Topes Notes: Will the Isotopes be seeing an influx young prospects next season?

Looking ahead for a Minor League Baseball team means first looking at the top.

In the case of the Isotopes, that means the Colorado Rockies, holders of the worst record in Major League Baseball, who on Sunday matched a franchise record for losses in a season with 103.

Former Isotopes manager Warren Schaeffer, the Rockies’ interim manager since the May in-season ouster of Bud Black, isn’t sugar-coating the state of the franchise.

“Realistic isn’t always positive, right?” Schaeffer said Sunday according to MLB.com. “Realistically, what are the Rockies today? The Rockies are a young team that is pushing every night to win ballgames and learning, and never giving in and moving forward to someday, hopefully soon in the near future, being a winning ballclub.”

The Rockies are the youngest team in MLB. And if you look at the minors, and the ’Topes specifically, it’s clear the Triple-A team isn’t where a lot of the organization’s top prospects currently reside.

According to MLB Pipeline — the league’s source for minor league prospect coverage — the top-rated prospect in the Rockies organization currently with the Isotopes is OF Zac Veen, who checks in at No. 12 in the organizational rankings and has been up and back down with the Rockies this season.

Colorado is one of only three (of 30) MLB teams whose top Triple-A prospect ranks lower than No. 8 in their organizational rankings: Rockies (No. 12, Veen), Washington Nationals (No. 13, OF Christian Franklin) and the Seattle Mariners (No. 29, OF Victor Labrada). In fact, the average organizational ranking of the top Triple A prospect for those other 27 teams is 3.3.

But few of Colorado’s top prospects are currently on this Isotopes roster, and that could mean there may be a lot of highly rated, but young, players who find their way to Albuquerque in 2026.

Don’t count among them, though, SS Ethan Holliday, the recent first-round draft pick who at 18 years old is the organization’s No. 1 prospect. He’s not expected to be a Triple-A level player for a couple seasons.

Some on the MLB Pipeline list whose “ETA” for the big leagues is 2026, making Albuquerque a likely stop first, include No. 2 prospect 1B/OF Charlie Condon, No. 3 OF/SS Cole Carrigg, No. 11 2B Roc Riggio and No. 13 RHP Sean Sullivan.

That list doesn’t even include four current Isotopes on the Rockies’ Top 30: No. 12 Veen, and Nos. 14-16, LHP Carson Palmquist, RHP Gabriel Hughes and OF Sterlin Thompson, respectively.

Know the foe...

The Isotopes head south for a six-game Pacific Coast League series against the El Paso Chihuahuas Tuesday through Sunday:

• Isotopes, Triple-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, 57-80 overall, ninth place; 26-37 second half, ninth place.
• El Paso Chihuahuas, Triple-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres, 73-64 overall, fourth place; 35-27 second half, third place.

Three up, three down...

Looking good:

1. Last Tuesday, SS Jose Torres had the third multi-homer game of his career, driving in four runs. He had 11 total bases last week and on Monday was named the team’s Player of the Week.

2. 2B Owen Miller has 26 RBIs since Aug. 16, the second-most in affiliated professional baseball during the span, three behind Toledo’s Eduardo Valencia.

3. OF Sterlin Thompson had two hits and two walks Sunday and carries a 25-game on-base streak into this week’s road series in El Paso.

Look away:

1. The Isotopes never get shut out at home. Well, almost never.

Round Rock’s 3-0 win last Wednesday marked the Isotopes’ first home shutout since June 30, 2022, a span of 254 home games.

2. Sunday wasn’t great for relievers LHP Carson Skipper and LHP Lucas Gilbreath.

Skipper allowed four earned runs after allowing just two with the team previously (eight appearances, 15 1/3 innings). Gilbreath surrendered an eighth- inning home run to Abimelec Ortiz, the ninth homer off Gilbreath this season, tied for fifth-most by a PCL reliever.

3. Sunday’s 8-3 loss to Round Rock split the series, 3-3, and means the Isotopes have not won a series against Round Rock since taking three of four games Aug. 26-29, 2013.

Jarring!

One of the most stunning upsets in sports history is nearly complete. With just six home games remaining, Salsa Jar holds an astonishing three-race lead over the field in the hotly contested chile race at Isotopes Park.

Standings through 68 races:

21 wins — Salsa Jar

18 wins — Green Chile

15 wins — Taco

14 wins — Red Chile

Next home game

The Isotopes return home for their final home stand of the 2025 season on Tuesday, Sept. 16, when they host Reno.