The Colorado Rockies appear to have put the youth movement on pause.

It may not be the most fun news for the fans and media, hoping for an ounce of excitement after years of drudgery, but it is almost certainly the wise thing to do in the long term.

Colorado will carry almost exactly the roster I predicted when Spring Training started and the one that makes the most sense from a standard, structural perspective. They do this despite the fantastic performance of several prospects who performed well enough to illicit public statements suggesting they might be in uniform on Opening Day.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about this scenario was that those statements were made at all, prompting many to believe that it was inevitable that particularly Chase Dollander and Zac Veen would make the team. But when you back up a bit at take a look at all of the relevant facts, that was far from a foregone conclusion.

Veen started spring hot and ended up leading the Rockies in several categories but sizzled out a bit as he started to face more and more MLB regulars and also posted a strikeout rate of 30 percent. All of that is still only minimally relevant though.

The fact is that Veen was going to need to have an incredible, Trevor Story-esque Spring Training in order to make it. Back in 2016, Story posted an absolutely remarkable line of .340/.407/.792 for an OPS of 1.199, earning himself a job. This also came after a season in which the shortstop had played 130 games, making 576 plate appearances.

While Veen has been pretty good in 2025, he hasn’t been anywhere near that level, producing a line of .274/.357/.468 for an OPS of .825 and a wRC+ of 115. So his bat has been roughly 15 percent above the league average. That’s good, but it isn’t exactly breaking down the door to the Bigs good. The biggest reason for hesitation with Veen, though, is that he has precious little time at the higher levels of the minors. In 2023, injuries kept him to just 46 games at the Double-A level and again in 2024 his health allowed him to make only 65 starts across two levels. 

He has made a grand total of 471 plate appearances in the last two years and only 92 of those at the Triple-A level. Furthermore, his wRC+ during those 92 plate appearances is just 79, giving quite a bit of credence to the notion that he could use a little more seasoning before being rushed to the big leagues. These stats are way more valuable than Spring Training stats, though we do tend to collectively forget that this time of year.

Meanwhile, as Veen was finding less success against better pitching as spring rolled along, Jordan Beck was recovering from his slow start and quietly mashing four homers, stealing six bags, and posting a wRC+ of 92. 

Better than both of them, however, has been the lost man in all of this, Sean Bouchard.

Bouchard doesn’t have the same hype as most of the Rockies young outfielders but he has managed a 115 wRC+ across 79 games at the MLB level and has been destroying this spring with a wRC+ of 157. He brings a steadiness and patience to the plate that has been rare for this team to find over the years. 

Both Beck and Bouchard have more than earned their chance at an everyday role and both have already had the clocks started on their MLB careers, now with experience under their belts to hope to build on. It’s fun to dream on the potential of guys who have 0 at-bats in MLB but not a good idea to bury guys with promising beginnings to make way for them. 

Nobody outside of maybe the Rockies brass is going to be excited to see Nick Martini take at-bats but history as recent as the player they just traded, Nolan Jones, or even Beck himself proves that if Veen just goes about the job of getting it done in the minors for a month, he will punch his ticket to Denver soon. 

As much as it can be a nice honor to make the Opening Day roster, and as much as it can be a bit of a bummer to be so close, perform so well, and still not make it, the 2025 season for Zac Veen, Chase Dollander, and every other Colorado Rockies prospect isn’t about where or how they start.

It’s about where and how they finish.