PHOENIX -- Zac Veen wasn’t sitting in the dugout or taking batting practice when the phone rang. The Rockies’ outfield prospect was chilling, just about to start playing a video game during some downtime when he learned he was headed back to the Majors.
“I was about to load into a ‘Call of Duty Zombies’ game in the hotel, and that’s when I got a call,” Veen said with a smile at his locker Tuesday afternoon in Phoenix before the Rockies’ 3-2 win over the Diamondbacks at Chase Field.
The 2020 first-round pick had been in this spot before.
Ranked first in the country by Perfect Game in the Class of 2020 High School National Rankings, Veen worked his way up from A-ball to, by 2025, earning Rockies Spring Training MVP honors. He earned his first callup to the Majors just eight games into last season but struggled at the plate in 12 games and was sent down.
Veen returned to Triple-A Albuquerque determined to refine every aspect of his game. Did he ever.
The left-handed hitter and No. 7 prospect in the Rockies’ system batted .327 with 24 home runs, 87 RBIs and a .635 slugging percentage while capping his summer with one of the hottest stretches in the Pacific Coast League, including back-to-back Player of the Week honors. On Friday in Albuquerque, Veen punctuated his remarkable run by going 5-for-5 with three homers and a franchise-record 17 total bases, all but cementing his return to the Majors.
“I feel really blessed. I feel really grateful for the opportunity,” he said Tuesday, where he was in uniform but not in the lineup against Arizona’s lefty starter Mitch Bratt. “I think just how much I appreciate taking the field every day has been a big difference for me this year.”
Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer said Veen’s promotion was earned through months of consistent improvement, not simply a hot streak.
“He pushed his way to the big leagues,” Schaeffer said. “He’s been working on his plate discipline and showing a ton of power. He’s just been doing everything that we’ve asked of him, so he’s earned his way here.”
Schaeffer said the biggest difference from Veen’s first stint in the Majors is experience.
“The last time he was up here, I think the nerves took over,” Schaeffer said. “I just want him to have fun. I want him to have fun and be himself, because that’s the only way he’s going to show what he can do.”
Veteran left-hander Kyle Freeland has watched that evolution firsthand.
“He’s had obviously a massive turnaround of his attitude and how he goes about things over the past year,” Freeland said Tuesday. “We saw it in Spring Training and we’ve heard that he’s been carrying that all the way through the Triple-A season.”
The club’s longest-tenured player, Freeland believes Veen is arriving as a different player than the one who made his debut a year ago.
“How he carried himself was almost a 180 of what it was a year prior,” Freeland said. “We all noticed it immediately, and we were all happy for him. ... It’s clearly paying dividends for him with his work ethic.”