As my father, a Boston Red Sox fan, was grappling with his own favorite team’s identity last year in the wake of the Rafael Devers trade, he asked me who the “big players” for the Colorado Rockies were these days. I had no idea how to answer that question.
He wasn’t assuming that they had a future Hall of Fame player — if so, he would have heard of them. It was more an attempt to understand which players Rockies fans would feel good about buying a jersey of and that he, as a baseball fan in general,
should probably know about. For his Red Sox, the sudden departure of their franchise icon meant a new era headlined by some combination of big-money free agent Alex Bregman, burgeoning ace Garret Crochet, and/or potential superstar prospect Roman Anthony.
For the Rockies in June of 2025 the answer was… no one?
Fast forward to the end of August the following year though, and there is one clear and obvious answer.
The face of the Colorado Rockies is Hunter Goodman.
National name recognition
There was a time when one could make have made the case that Kyle Freeland owned this designation for the Rockies. The national profile he earned with his early career success combined with both his hometown kid narrative and longevity with the team mean that he has earned a level of name recognition that has exceeded what his on-field performance has warranted in recent seasons.
The combination of Freeland’s recent injury and impending free agency, however, mean that his time being a standard bearer for the organization is coming to an end.
Even if Freeland were to remain with the team next year, Goodman’s recent accolades underscore that his national profile has become the highest on the team. With two All-Star selections and a Silver Slugger under his belt, Goodman has begun to carve out a name for himself among the wider baseball media ecosystem.
This past offseason, Goodman was the Rockies lone mention in MLB Network’s annual “Top 100 Players Right Now” feature. The show is more of a fun offseason exercise than it is a serious analysis of the varying talent levels of all Major Leaguers, but it does provide a datapoint in how players are perceived nationally. Goodman barely made the list at 97th, but he was on it unlike any other Rockie, and he surely will be again this offseason.
The flurry of trade rumors surrounding him at this year’s trade deadline and subsequent lack of a deal generated a great many headlines informing fans around the league that Goodman is a slugging catcher for the Rockies. The percentage of baseball fans that looked at Goodman’s Baseball Reference page for the first time this summer and realized how good he’s been the past couple of seasons has surely been sizable.
Two straight seasons of accomplishments and accolades followed by a flurry of reporting on Goodman have obviously raised his profile higher than any other current Rockie among the general baseball public.
Future with the team
When Ezequiel Tovar signed his contract extension back in the March of 2024, it was a sign of conviction in the long-term outlook for him as a foundational player for the rebuilding team. That seven-year deal (with a club option) means that the Rockies still have more years of team control remaining for Tovar than they do for anyone else on the team that has at least a year of service time.
While his contract guarantees that the Rockies will need to pay him, the past two seasons have cast doubt on whether they will be able to keep him in the lineup every day. If Tovar bounces back to 2024 levels of production both at the plate and in the field, his tenure with the team and seasons remaining under contract will put him right back in this discussion… but that’s a big if.
Goodman, on the other hand, only has three years of arbitration remaining before being scheduled to reach free agency after the 2029 season. That’s not a short time, but it’s not so far away that folks haven’t already begun pondering his future with the club.
The front office refusing to trade Goodman this August, however, provides some assurance that they view him as a player to build around. The likelihood that the Rockies will try to extend Goodman beyond his rookie contract seems significantly higher today than it did at the start of the season.
If the front office weren’t going to trade him this season when there were many catcher needy contenders and he was arguably at the peak of his trade value, it seems likely that they’ll try to keep him around for as long as they can. That may ultimately mean a trade just before his arbitration years end if an extension can’t be worked out, but that would still mean multiple future seasons in which Rockies fans can feel confident that Goodman will be their guy, which is more than can be said about most players on the team.
On-field impact to the team
It’s possible that a more versatile player with upside like Cole Carrigg becomes the standard bearer for the club in the coming years. There’s a case to be made that Carrigg, given his enticing combination of tools, will end up being more valuable over the next few seasons than the defensively questionable Goodman.
Given the team’s status as a rebuilding club, that same logic could alternatively point towards considering Ethan Holliday (No. 1 PuRP) for the face of the franchise designation. To a team primarily looking towards the future, Holliday represents their best hope of having an MVP candidate in the foreseeable future, even if the chances of that aren’t high.
The argument for either player already being the face of the franchise, however, is more about projection than analysis of the here and now.
Carrigg made a big splash with a 122 wRC+ in 30 games before the All-Star break but has cooled down to a 100 wRC+ in his 29 games after the break. Holliday is a highly regarded prospect but hasn’t played a game above Low-A and is out for the remainder of the year.
On the other hand, Goodman is in the middle of back-to-back seasons with 30+ home runs while playing a premium defensive position. The Rockies were forced to play without Goodman for ten games during his recent brief stay on the injured list and had their worst losing streak of the year. When he returned to game action on Tuesday night, he hit a home run, threw out a runner trying to steal second base, and the Rockies broke that seven-game losing streak.
The entire lineup, for all of the talk of progress on the offensive side of the club this season, is palpably less intimidating when Goodman is not in it. That’s the sort of player that defines the moment for a team.
Conclusions
I look forward to the future when the Rockies, once again, have multiple established franchise stars that my father doesn’t need me to tell him about. We’ll all be happier when the Rockies have a new combination of Nolan Arenado, Charlie Blackmon, and Trevor Story esque star players that spring to mind immediately when someone asks about the team.
It remains to be seen whether the Goodman era will be but a bridge to that next good Rockies team or if it will extend long enough to overlap.
What is clear, though, is that he is currently this franchise’s most-prominent standard bearer.
The Goodman name on the back of a jersey can be worn with the expectation that fans of other teams, like my father, will already know that he is a very good player who hits a ton of home runs for the Colorado Rockies. That’s something that should be acknowledged and celebrated as the Rockies haven’t always had a player that you could say that about.
On the Farm
Triple-A: Albuquerque Isotopes 9, Round Rock Express 4
The Isotopes took an early lead and never looked back.
The got off to a roaring start in the first when Adael Amador scored on a passed ball by Cooper Johnson, the Round Rock catcher. They followed that up with a two-RBI double from Charlie Condon (No. 2 PuRP) before Vimael Machín drove Condon in with a single.
Fast forward to the fourth and a one out double from Machín while the bases were loaded would bring in another three runs. A Tyler Freeman double in the sixth would lead to the Yard Goats eighth run after Condon drove him in with a single. The Isotopes final run would come in the top of the ninth on a Braxton Fulford line drive that would bring home Roc Riggio (No. 13 PuRP) from first base because of a throwing error by the Express right fielder.
The only earned run the Isotopes pitching staff gave up was on a double given up by Andrew Baker in the eighth. All three of the other Express runs were a result of a throwing error by Adael Amador in the bottom of the fourth. In particular the pitcher that started the game, Valente Bellozo who threw three scoreless innings, and the one who finished it, Jeff Criswell who struck out three in his one and a third innings, were notably effective.
Double-A: New Hampshire Fisher Cats 5, Hartford Yard Goats 4
The Yard Goats were bested by the Fisher Cats with a final score much closer than the game itself felt.
The Hartford pitching staff gave up a lot of hard contact (five extra base hits) and walked a ton of batters (six). That’s usually a recipe for disaster but the Fisher Cats were unable to cash in most of their baserunners and went a combined 4-14 with runners in scoring position. Ultimately the game came down to reliever Carlos Torres who came into the game to pitch the eighth when it was tied at four. His three strikeouts did not come in time to avoid the damage of allowing a pair of doubles that let the Fisher Cats winning run cross home plate.
At the plate Hartford made the most of what few opportunities it was able to create. The team combined for absolutely no extra base hits but still managed to scrape by four runs. They did so with some well sequenced hits and aggressive baserunning. Braylen Wimmer was the standout contributor having reached base three times and had one of the Yard Goats three stolen bases.
High-A: Spokane Indians 5, Vancouver Canadians 3
Spokane never let off the pressure throughout the entire game and eventually it was enough to scrape by a win.
The Canadians pitching staff was not able to get through a single inning without allowing at least one base runner. The Indians lineup collected a combined 13 hits and six walk and somehow managed to only score five runs. Despite all the traffic, a solo Robert Calaz (No. 26 PuRP) home run in the second was the only run Spokane was able to push across home plate until the fifth.
In the fifth Ethan Hedges got things started with a single, Tommy Hopfe was hit by a pitch, and then Derek Bernard loaded the bases with a single of his own. Parker Coddou hit a sacrifice fly to score a go ahead run but Alan Espinal’s double sealed the ultimately winning third and fourth runs.
On the mound Aiden May pitched quite well. May got through five innings with only 71 pitches and allowed only 1 unearned run on four hits. He was relieved by Dylan Brooks who tossed two scoreless before giving way to Seth Clausen who nearly gave up the lead with two runs in just a third of an inning. Thankfully Case Williams was able to shut the door in the final inning and two thirds and earn his first High-A save of the season.
Low-A: Fresno Grizzlies 8, Inland Empire 66ers 7
Fresno got rolling early in this one and but only narrowly avoided being walked off in the ninth.
In the first inning the Grizzlies got out to a two-run lead on the back of a couple of sacrifice hits from Cristian Arguelles (No. 5 PuRP) and Daniel Jackson (No. 12 PuRP). Wilder Dalis (No. 10 PuRP) tacked another run onto that total in the third with his 16th home run of the season. Then came the fourth where doubles from all of Ronny Ugarte, Juan Martinez, and Landyn Vidourek brought the score all the way up to seven. Their final run came in the ninth with Ashley Andujar (No. 30 PuRP) reaching via a double and being driven in by Arguelles.
Luichi Casilla and Austin Newton tag teamed the first seven innings of the game and both performed quite well. Each allowed only a single run in their three plus innings of work. Casilla struck out five and Newton four. Wilmis Paulino who was tasked with closing the door in the ninth, however, hit three batters to load the bases before allowing a grand slam to Yorger Bautista. Thankfully, he as able to record the final two outs and the Grizzlies held onto their one run lead.
MLB teams keep striking partnerships with prediction markets: What happens next? | The Athletic (gift link)
Prediction markets strive to gain market share while the legal system struggles to define whether they are materially different than gambling. Multiple MLB teams have announced lucrative official partnerships with prediction markets after the league as a whole opened the floodgates by partnering with Polymarket in March. The Rockies are not yet among the teams that have signed onto one of these deals but these companies are working quickly to gain as much legitimacy as they can so do not be shocked if they do announce one at some point.
DSL standouts, Rockies prospect Daniel Jackson joins! | Baseball America
Rockies second pick in the 2026 draft Daniel Jackson (No. 12 PuRP) is a guest on this weeks Hot Sheet podcast from Baseball America. Jackson describes the transition from being the golden spikes winner in college into pro-ball, how the technology and developmental plans compare between college and the Rockies minor league system, and his base stealing strategy. The interview with Jackson begins at the 12:20 mark for those only interested in the Rockies-relevant portion of the show.
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