Like many hot-shot prospects, Zac Veen figured he’d rocket to the big leagues.
Instead, once rated as the 29th overall prospect by MLB Pipeline, the 22-year-old outfielder has ridden a roller coaster.
Maybe that’s a good thing.
“There’s a blessing in this somewhere,” Veen said. “It all depends where you look.”
The Rockies selected Veen with the ninth overall pick in the 2020 draft out of Florida’s Spruce Creek High School. Armed with speed and power, the left-handed hitter was projected to become the next big thing at Coors Field.
Instead, four years and one major surgery later, Veen is getting a do-over at Double-A Hartford. Only this time, the No. 93 prospect is raking. A promotion to Triple-A Albuquerque appears likely, and his major league debut could be within reach late this season.
“When he’s walking to the plate now, you can see his confidence; you can see his purpose,” farm director Chris Forbes said.
Veen entered the weekend hitting .341, tops in the pitching-rich Eastern League, with a 1.027 OPS (second), five home runs and nine steals in 10 attempts.
“Feeling healthy is definitely the first step to being confident,” Veen said during a phone interview. “If I’m healthy and feeling good, I’m a pretty good player.”
And he’s a smarter, more mature young man, too.
“There is usually a mental reset for young players,” Forbes said. “Often, they haven’t failed yet, and when then they do, it’s usually a struggle at Double-A.”
For one thing, the competition improves at Double-A. For another, the major leagues seem tantalizingly close.
“It’s very easy for players to drop their name into Google and see what people are talking about,” Forbes said. “They get caught up in that instead of trying to stay present and just play the game.
“Once they get called up to Double-A, they’re on the radar of the big-league club. So it’s only natural to keep looking at Albuquerque and, more importantly, the big leagues. Maybe they play general manager a little bit too much vs. staying present and focusing on the three of four at-bats they have going on that night. In Zac’s case, I think it helped him get a little bit of a mental reset after carrying such a heavy load.”
Veen’s rise was meteoric. In 2021 at Low-A Fresno, he slashed .301/.399/.501 with 15 homers, 27 doubles and 25 RBIs. He began 2022 at High-A Spokane and hit 11 homers in 92 games. He stole 50 bases, getting caught just four times.
He got two hits in the All-Star Futures Game at Dodger Stadium and later shone in the 2022 Arizona Fall League, where he was named the offensive player of the year. He hit .333 with six doubles and 16 stolen bases.
But something was missing. Veen wasn’t driving the ball as he used to, and home runs were scarce. After his promotion to Double-A at the end of the ’22 season, Veen hit just one homer and batted .177 in 34 games.
There was a big reason why Veen didn’t look like Veen.
Unbeknownst to the Rockies, he was dealing with a wrist injury he sustained while diving for a ball in the outfield while playing for Spokane just two weeks before the 2022 All-Star break. He thought he could play through the pain. Indeed, he thought he was supposed to play through pain.
But last year, in his second stint at Hartford, Veen hit .209 with two home runs and 24 RBIs in 46 games in a season that he and the Rockies hoped would feature his major league debut. In mid-June, he underwent left wrist surgery to repair a severely frayed tendon.
Veen realizes now that he should have been more forthcoming about his wrist.
“I was talking to one of my buddies about this just the other day,” Veen said. “If I had a time machine, I definitely would go back and do some things differently. I would have taken care of (the injury) the day it happened. The reality of it is that I can’t do that. All I can do is learn from it.”
Forbes said that many young players struggle to learn the difference between playing through aches and pains and coming to terms with an injury.
“It’s such a fine line,” he said. “There’s a difference between taking a knee because you have a hangnail or because you stub your toe, as opposed to something that is really an injury and is affecting you performance-wise.
“Some guys get a little bit leery of telling us about injuries because they want to play and they know they are being evaluated on their performance. For Zac, it was something he was clearly worried about, but he wasn’t open to talking about it to our trainers. That’s one of the lessons he’s learned; one of the boxes he needed to check off.”
It’s been a cold, wet, gloomy spring in the Eastern League, but Veen is embracing his minor league journey differently these days. Sitting out of baseball for eight months while his wrist healed provided perspective.
“When you don’t play the game for a long time, you start to notice things that you wouldn’t if you were playing,” Veen said. “It gave me a different perception and a different perspective on a lot of different things. It allowed me to grow my relationship with my teammates, too. I’m having more fun.”
Rockies Gold Glove center fielder Brenton Doyle played with Veen briefly at Hartford in 2022, and although Veen struggled, Doyle saw flashes of his talent.
“He’s a very energetic player, and that can be contagious,” Doyle said. “When he first came up to Double-A, he was a very good listener and I would try to give him some tips, especially with outfield defense. He’s a quick learner. I’m glad to see him playing so well right now.”
Veen never doubted he’d rebound.
“Even though some of the numbers weren’t what I or some other people wanted, I have always known what kind of a player I am and where I come from,” he said. “I really do believe I can achieve some great things. I’ve never doubted myself for a second.”
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