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.
PHOENIX – Another familiar name is on a power surge in the Rockies organization.
Jack O’Dowd hit seven home runs and drove in 25 runs in 22 games at Single-A Fresno. He celebrated a promotion to High-A Spokane by knocking two homers on Thursday night.
O’Dowd, 25, who played collegiately at Vanderbilt in 2021 and Texas from 2022-24, is son of former longtime Rockies general manager Dan O’Dowd. Also, while at Fresno, O’Dowd roomed with another power-hitting player with a familiar surname -- Ethan Holliday, the fence-busting son of former Rockies All-Star Matt Holliday.
By any other name, Jack O’Dowd is stinging baseballs. But, O’Dowd took the long route to producing overnight.
A rough start to his final year at Texas in '24 left him batting .207, and his playing time decreased as the season progressed.
He found his swing in the MLB Draft League with West Virginia, posting a .306/.377/.420 slash line. O'Dowd then signed with Billings of the independent Pioneer League last year and broke club records (dating to 1969) for home runs (22) and RBIs (91) while batting .333.
“It’s a combination of small improvements over the past couple of years -- and learning from areas that I struggled with in college, then breaking out last year and continuing to show up everyday and just put together good at-bats,” said O’Dowd, who signed a Minor League contract with the Rockies this past offseason. “I felt there was something in me that was better than what I was showing.
“I’m very grateful that I got the opportunity in independent ball to keep playing, just to try to continue to see how good I can get -- see if I can truly tap into what I thought as in there.”
O’Dowd earned a bachelor’s degree in human dimensions of organizations, though he joked: "I really just tell most people it was business, just to make it easier." But he didn't let go of the baseball dream.
His older brother, Chris O’Dowd, is a Dartmouth graduate who played six seasons in the Minors and now serves as CEO of WIN Reality, a leader in virtual reality training of baseball and softball players at all levels.
While Jack O’Dowd’s education puts him in a position for many career paths, he is concentrating on one.
“It's easy to think about what’s next after my playing career, but I catch myself and don’t really like to go there,” he said. “I take it one day at a time and continue to believe that I can make the dream [come true]. Ever since I was a little kid, I dreamed of putting that Rockies uniform on. I’m trying to show up every day and take steps closer to making that dream come true.”
O’Dowd said getting to know Holliday has been fun.
“When Matt was with the Rockies, Jackson [Holliday, now with the Orioles] and I were buddies,” O’Dowd said. “We were always playing Wiffle ball together, hitting together. We would always see pictures from our parents of Jackson and me, and Ethan is in the back, and he’s an infant.”