Colorado Rockies: Zach Wilson on instructional league, MiLB status

On Thursday, Rox Pile had an exclusive conversation with Colorado Rockies assistant GM for player development and farm director Zach Wilson about a wide range of topics, including the Arizona Instructional League and the state of the minor leagues heading in 2021.

Much is unknown about how the Colorado Rockies, Major League Baseball, Minor League Baseball, or even the world will be come spring as, with all four, they have changed drastically in the last calendar year.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, the Colorado Rockies played a 60-game season that ended with them having nearly the same winning percentage as they did in 2019. Since both were losing seasons, change has and will continue to come as the Rockies have already parted ways with key players like David Dahl and Tony Wolters and could soon part ways with Nolan Arenado and/or Trevor Story.

Due to the pandemic, the minor league season was completely scrapped in 2020 and with the changes that MLB is making to the minors, dozens of teams are being scrapped, in general with some becoming part of independent, partner leagues with MLB, including many in the Rockies’ neck of the woods. The Arizona Fall League was also completely cancelled this year.

With those changes, Rox Pile’s Kevin Henry spoke with Rockies farm director Zach Wilson in an exclusive interview on Thursday and, among other things, he spoke about what, if anything, has changed for the minor league players this fall and going into the 2021 season.