Jack Mahoney’s climb to Triple-A Albuquerque came on the back of a simple but important shift: he stopped pitching like a hard thrower and started working more like a pitcher.
The 25-year-old right-hander repeated Double-A Hartford this season and made the most of the second look. In 13 Eastern League starts, Mahoney went 7-1 with 64 strikeouts and 24 walks across 68 innings. His July was especially sharp - a 1.65 ERA in 32.2 innings - and that stretch earned him the promotion.
“There’s just more craft to what he’s doing at this point . . .,” Rockies assistant farm director Jesse Stender said. “I think at the end of the day, he’s becoming a pitcher instead of just a big-time thrower.”
Stender said Hartford manager Robinson Cancel, pitching coach Jerry Sullivan and catchers Bryant Betancourt and Cole Messina helped get Mahoney to a better place mentally and tactically. Betancourt was promoted to Albuquerque at the end of June, while Messina was Mahoney’s college teammate at South Carolina.
“really got him to a place where he understands how good he is,” Stender said. “And now he’s confident in his abilities, and he’s using his arsenal right.”
Mahoney, a third-round pick in 2023, has leaned more heavily on a two-seam fastball this year to go with his four-seamer. Both pitches sit at 95 mph, and he can touch 97 when he needs it.
Behind those fastballs, he mixes in a cutter, slider and curveball. Stender said all three are average pitches that project to solid-average, though they can flash better on any given night. Mahoney has also gone to his changeup more often against left-handed hitters this season, another sign of progress.
“But it all starts with the two fastballs,” Stender said. “Commanding them.
Moving (batters’) feet. Getting guys off the plate.
(Using) all four quadrants and then the putaways” with the cutter, curveball and slider.
The biggest difference, Stender said, has been Mahoney’s ability to keep a bad inning from turning into a wreck.
“We’ve never questioned whether he can throw strikes, because he has decent command,” Stender said. “It was just a matter of using the right pitches in the right spots and ultimately not letting outings spiral. We saw that a lot last year.
“He would get punched in the mouth and wouldn’t punch back. This year, if he has early struggles or somebody clips him for a home run, it’s like, ‘So what?
On to the next (hitter).’ “
Elsewhere in the system, outfielder Alessander De La Cruz’s season in the Arizona Complex League ended early after he broke his left wrist on July 20 in a collision with the wall. He missed the final three games and the playoffs.
In 46 games, the 20-year-old hit .372/.495/.628 with six home runs and 41 RBI. Had he stayed healthy, De La Cruz would have been promoted to Low-A Fresno after the Rockies won the ACL championship, along with outfielder Cristian Arguelles, first baseman Ronny Ugarte, shortstop Sebastian Blanco, lefthander Luichi Casilla and righthanders Wilmis Paulino and Sandy Ozuna.
De La Cruz quite likely will start the 2027 season at Fresno.
Right-hander Brody Brecht, 23, had exploratory surgery on July 31 after a right shoulder impingement limited him to seven starts at High-A Spokane and no appearances after May 15. The Rockies drafted Brecht 38th overall in 2024 out of Iowa.
Three pitchers moved up from Spokane to Hartford: lefthander Bryson Hammer, 24; right-hander Hunter Mann, 24; and right-hander Nathan Blasick, 25. Hammer, a 2023 12th-round pick out of Dallas Baptist, went 6-6 with a 4.34 ERA in 20 games, including 14 starts, and worked 85 innings while averaging 9.9 strikeouts and 4 walks per nine innings.
Mann, a 2023 14th-round pick out of Tennessee Tech, went 3-3 with a 4.09 ERA and five saves in 30 games, logging 57.2 innings with 9.5 strikeouts and 3.8 walks per nine innings. Blasick, a 2024 19th-round pick out of the University of New Orleans, posted a 10-3 record with a 3.10 ERA and six saves in 27 games, averaging 10 strikeouts and 3.5 walks per nine innings over 49.1 innings.
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