The Colorado Rockies have spent this season living through the misery of a fourth straight 100-loss campaign, but the organization’s minor league pipeline is starting to tell a very different story.
Baseball America’s latest round of Player of the Year honors put that on display in a big way. Colorado now has the top player at two separate levels of the minors: outfielder Zac Veen was named the Triple-A winner, while outfielder Cristian Arguelles took home the Arizona Complex League honor.
Veen’s award lands only days after he was recognized as Colorado’s Minor League Player of the Year, and it adds another layer to a season that already felt like a breakthrough. The 24-year-old spent 100 games with the Albuquerque Isotopes in the Pacific Coast League before reaching the majors, and he tore through that level with a .327/.402/.635 slash line, 24 home runs and 87 RBI. Among qualified PCL hitters, he finished first in OPS at 1.037 and remained among the league’s top four home run hitters.
For Veen, the accomplishment is also tied to a much bigger personal arc. The ninth overall pick in the 2020 MLB Draft has been open about past substance abuse issues and his ongoing fight to stay sober. He still has a long way to go as he tries to become an everyday major leaguer, but his performance and his ability to stay clean while dominating minor league pitching stand out as meaningful wins.
Arguelles is at the other end of the timeline. He only made his rookie-ball debut this season and is still just 19, which is part of why the Rockies are taking things slowly with him. The Venezuela native is not projected to reach the majors until 2030, but the bat has already forced its way into the conversation.
In 57 games for Colorado’s championship-winning Complex League team, Arguelles produced impact in every direction. He hit nine home runs, drove in 70 runs and piled up 32 extra-base hits, while also posting an ACL-record .402 batting average and a .478 on-base percentage. That translated to a league-best 1.149 OPS and made him the third straight Rockies prospect, following Robert Calaz and Roldy Brito, to win ACL MVP honors.
Colorado has since moved Arguelles up to Single-A Fresno, where the focus is on adjustment rather than acceleration.
Taken together, Veen and Arguelles give the Rockies something they haven’t had much of lately: a convincing look at the talent coming behind the big-league roster. And while Baseball America’s other Minor League Player of the Year winners all came from the Los Angeles Dodgers system, Colorado has its own pair of headliners to celebrate.
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