Kyle Karros: Rockies 2025 Minor League Player Of The Year
Third baseman Kyle Karros, impressive in his first big league camp, hit two home runs—the second a walk-off—on Opening Day for Double-A Hartford. He continued that trajectory and made his major league debut on Aug. 8 with the Rockies.
Karros earned MVP honors in the High-A Northwest League last year and won a minor league Gold Glove. He has a strong, accurate arm, nimble feet and moves well, particularly for someone who is 6-foot-5.
Karros was hitting .333 with a .960 OPS at Hartford when he fouled a ball off his right knee on May 2 and suffered a painful contusion. It was June 3 when he rejoined Hartford.
“The injury kind of set him back a little bit,” Rockies assistant farm director Jesse Stender said, “but he got back at it, forced his way up to Triple-A and obviously the rest is history now.”
Karros hit .294/.399/.462 in 55 games for Hartford with four home runs. The Rockies promoted him in mid-July to Triple-A Albuquerque, where he hit .306/.368/.500 in 16 games with two home runs.
Trading third baseman Ryan McMahon to the Yankees on July 25 created an opportunity for Karros, a fifth-round pick out of UCLA in 2023. His father Eric had a long, productive MLB career and remains a resource regarding hitting or anything else about the game.
After 34 games with the Rockies, Karros was hitting .232/.298/.295 with one home run. The Rockies expect that the 23-year-old will tap into the power he shows in batting practice.
A hard worker with leadership skills, Karros speaks Spanish well enough to converse with Latino players in their native language. He holds teammates and himself accountable.
“He’s just a cut above,” Stender said. “He’s just very mature for his age, very advanced. Great self-awareness. Understands where he is, where he needs to get better, what he does well, how he can help the team.
“So a lot of (his attributes) are the intangibles to go along with a plus defender and a guy who will continue to come into his own at the plate.”
Rocky Roads
— Righthander Jackson Cox was scheduled to go to instructional league for seven days to learn a slider or a cutter, if that’s the pitch he adapts to better. Either will be a fourth pitch to go with his fastball, curveball and changeup. Cox, 22, missed the entire 2024 season after having Tommy John surgery in July 2023. He went 4-6, 3.39 while averaging 9.7 strikeouts and 2.7 walks per nine innings in 23 starts for Low-A Fresno but was ramping up and didn’t pitch the five innings needed for a win until July 9. Beginning in May, Cox went 4-3, 2.31 in 19 starts. He reached season highs in innings (six) and pitches (92) in his final start Sept. 4. “I’m really looking forward to adding a fourth pitch to my arsenal, especially having it going into the offseason,” said Cox, a second-round pick in 2022 out of Toutle Lake (Wash.) High. “That way I’m not trying to learn something while I’m ramping up.”
— Righthander Lebarron Johnson Jr. had surgery Sept. 4 on his right hip to repair his labrum and decompress his hip joint. He is expected to be fully ready in spring training. Drafted in the fifth round out of Texas in 2024, Johnson, 23, went 3-2, 3.50 in nine starts for Fresno and 0-4, 4.89 for High-A Spokane in seven starts, the last on July 4. He pitched a total of 78.2 innings and averaged 9.3 strikeouts and 5.8 walks per nine innings.
— At the conclusion of High-A Spokane’s season, catcher Cole Messina, who is scheduled to begin 2026 at Double-A Hartford, was promoted there for the final week of the Eastern League season. Messina, 22, hit .259/.358/.382 with seven home runs and 42 RBIs in 107 games with Spokane. The Rockies drafted Messina in the third round last year out of South Carolina.
