Two Rockies Prospects Earn Minor League Player of the Year Honors

Baseball American recognized two Colorado Rockies prospects in naming the Minor League Player of the Year at each level.

Colorado Rockies hat on top of a glove. Credit: Michael McLoone-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

With the Colorado Rockies mired in a fourth consecutive 100-loss season, the present in Denver looks rather bleak. The future, however, is another matter entirely.

The Rockies are slowly beginning to show the fruits of a farm system that jumped from No. 27 to No. 16 in MLB Pipeline's mid-season rankings. In fact, the organization now boasts the Minor League Player of the Year at two different levels.

In recognizing a Player of the Year for each level of minor league baseball, Baseball America named outfielder and current major leaguer Zac Veen as the top player at Triple-A and outfielder and No. 5 prospect Cristian Arguelles as the best player in the Arizona Complex League.

Veen and Arguelles Honored by Baseball America

Colorado Rockies outfielder Zac Veen. Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Just days after being named Colorado's Minor League Player of the Year, Veen is being honored with a league-wide designation as the top player at Triple-A.

While Veen has since been promoted to the majors, the 24-year-old played 100 games this season with the Albuquerque Isotopes of the Pacific Coast League. As an Isotope, he slashed a .327/.402/.635 line while hitting 24 home runs and driving in 87 runs. He ranks first in the PCL among qualified hitters in OPS (1.037) and still ranks among the top four in homers.

For Veen, the honor brings yet another facet to what has been a heartwarming redemption story. The ninth overall pick in the 2020 MLB Draft has been candid about his past substance abuse problems and ongoing struggles with sobriety. There will be more challenges ahead - both personal and professional - as he looks to grow into an everyday major leaguer, but staying clean while tearing through minor league pitching is already a huge victory.

While Veen is already six seasons into his minor league journey, Arguelles just debuted in Rookie ball this season and remains only 19 years old. But while the Venezuela native remains raw and isn't projected to reach the majors until 2030, his bat has drawn enough attention to already warrant a top-five prospect ranking.

As part of the Rockies' championship-winning Complex League entry, Arguelles hit for power (nine home runs, 70 RBI and 32 extra-base hits in 57 games) and average (an ACL-record .402 batting average, with a .478 on-base percentage), resulting in a league-best 1.149 OPS. Playing stateside for the first time in his life, he became the third straight Colorado prospect (after Robert Calaz and Roldy Brito) to win ACL MVP honors.

Even with Arguelles' early success, the Rockies aren't expected to rush the young outfielder along. They are currently giving him time to adjust to his recent promotion to Single-A Fresno.

Just as there is young talent breaking through at the major league level in Colorado, Veen and Arguelles have provided an enticing taste of what's to come at various levels of the organization's minor league system. Rockies fans should probably ignore Baseball America's other Minor League Players of the Year recipients, all of whom come from the Los Angeles Dodgers' farm system.