The Colorado Rockies are behind the curve of prospects in the NL West

MLB.com has released its top 100 prospects list and team rankings in the past week so the number of top 100 prospects can show an indication of how well a franchise’s farm system is…and the results show that Colorado Rockies are behind the curve of prospects in the NL West.

The Colorado Rockies have had one of the game’s weaker farm systems for a couple of years now, as we discussed in this article from a few days ago. To make matters worse, though, the rest of the Rockies’ NL West rivals have farm systems that are far better than the Rockies.

The next worst farm system by a team in the NL West is the Los Angeles Dodgers. That may come as a surprise to some considering the strength of the Dodgers farm system in recent years and the means that they have. But they still have one of the best farm systems in baseball, as the rankings have the Dodgers farm system as the eighth-best in baseball.

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All four of the other NL West each have five prospects in MLB.com’s top 100 prospects. To make matters even worse, of the 20 prospects in the four organizations, nine of them have either reached the Triple-A level or have a projected MLB ETA that’s this season.

The Rockies’ only top 100 prospect is Brendan Rodgers, who made his MLB debut last season but was out for the second half of the season due to labrum surgery.

Ryan Rolison is the Rockies #2 overall prospect. He likely narrowly missed MLB.com’s list as some lists, including Keith Law’s list on The Athletic, has Rolison in the top 100 (Law has Rodgers further down on his list than MLB.com’s list, though).

The Colorado Rockies will have at least one chance to rebuild their farm system in June as they will have the #9 overall pick in the 2020 Amateur Draft due to their 71-91 record in 2019. If they decide to trade Nolan Arenado or others, they will have to replenish their farm system with top prospects to pull a trade off as well.

The Rockies’ top prospects didn’t develop as much as they needed to in 2019 and whether or not they move forward in their development is going to be a key element for the success of the Rockies in 2020 and beyond.