Charlie Condon spent much of this season answering a question he never controlled: when the Rockies would finally bring him to Denver. But the real progress happened in Albuquerque, where the 23-year-old top prospect finally got what injuries had kept stealing from him - a full year of baseball.
That alone changed the shape of his 2026 case. Condon appeared in 130 games for Triple-A Albuquerque, more than his previous two minor league seasons combined, and the production followed. He finished among the Pacific Coast League leaders in home runs with 27, extra-base hits with 59, slugging at .514 and OPS at .904.
Still, Condon made it clear he wasn’t spending his time lobbying the front office.
“I haven’t really communicated with anybody from the front office since Spring Training,” Condon said. “They kind of just send you out.
I knew what I needed to do this year. I think the whole world knows what I need to do to get up to Denver, which is where I’m hoping to play some baseball next year.
“They made it clear to me in Spring Training what they were looking for from me, and the situation. You know, they’ve got their hands full during the season.”
The Rockies, who have now dropped into a fourth straight season of triple-digit losses, never rushed the timeline. Condon remains off the 40-man roster, and the club does not have to make that call until next December.
Instead, Colorado kept giving Major League looks to other right-handed bats at Condon’s spots, including first baseman TJ Rumfield, who played well enough to enter the National League Rookie of the Year conversation, plus outfielders Jordan Beck and Sterlin Thompson. Beck and left-handed-hitting Zac Veen have been handling outfield reps late in the season.
For Condon, the biggest gain may have been mental. He dealt with two notable slumps, first from April 9 to May 5, when he hit .194 with two homers over 20 games, and again from July 4 to 31, when he batted .222 without a home run in 16 games. The dips were part of the grind, but they also became part of the education.
“It’s just what I’ve been talking to the coaches about here -- you go through a rough patch, then it feels like you come out a little sharper than previously,” Condon said. “To have a couple of waves - hot streaks and then some colder ones -- each time you get into the groove again, you learn more about yourself.”
Albuquerque manager Pedro Lopez saw the same thing, but he also saw a player who needed to step back. During the first slump, Lopez tried to force a reset by giving Condon a day off and telling him to stay out of the batting cage. Then he found him working anyway.
“I brought him into my office and asked him, ‘What do you do when you go home?’” Lopez said.
“He goes, ‘I watch baseball.’ I said, ‘What do you think about?
He said, ‘I think baseball.’
“I told him, ‘For me, I don’t think you can think about baseball 24/7. That’s the wrong way to go about it. Your mind needs a break from time to time.'"
Lopez said Condon is a strong golfer, though he mostly avoided the clubs during the season. He also got better at doing something simple but important: watching a movie and letting baseball leave his head for a while.
That balance showed up in how he processed the game. Albuquerque hitting coach Matt Snyder said Condon embraced the strategic side and understood the value of putting himself in pressure spots.
“He’s a smart kid who takes that stuff and runs with it -- he likes the game-planning and the strategy stuff and understands that to reach the next level he’ll have to put himself in leverage situations,” Snyder said. “Actually seeing him put things together, seeing a lot of that stuff mesh was cool to watch.”
The best example came Sept. 6, when Condon delivered one of the loudest games of his season: two grand slams, nine RBIs, a 4-for-5 night and a double in Albuquerque’s 10-6 home win over Tacoma.
And even then, he didn’t waste energy wishing it had happened in Denver.
“You’re going to be where your feet are because that’s how it works. You can’t just will yourself out of a place.
Nothing I could do or think," Condon said. "I couldn’t snap my fingers to get me to where I want to be.
I just locked in on what I could do to be the best player for the Isotopes, to help them win.”
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