Get to know Zac Veen: The perpetually smiling Rockies prospect is making his Isotopes debut this week

The bat does its job before Zac Veen ever steps inside the batter’s box.

As he’s done since sometime around his high school playing days, right before he starts taking a few practice cuts to warm up in the batter’s box, Veen flips his bat and uses one end of it to draw a smiley face in the dirt.

It has nothing to do with baseball strategy.

It has everything do with perspective.

“I’ve always loved the idea of it,” Veen said when asked about his affinity for smiley faces — be it the batter’s box variety, the happy face hanging from a gold chain around his neck, the happy face leg tattoo or even the one he seems to wear on his face every day.

“I think there’s always been a little bit of a deeper meaning for me. I think I’ve definitely gone through a lot of hard times in my life and always just smiled through it. That’s kind of what it means to me. These injuries, same thing. (Just) smiling my way through it.”

The 22-year-old outfielder making his Triple-A debut this week for the Albuquerque Isotopes has long been considered one of the key — a couple years ago some may have argued THE key — piece of the Rockies’ future since being drafted No. 9 overall in 2020 out of Spruce Creek High School in Port Orange, Florida.

Despite his relatively young age, there are some who feel Veen’s journey from high school phenom to first Triple-A call-up was too slow.

Veen was, after all, ranked by some as the top high school baseball prospect in the country when he was drafted and landed a $5 million signing bonus. He was at one point the organization’s No. 1 prospect and top 20 in all of baseball.

The 6-foot-4, 190-pounder went 2-for-3 with two stolen bases in the 2022 All-Star Futures Game played in Dodger’s Stadium in Los Angeles (all while wearing one cleat painted with a Rockies theme and the other yellow with smiley faces and a “positive vibes” message). He measures out as one of the more versatile, all-around five tool prospects in the game in the past several years.

Veen is now the Rockies’ No. 4 prospect according to MLB Pipeline. The urgency is starting to pick up a little bit to see him become a regular in the Big Leagues maybe as early as next season.

“I want to be there as soon as possible,” Veen admits, “... but right now I’m just trying to take it all in from the vets and the guys who have been in the show already (who are here in Albuquerque). Just trying to gather as much info from them as I can.”

The organization fully believes he can still reach his full potential.

First, he was drafted during a season when Minor League Baseball was shut down for COVID, forcing him to spend a usually transformative year for any draftee, but especially a teenager drafted out of high school, away from coaches and daily training.

No worries, he says.

“I think everything always works out for a reason,” Veen said of being drafted in that COVID season. “I think that taught me to be a little bit more patient, which I’m still working on this day. And there’s always a silver lining.”

Then came the injuries.

Veen tried playing through the 2022 season with a left wrist injury that the organization now says adversely affected his swing mechanics. In June 2023, surgery on that wrist ended the season after just 46 games. This season, in addition to the recovery from the wrist surgery, there have been back and thumb injuries slowing the progress.

He’s not going to dwell on it.

“Mentally, I feel healthy. One hundred percent,” Veen said. “Physically, I mean your body’s gonna deal with some stuff. And it’s easier for me mentally to say that I’m healthy and maybe have some aches and pains going on, but I’m good. I’m good, I’m ready to go.”

Wednesday, he suited up for the fourth time with the Isotopes knowing his baseball goals are all still very much in front of him. He just has to approach it with the right mindset.

“I’m just grateful to be playing again, grateful to be playing with my teammates and coaches here,” Veen said. “... I think everybody knows my ultimate goal, and as well as everybody else I’m playing with’s goal. So (I’m) just having fun every day.”