Rockies Notebook: Jordan Beck, Yanquiel Fernández, and Antonio Senzatela

DENVER, Colo. –– If the rest of the Colorado Rockies can be like Jordan Beck, perhaps the future can be a lot brighter a lot sooner.

The 24-year-old from Hazel Green, AL is quietly putting together a breakout campaign for the 74- loss Rockies in his first full season in the Majors. 

In terms of bWAR, Beck (0.9) trails only 2025 All-Star Hunter Goodman (2.1) and 2024 All-Star Ryan McMahon (1.2). With 11 home runs and 11 stolen bases, he’s the only member of the club in double-digits for the power-speed statistics.

Despite this success, Beck had a series of hiccups to start the 2025 campaign.

Beck earned a place on Bud Black’s Opening Day roster, starting in left field and batting ninth. He went 3-for-20 (.150) over the first 10 games before being optioned to Triple-A Albuquerque.

From there, it only got worse.

Instead of taking advantage of the lesser competition and the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, Beck struggled just as much as when he was in Denver. Though his slash line of .143/.189/.286 across eight games may not have inspired much confidence for a promotion, Colorado recalled the 38th overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft on April 19.

“That doesn’t surprise me. It’s just because I know he’s a good player, and I know he’s gonna come out the other end, which he is right now,” interim manager Warren Schaeffer said of Beck’s struggles with the Isotopes. “I’ve gone through that my entire life, so it’s good for him to go down there and struggle. That doesn’t surprise me that it happens to people. It’s a hard game. It’s a really hard game.”

Beck soon broke out from his funk with two home runs in the second game of a doubleheader in Kansas City on April 24. A homer in the first game gave him three on the day. Just 24 hours later and it was another two-homer performance, this time at Coors Field.

All toll, it was five long balls over two days. He went from zero to leading the team in under 36 hours.

Schaeffer inserted Beck as the leadoff hitter once he took over the reigns of the club. Tyler Freeman caught fire after and emerged as a more traditional option batting first. Beck began to bat third on most days. 

A 3-for-5 night on Friday put the University of Tennessee product a double away from the cycle as Colorado won consecutive games at home for the first time since last September. Since that tweak in the batting order on June 21, Beck is hitting .291 and Colorado is 7-14 (.333), an improvement over their .245 winning percentage.

“Sometimes it’s good for people to struggle. I know in any aspect of life, it’s good to struggle so you can get better,” Schaeffer said.

The Rockies top affiliate in Albuquerque has a slew of players who have spent various lengths of time in Denver before needing to retool in Triple-A. Chase Dollander, Adael Amador, Drew Romo, Zac Veen and Anthony Molina are all working to improve the areas of need that were exposed by other MLB clubs. All five are under 24.

If better days are ahead of them as well, then Colorado may be able to avoid 100 losses in 2026 and finally turn things around.

Don’t Yanq His Chain

When Yanquiel Fernández made his Major League debut on July 2, he became the ninth Rockies rookie this season to begin their big league career. He notched his first base hit two days later where he’d be greeted by fellow Cuban, Miguel Vargas of the Chicago White Sox.

Like most clubs, Colorado prefers for their prospects to get regular playing time in Triple-A over sitting the bench in the Majors. Schaeffer, who tends to mix and match depending on the handedness of each game’s starting pitcher, has managed to start Fernández in nine of the team’s last 13 games, including two appearances that included an at-bat coming off the bench.

The left-handed hitting Fernández is batting .290 with no home runs and a pair of RBI. Might Schaeffer begin to give opportunities to the 22-year-old against southpaws?

“Just the way our team is constructed right now, probably not because (Brenton) Doyle is going to play center against left-handers. He’s hitting .300 against them.” Schaeffer continued by saying, “Freeman is one of the top hitters in the league, and Beck is our middle of the lineup bat. So with Goodman going to be DHing more often, I don’t see a lot of at-bats in terms of (Fernández) starting against left-handers. It’s just the way our team is constructed.”

The youngest player on the active roster, Fernández has impressed the coaching staff with his poise.

“I keep saying this over and over again about young players, but the comfort level (with Fernández) is increasing with every single start,” Schaeffer said.

While the 2023 Northwest League Post-Season All-Star didn’t start against a right-handed starter on Saturday, it’s more because of the mix with the rest of the roster’s rotation. Mickey Moniak, the other left-handed outfield bat on the roster, has played well — his 1.182 OPS entering Saturday leads the sports since June 1 — and the trio of Beck, Doyle and Freeman need to play, according to Schaeffer.

Simply Senzational

Even before Antonio Senzatela ascended the bump on Saturday night, he was set to surpass his most innings in a single-season since 2021. 

His 2022 was cut short by an ACL tear in August and a right elbow strain in May 2023 necessitated Tommy John surgery, costing him much of 2023-24. 

The 6.41 ERA and an MLB-worst 146 hits allowed aside, Senzatela has given Colorado some peace of mind that he will be available every five days. The ninth-year pitcher is tied with his cohort from Venezuela Germán Márquez for most starts (19) with the Rockies this season.

“You saw it with Márquez, too. It’s hard. It’s hard to come back off of (Tommy John surgery) and be yourself immediately,” Schaeffer said of the 30-year-old. “But I think you’ve seen over the past, I don’t know, eight starts a guy that is getting more comfortable and stuff is starting to come back.”

Senzatela went seven innings strong during Saturday’s 10-6 win securing the club’s first series win at home since last September. He limited Minnesota to three runs with a game score of 55. The last time he accomplished both such length and quality was Sept. 3, 2021. One month later, Colorado signed him to a five-year, $50.5 million extension.

“Right after that (Kyle) Freeland start yesterday, him coming right back and giving us a good one when it could have gone either way,” Schaeffer said of Senzatela’s outing. “That was the second inning. So it could have gone either way. And he buckled down like he always does, and gave us five more after that.”