The Colorado Rockies are mercifully done for regular season, and the minor league season is now in the rearview. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t still baseball left to play for the Rockies organization.
Not only are fall instructs taking place at the team’s Arizona Complex in Scottsdale, but the Arizona Fall League will also soon be in full swing.
If you’re not familiar, the Arizona Fall League is a short, offseason league that takes place throughout Arizona at Cactus League spring training
ballparks. The league is made up of six teams:
• Scottsdale Scorpions
• Mesa Solar Sox
• Glendale Desert Dogs
• Peoria Javelinas
• Surprise Saguaros
• Salt River Rafters (the defending champions)
Each of the six rosters are filled out by five MLB Teams, who send a handful of top prospects, farmhands, and other minor leaguers. Often these are players who have missed time or whom their parent organization wants to give an extended look. Major League Baseball describes the Arizona Fall League as the “‘finishing school’ of the minor leagues for players, coaches, umpires and aspiring employees.”
The Rockies send their players to join the Salt River Rafters, who play at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick. This season they will be joined by players from the Arizona Diamondbacks, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Angels, and Pittsburgh Pirates.
Last fall the Rafters finished the Fall League with a 16-14 record and defeated the 18-10 Surprise Saguaros for the league championship.
This year’s Arizona Fall League will begin on Monday, October 6th, 2025, and conclude on Saturday, November 15th, 2025, with the championship game.
For 2025, the Rockies will be sending eight players—five of whom are pitchers—to Arizona, along with one coach and one athletic trainer. Let’s start by introducing the pitchers!
RHP Cade Denton, High-A Spokane Indians (no. 60 PuRP)
The Rockies selected right-handed reliever Cade Denton in the sixth round of the 2023 draft after a dominant career at Oral Roberts University. In three seasons with the Golden Eagles he compiled a 1.86 ERA over 75 appearances and struck out 170 batters across 135 1/3 innings with 22 saves.
Denton utilizes a low arm slot and throws a fastball with uphill angle that ranges from 93-96 MPH at its best and can top out at 99 MPH. He pairs this with a solid low-80s slider and can also throw a changeup.
The 23-year-old posted a 3.63 ERA across the Arizona Complex League, Low-A Fresno, and High-A Spokane last season, but his strikeouts diminished with just 7.5 SO/9 across 39 2/3 innings. He spent all of 2025 on repeat assignment with the High-A Spokane Indians and appears to have found his rhythm once again.
Denton made 42 appearances for the Indians with a 3.73 ERA and 63 strikeouts over 50 2/3 innings of work. He tallied seven saves and his SO/9 jumped to 11.2.
RHP Jack Mahoney, Double-A Hartford Yard Goats (no. 34 PuRP)
Jack Mahoney—a 2023 third round pick out of South Carolina—made 17 starts for the Low-A Fresno Grizzlies last season with a 3.52 ERA and 91 strikeouts over 94 2/3 innings before a late season promotion to High-A Spokane.
The Rockies chose to challenge the 24-year-old starter with an assignment to the Double-A Hartford Yard Goats in 2025.
Over 24 starts with the Yard Goats this season he posted a 5.93 ERA with 81 strikeouts over 104.2 innings and walked 46 batters. Mahoney posted a career low 7.0 SO/9 and often had difficulties getting length in his starts. He made it through six complete innings just twice and more than half of his starts lasted fewer than five innings.
Mahoney’s primary pitches are a low-to-mid 90s sinking fastball, and both a slider and changeup in the mid-80s. He can also throw a cutter and a curveball.
RHP Austin Smith, Double-A Hartford Yard Goats
A new arrival to the Rockies organization this year, right-handed reliever Austin Smith was originally an 18th round pick by the Braves in 2021 from the University of Arizona. The Rockies acquired Smith in exchange for Tyler Kinley at this year’s trade deadline.
The 26-year-old missed most of the 2023 and 2024 seasons after having Tommy John surgery, pitching just 26 total innings in 2024 across three levels. Before being traded, he had posted a 4.31 ERA in 29 appearances across High-A and Double-A. He excelled once arriving at Double-A Hartford following the trade. In 15 appearances and 16 total innings Smith had a 1.69 ERA with 12 strikeouts and tallied four saves for the Yard Goats.
Smith utilizes a fastball-slider combo with a delivery that provides plenty of extension. The fastball can top out at 99 MPH while his slider can generate whiffs.
LHP Ben Shields, Double-A Hartford Yard Goats (no. 55 PuRP)
Another new arrival, the Rockies acquired left-handed starting pitcher Ben Shields from the New York Yankees—along with second base prospect Roc Riggo—in exchange for Jake Bird at the deadline. He was the Yankees’ no. 28 organizational prospect before being traded despite being an undrafted free agent out of George Mason in 2024 due to his advanced age. However, the 26-year-old was a quick riser through the Yankees farm system despite missing time early in the season with a hip injury.
Shields made five starts in Double-A Hartford following the trade, posting a 2.33 ERA through 19 1/3 innings and striking out 24 batters to six walks.
The primary focus for Shields has been his strong breaking pitches. He features a plus curveball in the low-80s and a mid-80s slider that he uses to generate swings and misses. Shields compliments those with a low-90s four seam fastball that has carry and armside run.
LHP Welinton Herrera, Double-A Hartford Yard Goats (no. 21 PuRP)
A 21-year-old Dominican left-handed reliever, Welinton Herrera surged up the prospect rankings this season after a ridiculously dominant start to the season in High-A Spokane.
In his first full season stateside last year, Herrera was solid with a combined 3.47 ERA across 46 appearances, a 1.187 WHIP, and 13.3 SO/9 over 62 1/3 innings. During that time he allowed just 80 total baserunners. However, a lot of the heavy lifting was done in Low-A Fresno where he had a 2.38 ERA over 23 appearances and had a staggering 16.4 SO/9 over 34 innings.
Promoted mid-season to High-A Spokane, Herrera worked to find his footing but simply wasn’t as sharp. His SO/9 dipped to 9.5 and he walked 14 batters with a 4.76 ERA over 23 appearances and 28 1/3 innings.
Herrera quickly proved he had figured things out in a repeat assignment with Spokane this year. In 15 appearances with the Indians he gave up just one earned run on eight hits and six walks for a comically low 0.49 ERA and 0.764 WHIP over 18 1/3 innings. He struck out 14.2 batters per nine innings and tallied ten saves.
He was promoted to Double-A Hartford in May, where he was the youngest member of the Yard Goats pitching staff. Herrera made 37 appearances for the Yard Goats with a 3.50 ERA and struck out 13.9 batters per nine innings over a total of 46.1 innings.
Herrera also represented the Rockies in this year’s All-Star Futures Game, where he recorded the final out and the save in a National League victory.
The Rockies changed things up for Herrera with Hartford. Previously a single inning closer in Spokane, the Yard Goats used him more for both single and multi-inning work in the late innings—especially in the second half of the season where he regularly appeared in the seventh and eighth innings.
Herrera attacks hitters with a fastball-slider combo. His four seam fastball with upwards carry sits between 95 and 97 MPH and he delivers it out of a low three-quarters arm slot. His slider sits in the mid-80s and can drop below barrels, and he also throws a high-80s changeup.
Prospect of the Week!
Although he lost out to New York Mets prospect Jonah Tong, Spokane Indians left-handed starting pitcher Griffin Herring (no. 14 PuRP) was a finalist for Minor League Baseball’s Pitcher of the Year Award! Herring finished his season with a combined 1.89 ERA over 23 starts, seven of which came with the Indians following his acquisition from the Yankees organization.
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