This Week in Purple: Rockies young catchers are ready to make an impact in 2026

Feb 25, 2026; Mesa, Arizona, USA; Colorado Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman (15) makes the play for an out against the Chicago Cubs in the first inning at Sloan Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images | Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images In 2025, the Rockies started off the year with catchers Jacob S

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In 2025, the Rockies started off the year with catchers Jacob Stallings and Hunter Goodman. The veteran Stallings was in his 10th MLB season, and Goodman was in just his third. However, ultimately, 2025 ended up bring not only Goodman’s first full year in MLB, but it was also his first full year catching.

Braxton Fulford eventually emerged, as well, after making his MLB debut on April 16, and finished the season in tandem with Goodman after Stallings was released in June.

Goodman obviously had a career

year with an All-Star selection and Silver Slugger award and is looking to build on that, but Fulford is also planning to take the next step in his own career in 2026.

Everyone learned something in 2025 — including myself — but both Fulford and Goodman learned valuable lessons that will carry them into 2026.

“It’s the same game” Fulford said of his biggest lesson. “Just go out there, play hard, and trust your abilities because you’re there for a reason.”

Goodman echoed that, but also added this.

“Even when you have a good season, there’s a lot of rough patches where you go through things and you try and figure things out, so just trying to stay level-headed through all of it,” Goodman said.

“And I think as a team, we learned a lot. We had a lot of young guys play last year and get a chance to get their feet wet. And I’m still young, too, so [it was] good getting that first full season and catching them was really good. So I think we learned a lot and we’re going to go into this year trying to win some baseball games.”

They focused on different things in the offseason. For Goodman, is was about improving himself behind the plate.

“I had a lot of focus on the stuff behind the plate,” he said. “Some receiving stuff, cleaning up some of my throwing. My throwing was pretty poor. It was pretty poor throwing to bases last year, so [I’m] trying to figure some of that stuff out.“

For Fulford, it was more about working both behind the plate and in front of it.

“[I did] a little bit of swing work, just trying to make things more efficient there,” he said. “Catching work, same thing. Trying to clean up different areas that I thought had been better – receiving, throwing. I think a lot of areas felt good last year, so [I’m] just trying to build on those and then clean up different areas that I was inefficient.”

In addition to their own personal work, they — like the rest of the team — are getting used to the new changes the Rockies made to their coaching staff and front office. But they’re excited to see what’s next.

“I love it!” Fulford said.

“There’s a lot of good energy, new ways of thinking, and new ways of doing things.”

He added, “Pitchers have a lot of resources that they can use to improve their arsenals, to make adjustments where they saw deficiencies last year. Same thing with the catchers. We’re going about things differently so that we can get our pitchers in the zone, so that we can attack hitters early offensively. We have more resources there, as well, a whole different way of thinking in regards to the offensive part of the game, too.”

Fulford said, “Specially on the pitching side, we’re getting ahead and staying ahead. We’re not going to worry so much about pinpoint accuracy as we are throwing strikes with a lot of pitches and throwing our best stuff. [We’re] not just trying to throw the perfect location.”

Goodman echoed the “good energy” and said he’s excited to work with both the new and returning coaches.

“I like the hitting coaches,” he said. “Obviously, [Jordan] Pacheco is back from last year and then Brett [Pill]’s been awesome so far. And then just seeing how the pitching coaches are working with the pitchers and how they’re talking to me. I’m just excited going forward. I think the new staff is very open-minded to try new things in Denver, which I think will be good.”

Heading into 2026, both have similar goals.

For Goodman, it’s about “staying healthy and coming out of camp ready to play.”

For Fulford, it’s “want[ing] to put my skills on display, go out there and play hard because I know I’m more than capable of being an everyday catcher.”