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A Tale of Two Rockies

While it does seem like the org is slowly coming along to the 21^st century for scouting and development, the farm system still leaves a lot to be desired. I will focus on two young Rockies, bringing you up to speed for their 2026. For one prospect, season has been the best of times, it has been the worst of times for the other.

Sterlin Thompson

The left-handed outfielder is in his 4^th full season since being drafted out of Florida.  And he’s started off making this his best one yet. One month into the 2026 season, Thompson is kissing a 3/4/5 slash with a .347/.480/.495 line, good enough for a 151 wRC+. And I’m sure this is a sigh of relief for him so far. Thompson’s never had a bad minor league season, but he’s never had a great one either.

2025 was really good, though. In fact, he still almost had the 3/4/5 line at Triple-A Albuquerque last year. All while hitting a career high 18 homers and striking out less than 21% over the season. But in every statistical facet, ’26 Thompson has kicked it up a notch. Walking almost twice as much (18.1% this year), he’s still only striking out at 21%. His 3 homers may be a little low, but he’s hit 4 doubles in the month, too. An EV of 90.1 MPH is buoyed by a 32% LD rate and a sub 40% GB rate. Year to year his contact rate is staying consistent and his Swinging Strike Rate is an excellent  9%. Like I said, every facet has been outstanding.

Thompson is knocking on the door to the bigs, and we Gurus recognized the improvements he’s making and his proximity. I don’t think he’s going to be an All-Star by any means. But a 4^th or 5^th OF on your 14-teamer roster is a reasonable expectation for his prime years.

Robert Calaz

You don’t have to be part of the Rockies faithful to have noticed this name as absent from our Top 10 Prospect List.  And you don’t have to be a prospect hound to know why we chose to leave him off.

I won’t bury the lede on my Calaz breakdown. He’s a big boy with grown man power. And unfortunately with those traits, we also know that his kryptonite is swing and miss. With 91 plate appearnces in 2026 Calaz has struck out 32 times. Worse than that, his swinging strike rate is an unsustainable 22% with a 59% contact rate.

The Rockies challenged Calaz this year and assigned him to High-A Spokane. Last season, he hit 10 homers in 100 games at Single-A Fresno. His K-rate then was 26% with a more manageable 15% SwSt%. As is evident from the worsening trend in his contact rates, Calaz is not benefiting from the aggressive assignment this year. In fact, his one strength (his strength ha) has evaporated this year as well. He’s tallied one homer so far this spring with a SLG of .341. His nearly 60% groundball rate doesn’t help and shows that he’s likely making weak contact on the times when he hasn’t whiffed.

Of course, it’s only been a month and his power could reemerge. It’s tough to fully give up on a player this early but outside of leagues with 300+ prospects rostered, I’m afraid it’s time to find someone better performing than Robert Calaz.

Chris Knock