DENVER -- The fast lane became the normal path to the Majors for Rockies players in recent years.
Righty reliever Cade Denton began at a careful pace, but he is pressing the accelerator in the Arizona Fall League.
Three members of the 2023 Draft class have appeared -- righty starting pitcher Chase Dollander (first round), third baseman Kyle Karros (fifth) and righty relief pitcher Seth Halvorsen (seventh), with Halvorsen having made it in ‘24. Outfielder Cole Carrigg (Rockies No. 3 prospect) and lefty starter Sean Sullivan (No. 12) put themselves on the radar with strong seasons at Double-A Hartford in 2025.
Denton, drafted out of Oral Roberts University in the sixth round -- between Karros and Halvorsen -- spent last season at High-A Spokane (42 games, 3.73 ERA with 63 strikeouts to 20 walks in 50 2/3 innings). But Denton has been mostly lights-out in the Arizona Fall League for the Salt River Rafters -- four scoreless outings in five games, with a 50% strikeout rate (14 in 28 batters faced). Denton’s 5.63 ERA is the result of two walks and a hit batter that led to a grand slam, but he struck out the final three batters.
"I didn’t necessarily have any expectations coming in,” said Denton, who turns 24 on Dec. 28. “Obviously, being a bullpen arm, stuff can move fast. We have a few guys in our Draft class that are already up in the Major Leagues, so I’ve seen firsthand that it can happen pretty quickly. But I definitely think I had quite a bit to learn.”
Denton saw a slight dip in velocity after jumping into a professional throwing schedule. But during the ‘25 season at Spokane he struck out 15.8 batters per nine innings -- far greater than his rate of 7.5 per nine in ‘24.
In Arizona his four-seam fastball is traveling at 94-96 mph -- “right where I’ve wanted to be all year, and hopefully coming into next year it could be closer to the 95-97 range,” he said. But it’s how he uses the pitch, which comes from a lower-than-conventional arm slot. Instead of using it to set up his slider or the cutter that he’s working on, he’s using a fastball that runs inside to righties to finish off counts.
The last two outings saw Denton strike out three in three innings against Glendale on Oct. 19 and six of the eight hitters he faced against Scottsdale on Oct. 24.
“The fastball has been my go-to pitch the past two outings, when I’ve generated the most strikeouts,” Denton said. “The majority of my strikeouts the past thee outings have been fastballs, so that’s a little bit of a revelation to me, realizing I can get swings and misses on that. I don’t necessarily have to resort to the other secondaries as much. I can still throw them and they’re good pitches, but the fastball has definitely played up here.”
A guiding principle is to try to finish counts efficiently, with four pitches being the sweet spot. Attacking the zone with his unique fastball has accomplished the goal.
“He’s got some unique characteristics to his fastball,” said Rockies coordinator of pitching strategies and current Salt River pitching coach Flint Wallace. “So it doesn’t react like most hitters think it’s going to. And the velocity is back up. Those two combinations have brought some swing and miss, especially at the top of the zone later in counts.”
In addition to continuity with Wallace, Denton is bouncing ideas off Diamondbacks righty Drey Jameson, who is in the Arizona Fall League working his way back (impressively) from years of right elbow issues.
“Obviously, having time as a big league reliever, you get a lot of cool information -- and a lot of cool stories,” Denton said. “The tidbits of information, you can hopefully use later on in your career at a higher level.”
Denton spent the time since the ‘23 Draft working and learning, rather than fretting that others were climbing faster. The way he has pitched against some of baseball’s top prospects in Arizona suggests that he is right on time. The Rockies will soon hire a new baseball operations leader, who will look at him with fresh eyes -- and the eyes of other teams’ scouts already are on him.
“As a player, obviously we can’t say that we don’t care about switches in the front office," Denton said, "but at the same time, you only control, knowing that whoever is put in that position is going to do their job the way they see fit. I’ve got to keep doing mine, and hopefully show them the best version of me.”