Only one Rockies player listed in ESPN’s new top 50 prospects

As the Colorado Rockies stumble through another disappointing season at 19-31, the franchise’s future remains tied to a familiar last name — and according to ESPN, that’s one of only bright spot worth ranking for the future of the entire organization.

Kiley McDaniel’s updated top 50 MLB prospects list, released nearly two months into the 2026 season, features just one Rockies player: 19-year-old infielder Ethan Holliday, who checks in at No. 27 overall.

That’s actually a significant jump for the son of franchise icon Matt Holliday. McDaniel had Holliday ranked No. 66 in his preseason top 100, and the fourth overall pick from the 2025 MLB Draft has climbed nearly 40 spots thanks to a recent surge at Single-A Fresno.

“Holliday has answered questions about his contact ability from the past two summers by getting his timing back,” McDaniel wrote. “He has been scorching hot the past three weeks, with seven home runs, like he did last spring. The Austin Riley parallels I pointed out this winter are holding up thus far.”

Baseball America had him slotted at No. 80 in its pre-2026 rankings, while MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo placed him at No. 24.

The numbers back up McDaniel’s optimism. Holliday is slashing .262/.395/.557 with nine home runs, 23 walks and 32 RBI in 33 games at A-level Fresno this season —he’s doing this with about an average of a two-year age difference below his level of competition. After a modest 18-game debut last year (.239/.357/.380), the 19-year-old has unlocked the power that made him Baseball America’s 2025 High School Player of the Year.

McDaniel groups Holliday in the 55 FV tier alongside names like fellow 2025 draftees Liam Doyle (Cardinals), JoJo Parker (Blue Jays) and Tyler Bremner (Angels) — a grouping he says is “mostly performing as expected/hoped.”

The bigger-picture problem for the Rockies, however, is what’s missing from the list. While the Mariners (Colt Emerson, Kade Anderson, Ryan Sloan), Twins (Walker Jenkins, Connor Prielipp, Emmanuel Rodriguez, Kaelen Culpepper, Eduardo Tait) and Dodgers (Josue De Paula, Zyhir Hope, Eduardo Quintero, River Ryan) all placed multiple players in the top 50, Colorado stands with its one representative.

For a franchise that has always relied on internal development as the path back to contention, that’s a sobering reality check all the while the big club has now dropped into a 100-loss pace for a fourth-straight year.

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