Why Dollander wants to be no one but himself

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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The Rockies might have the next Jacob deGrom.

Just don’t expect him to emulate the two-time Cy Young Award winner.

“I’m my own person,” said Chase Dollander, whom Colorado selected with the ninth overall pick in last summer’s MLB Draft, and who is one of the organization’s prospects who will participate in next week’s inaugural Spring Breakout showcase. “I don’t try to imitate anybody. I’m trying to be myself. Because the moment you start imitating somebody, that’s the moment you start changing things.”

Changing things. Sometimes we try it because we think we can gain an edge. After all, what might we be missing if we don’t shake things up a bit? What harm could it really do?

In Dollander’s case, the cost was Draft stock.

Entering his junior year at the University of Tennessee, the 6-foot-2, 200-pound right-hander was considered by many to be the best amateur pitcher in the country. Yes, even ahead of eventual No. 1 pick Paul Skenes, who has been called the best amateur pitching prospect since Stephen Strasburg.

Dollander, the Rockies’ No. 2 prospect and MLB Pipeline’s No. 52 prospect overall, possessed a fastball that sat between 95 and 97 mph, and could touch 99 mph. He also had a very good slider, as well as a curveball and a changeup -- the same pitch composition utilized to such great effect by deGrom.

Dollander was coming off a tremendous first season in the SEC after transferring from Georgia Southern, posting a 2.39 ERA and striking out 35% of opposing batters. He walked only 13 batters in 79 innings.

But that’s when Dollander began changing things.

“It was just, ‘Hey, is there any way I could get maybe just a little more [out of my slider]?’” Dollander said. “But obviously that little more threw me off.”

Dollander’s ERA just about doubled from 2022 to '23. He posted a 4.75 mark in his junior season, and his Draft standing took a hit. Dollander went from a possible No. 1 overall pick to being projected anywhere from No. 6 to No. 16 in MLB Pipeline’s final mock draft.

He was still on the board when the Rockies were on the clock at No. 9. Colorado might’ve gotten a steal.

“You’re looking at top-of-the-rotation potential with a guy like that,” said director of player development Chris Forbes. “That’s the expectation.”

Any number of obstacles could arise on Dollander’s path to what the Rockies hope ends in stardom. But at the moment, two specific challenges loom: undoing what Dollander did when he regressed during his final collegiate season, and the ultimate reality for any Rockies pitching prospect who reaches the Majors: pitching in the altitude of Denver.

After Colorado drafted Dollander, some were skeptical given the track record of several pitchers who tried to make a career out of taking the mound at Coors Field half of the time. One commenter on social media put it this way: “No pitcher has ever had prolonged success pitching in Coors. This guy isn’t about to break the mold.”

When presented with those words, Dollander’s response hearkened back to Teddy Roosevelt’s famous “man in the arena” quote:

“Some people who say things like that have never pitched at Coors.”

The Rockies have never had a true ace over a sustained period of time. There have certainly been some great individual seasons -- Ubaldo Jimenez’s 2010 campaign and Kyle Freeland’s performance in '18 come to mind.

But as the belabored “ace” discussion surrounding Jon Gray showed, outstanding stuff and great potential don’t always translate, especially in the most hitter-friendly environment in MLB.

It seems Dollander has already thought about that quite a bit despite not having thrown a single pitch in a professional game. In the final analysis, though, much will hinge upon who Chase Dollander is. He could be the next deGrom -- but he’s not deGrom.

“I think [last year] he was trying to create more stuff than truly just do what he does best,” Forbes said. “That’s where we’re trying to get him back to: Just be you.”