Rockies Reportedly 'Are Frustrated' With Former Star Prospect

It sounds like things are turning sour for someone who was supposed to be a key piece of this Colorado Rockies puzzle.

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The Colorado Rockies need as much talent as possible if they're ever going to come out of this rebuild in a position where they can compete in their division again, let alone the National League.

That puts inherent pressure on them to make the right draft picks and accept the right deals in upcoming trades, as they cannot afford to miss out on game-changing prospects.

The selection of Ethan Holliday helped at No. 4, with many scouts believing he has the highest ceiling out of anyone in this 2025 draft class. Pairing him with 2024 first-round pick Charlie Condon, 2023 first-round pick Chase Dollander, 2022 first-round pick Jordan Beck, 2020 first-round pick Zac Veen and established catching star Hunter Goodman creates a good nucleus alongside some of their other intriguing young players and international signings.

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However, it's their 2019 first-round pick who is not living up to his billing.

Michael Toglia, who showed some real upside during the first part of his professional career when he hit 22 and 30 home runs in his first two full seasons on the farm, hasn't translated that to the bigs.

With a career slash line of .203/.280/.391 to go along with an OPS+ that's 22 points below the league average of 100 through 274 career MLB games, some red flags are starting to get raised.

Toglia looked like he somewhat put things together in 2024 when he hit 25 home runs with 55 RBI and an OPS+ of 102, but he has not followed that up with a good showing this season.

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And according to Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post (subscription required), that is starting to frustrate the Rockies.

"... there is no question that the Rockies are frustrated with him and have been for some time ... The Rockies could put up with all of the Ks if Toglia were hitting homers and driving in runs consistently. But he's not," the insider shared.

Even when the 26-year-old had his breakout performance last season, he still struck out 147 times in 399 at-bats across 116 games, a number that is concerning when paired with a slash line of .218/.311/.456.

But like Saunders said, the boom-or-bust aspect could be lived with if the boom was being provided, which has not been the case this year with him already having 123 strikeouts through 82 games and 290 at-bats with just 10 homers.

Simply put, Toglia is on the verge of being a bust, with his age making it hard for Colorado to be patient and expect major changes to come soon.

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Interim manager Warren Schaeffer said Toglia is working with the coaching staff to try and become more consistent, but the skipper also said "he's taken a little step back" and believes the struggles of the former top prospect are "more mental right now."

This will be something to keep an eye on going forward.

Condon also plays first base, and if he progresses in his career and looks like he could be the future at that position, then there's a real chance the Rockies will have to move on from their 2019 first-round pick in some shape or form.

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