SCOTTSDALE -- Jack O’Dowd didn’t play Friday, and the Arizona Fall League had its own reason for slowing him down: a scheduled day off for him and the Salt River Rafters.
That break came after a scorching run. O’Dowd, 25, has reached base in nine of his 10 Fall League games and is hitting .350/.381/.825 with five home runs and 12 RBIs. Over his last three games alone, he put together the league’s first multi-homer performance, collected three hits and three RBIs in another game, then added yet another home run the next day.
His biggest burst came Tuesday, when he went deep twice and drove in three in an 11-10 loss at Peoria. He followed that with a three-hit night Wednesday in a 7-5 win at Scottsdale, including two doubles, and homered again Thursday in a 15-8 loss to Scottsdale at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick.
“A lot of it is the consistency of a day in and day out approach -- it ultimately leads to many days getting stacked on top of each other that are good,” O’Dowd said. “That’s what leads to this feeling of being hot and locked in. it’s really just having joy every day.”
The production has matched a year that already sent O’Dowd’s stock climbing. He went undrafted out of the University of Texas in 2024, then used a 22-homer season at independent Billings last year to earn a shot with the Rockies - the same organization that once had his father, Dan O’Dowd, as general manager.
During the minor league season, O’Dowd kept moving and kept hitting. He batted .345 with seven homers and 25 RBIs in 22 games at Single-A Fresno, then followed that by hitting .359 with nine homers and 25 RBIs in 34 games at High-A Spokane. After a promotion to Double-A Hartford on July 1, he homered in his debut and finished there at .254 with seven homers and 28 RBIs in 51 games.
That jump in competition gave him exactly the kind of read he wanted heading into the Fall League. O’Dowd said he learned that the top-of-the-zone fastballs he crushed in A-ball didn’t come as easily once the arms got tougher, and he pointed to timing and swing efficiency as areas that mattered more against better pitching.
“There were times where guys just executed really well and just beat me, which is part of the game,” O’Dowd said in between hitting sessions while preparing for the start of the Fall League. “Also, there were times when my swing was just a little longer.
I wasn’t moving quite as efficiently. With how fast the game moves now, if you’re not moving the right way, it’s really hard to cover that pitch.”
Rockies Minor League hitting coordinator Nic Wilson said O’Dowd’s progression never looked like a fluke to the organization. In Wilson’s view, Double-A was a test, not a dead end, and O’Dowd had already shown the right response after a difficult final year at Texas.
“The story is great, but the person is better,” Wilson said. “This guy showed up the first day of Spring Training ready to work and was, like, ‘How can we get better?’
Open ears. We threw a lot of stuff at him early in camp to figure out what the strengths and weaknesses were.
“He had a really good relationship with [hitting coach] Greg Jones in Fresno. That was important.
They hit on things that Jack still does in the cage to this day. He was touched by all three coaches, including Tyler Ladendorf at Spokane and Zach Osborne at Hartford.”
In Arizona, O’Dowd has kept that same open mind. The Trajekt Arc, the pitching machine that can mimic specific pitchers, has helped him prepare for Fall League opponents, and he’s also leaned on the people around him. Yankees shortstop prospect Dax Kilby, No. 78 overall prospect per MLB Pipeline, has been a sounding board, while coaches in the Rockies setup and others around the Rafters have also offered advice.
Playing time at first base increased during the season, and he has seen some action there in the Fall League, but catching remains a major focus. Rockies No. 20 prospect Sean Sullivan, a lefty with the Rafters, has helped in that area.
For O’Dowd, this stretch has been part production, part education. The year began with him as one of the older players in Fresno and has now taken him into a setting filled with top prospects and players with Major League experience. That mix has given him a broader view of where he fits next.
“When I was an older guy at the lower levels, it provided me a good opportunity to teach some of these younger guys,” he said. “I've been through a lot of ups and downs, and to show what could be coming from an adversity standpoint or just how to approach every day was good.”