Colorado Rockies Land Late Undesirable Draft Pick Due to MLB Rules

The Rockies won't have the luxury of a high draft slot in the 2026 MLB Draft due to a long-standing MLB rule.

Colorado Rockies hat and glove / Brett Davis-Imagn Images

The new Colorado Rockies braintrust of president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta and general manager Josh Byrnes are looking to make their mark on the beleaguered franchise, but won't have a lofty draft pick at their disposal to help them along in the process.

Despite finishing with an MLB-worst 43-119 record last season, the Rockies were assigned the No. 10 over-all pick in the 2006 MLB Draft. They were ineligible to select within the top six by virtue of a league rule prohibiting teams from doing so in three consecutive seasons. With top-six selections in each of the past two seasons, the No. 10 pick was the highest available to them.

In 2024, Colorado selected outfielder Charlie Condon out of the University of Georgia with the No. 3 pick following a 103-loss season. The next year, they drafted shortstop Ethan Holliday fourth over-all after losing 101 games.

Condon, Holliday Anchor the Future

Top prospect Charlie Condon is a big part of the future for the Colorado Rockies. / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

For now, at least, the future of the Rockies rests on the development of Condon and Holliday, not to mention a promising core of young players already on the big league roster (such as Hunter Goodman and Ezequiel Tovar).

Condon enjoyed a solid 2025 season coming off a right wrist fracture (.268/.376/.444 with 14 home runs and 58 RBI in 99 games) and followed it up with a stellar showing in the Arizona Fall League (.337/.439/.434 with a home run and 13 RBI in 22 games). He could compete for the first base job in Spring Training next year.

Holliday, meanwhile, was named Baseball American's High School Player of the Year in 2025 and will begin his much-anticipated pro career next season.

For Colorado, the one saving grace of being unable to select higher is that the top of the draft is projected to be shortstop-heavy, with college stars Roch Cholowsky (UCLA) and Justin Lebron (Alabama) and high school phenom Grady Emerson expected to be taken early. Holliday gives them a player who can, hopefully, man the position for years to come.

Condon and Holliday currently represent the best of a farm system that has failed to develop high-ceiling talent. In MLB.com's latest prospect rankings, Holliday (No. 19) and Condon (No. 61) are the only Rockies among the top-100. To put that in perspective, the two-time World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers had seven players represented in those same rankings.

Even amidst some recent near-historic losing seasons, Colorado has never held the first overall draft selection. Their highest slot came in 2006, when they took Greg Reynolds with the No. 2 pick. Reynolds flamed out as a starting pitcher in 2008 (2-8 with an 8.13 ERA in 13 starts) and ultimately made 33 forgettable appearances across three seasons in the majors.

DePodesta and Byrnes could certainly still find value in a No. 10 slot that had historically yielded the likes of Madison Bumgarner, Mark McGwire and Tim Lincecum. However, it's not exactly their ideal scenario to kickstart a new era of Rockies' baseball.

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