When Ethan Holliday took a fastball off his left elbow last Thursday, the Rockies organization must have held its collective breath. The 19-year-old doubled over in pain for almost a minute before taking his base. He eventually left that contest, but he wasn't held down for long.
Since returning to the Single-A Fresno lineup two days later, Holliday has been on an absolute barrage. Colorado's No. 1 prospect went deep again Thursday night in a 12-8 victory over San Jose at Excite Ballpark, finishing just a single shy of the cycle. It marked his second consecutive game with a homer and his fifth in a row with an extra-base hit.
Dating back to last Tuesday, the No. 4 pick in the 2025 Draft has homered four times and amassed 16 RBIs and a 1.656 OPS over a span of eight games.
Holliday's three extra-base hits were a career high, each coming off a different hurler. He socked an opposite-field double to the base of the wall in the first in, put a little extra mustard on a left-field shot in the sixth for a roundtripper and snuck a grounder just inside the first-base bag in the eighth, turning on the jets for his second career triple.
Holliday’s homer in Wednesday night's 12-2 loss was a pull-side shot off right-hander Sam Bower (Giants) on a changeup that floated into his bat path. While it's just 41 games into the pro career of MLB’s No. 17 prospect, the fact that yet another ball was ripped to right field was another indication that Holliday is finding his swing. After pulling just 29.7 percent of his balls in play during his brief debut last summer for Fresno, he has flipped that mark to 47.1 percent coming into the night.
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Overall, Holliday has been developing into the player the Rockies were exuberant to land in the first round of last year’s Draft. The raw power? Still proving to be “stupid” impressive. His plate discipline and swing decisions -- even with a 27.1 percent strikeout rate -- have enabled him to amass a .421 on-base percentage through 23 games.
The dog days of summer have yet to set in, but Holliday entered the night with a 133 wRC+. Last season, just two qualified Rockies Minor League hitters -- Jared Thomas (135) and current Fresno teammate Roldy Brito (158) -- exceeded that mark.
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It has undoubtedly helped Holliday to find himself sandwiched in the lineup between Brito (COL No. 3/MLB No. 96) and Tanner Thach, the latter of whom was named the California League’s Player of the Month for April earlier this week. Both went deep in Thursday's victory, with Fresno sitting second on the circuit in runs scored (216) and home runs (38) this season.
With the quartet of Charlie Condon (COL No. 2/MLB No. 58), Cole Carrigg (No. 6), Zac Veen (No. 13) and Sterlin Thompson (No. 15) making noise for Triple-A Albuquerque on the doorstep of Coors Field, Holliday and co. continue to blossom in the wings, providing an all-new wave of Rockies talent to be excited about.