This story was excerpted from Thomas Harding's Rockies Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
Righty Gabriel Hughes (Rockies' No. 16), who missed the Minor League season last year recovering from 2023 Tommy John right elbow surgery, on Tuesday logged the best of his 10 starts at Triple-A Albuquerque -- a season-high six innings, with five strikeouts and one run on three hits at Sugar Land.
Hughes, who turned 24 on Aug. 22, was drafted 10th overall in 2022. He was left out of the Albuquerque rotation for five weeks in July and August because of shoulder inflammation and the need to correct a higher-than-ideal release point – often a problem as a pitcher returns from elbow surgery.
Healthy now, Hughes has kept his four-seam and two-seam fastballs in the 91-93 mph range, and he has learned to use his changeup and curveball, and curb overreliance on the slider. Hughes was happy with the pitch-mixing strategy he and catcher Drew Romo (Rockies' No. 15) concocted for his last start.
“I'm just getting a better idea for how to read swings, how to see how a hitter reacts to a certain pitch and then base the next pitch I throw off that, instead of just relying on a fastball by guys and trying to go slider or curveball in the dirt for a chase,” Hughes said. “I've become a much more complete pitcher instead of just a thrower.”
Hughes has been tested by “20-21 months of just straight throwing” – a period that has included rehab, the Arizona Fall League last year, his first Major League camp this year and a strong start at Hartford before his promotion to Albuquerque. If all goes well the rest of the year, he’ll head into 2026 after a normal offseason.
“My goal is taking a longer time to build up before Spring Training and seeing where that gets me,” he said. “Instead of chasing, ‘I want to sit 96 to 98,’ I'm going to chase, ‘I want to have a good, strong, slow, consistent buildup and wherever that takes me, that's where it takes me.’”