guys might be going. But then the draft plays out in real time, and it’s one of many, many possible iterations that actually happens. But that’s the one you roll with. So I think there were scenarios in which we thought, ‘Hey, there’s a chance one of these guys could get there,‘ so we had to be prepared for that. But we did our work on all these guys, and we’re very prepared for those opportunities. When it came down to it, and both those guys were available at 37, 38, we were ready to jump on.
On returning to the MLB Draft
DePodesta: I couldn’t trade picks. I was sort of jonesing to trade picks! No, it was great. It was great to be back in there with all the guys, and our whole group, I think, really did a tremendous job, not only through the course of the spring and this past week, but even into today in staying organized, staying focused, and like I said earlier, being ready for opportunities. So it was fun to be back in there. I’m looking forward to tomorrow. We get 16 more tomorrow, so I’m excited for that, too.
Final thoughts
What are your thoughts after the first day of the Rockies 2026 draft? How do you think Paul DePodesta et al did? Let us know!
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