Rockies Prospect Pair Will Vie For Time At Second Base

Both entered the organization at shortstop, the position at which 23-year-old Gold Glover Ezequiel Tovar is entrenched in Denver and signed through 2030.

The switch-hitting Amador hit .230/.343/.376 last year with 14 home runs in 100 games, 94 at second base, at Double-A Hartford. He had to finish strong to get there.

The Rockies knew Amador would be challenged but wanted him to experience the major leagues briefly in June, when Rodgers was on the injured list. Amador went 6-for-35 (.171) in 10 games.

Rockies assistant farm director Jesse Stender said Amador is now “very motivated.” He made a point of playing in games at the organization’s Dominican instructional league program. Amador has gotten in better shape and was in and out of the Rockies’ Arizona complex to work out in the offseason.

Ritter hit .270/.370/.403 with seven home runs in 91 games at Hartford, 88 at shortstop. He was hitting .286/.389/.431 on July 23 when he suffered a high ankle sprain that cost him a month and went 9-for-49 upon returning.

Ritter went to the Arizona Fall League to play second base. But back soreness, an occasional issue at Hartford, limited him to 14 games. Ritter is an outstanding athlete, whose defense is what most attracted the Rockies’ scouts when the club drafted him in the fourth round in 2022 out of Kentucky.

“He is smooth defensively, has good instincts,” Stender said, “He moves around well. Moving over from short, there won’t be any issues long term.”

ROCKY ROADS

— A series of staff moves were triggered by the departure of High-A Spokane bench coach Joe Mikulik, who resigned to become the head coach of the Texas Tailgaters, a new Banana Ball team that will begin play this year. Mikulik spent two seasons as Spokane’s bench coach in his second stint in the Rockies’ organization. The 61-year-old said: “It was very difficult to make this decision.” But he is from Texas, so the travel will be easier in addition to a raise in salary.

— Tom Sutaris, who had been Spokane’s hitting coach, replaces Mikulik as bench coach. Trevor Burmeister moves from Low-A Fresno hitting coach to Spokane hitting coach. Greg Jones becomes the Fresno hitting coach. He had been one of two hitting coaches with the Rockies’ Rookie-level Arizona Complex League affiliate.

— Aaron Munez, who had been the Rockies’ bullpen catcher, will join the ACL staff as hitting coach. Julio Campos, the other ACL hitting coach, will be in and out of Arizona this year and work with his son Juliomar, a catcher at the Puerto Rico Baseball Academy who is draft-eligible this year and has committed to Missouri.

— Brett Baldwin, who is based in Kansas City, has become the organization’s pitching crosschecker after spending 11 years in the Midwest as an area scout whose sizeable territory included Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, western Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The Rockies did not have a full-time pitching crosschecker.

— Chuck Barnes, who lives in Grain Valley, Mo., a Kansas City suburb, has been hired as an area scout, taking over the territory Baldwin covered. Barnes was an associate scout with the Reds from November 2018 to February 2023 and a part-time scout for the Mets in the Midwest from February 2023 to December 2024 before joining the Rockies at the start of this year.

— Emily Glass, who joined the organization in November 2021, was promoted to manager of scouting operations from scouting administrator/scout. She will continue to scout Colorado and Wyoming and will assume more of the office duties from Marc Gustafson, senior director of scouting operations. “She’s been really, really great,” said Gustafson, adding Glass has assumed “more responsibilities that I don’t have to sign off on.”