Rockies connecting club's past and present at Spring Training

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.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- If you walked around the Rockies’ Spring Training facility last week, you would have seen a lot of new faces. Such is the nature of spring camp, when participants span from veteran stars to little-known Minor Leaguers.

But there is a third category of faces in camp that would be familiar to virtually all Rockies fans, not to mention many baseball fans in general.

“I just got here yesterday,” Carlos González said as he flashed his signature smile and headed out to the back fields of the complex on Wednesday. When asked what he was going to be doing, the three-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove Award winner gave a simple answer that carries significant weight in the organization these days:

“I’m going to be over on the Minor League side.”

The Rockies have made major strides in an effort to connect the franchise’s past with its future. It’s part of an organizational shift spearheaded by general manager Bill Schmidt when he replaced Jeff Bridich in May 2021.

Successful players from past eras of Rockies baseball have unique “stories” to tell players whom the organization hopes will become its stars of tomorrow -- like the only man who has taken Colorado to the World Series.

“These guys have street cred,” said former manager Clint Hurdle, whom Schmidt brought back along with franchise icon and newly elected Hall of Famer Todd Helton to serve as special assistants in 2022. “And they know all the things that these young guys are experiencing. They’ve walked in those shoes.”

And they’ve done so successfully. With young pitchers in the organization, in particular, there is a need for mentorship because of how daunting the idea of having to pitch in Denver's high altitude can be. So who better to advise them than some of the best to ever do that in a Rockies uniform?

One of those franchise luminaries is Ubaldo Jiménez. On one of the back fields with the Minor League pitchers, the righty’s throwing motion was unmistakable, even from afar. He stiffened his right arm as he brought it back behind him to begin the throw, just as he did when he threw the only no-hitter in Rockies history on April 17, 2010.

“I think the first thing is the mental part,” Jiménez said. “When I was in the Minors, like with most of the guys, everything you see and everything you hear is about how the ball flies in Colorado, how tough it is to pitch in Denver. So when I got to Denver, I was afraid of contact. I was trying to strike everybody out, and that got me into trouble because I threw a lot of pitches.

“So that’s something I wanted to pass on to the new guys that are coming up -- the mental part. You can’t be scared of contact. Make quality pitches and get ground balls, and it’ll be easier to pitch in Denver.”

Along with left-hander Jorge De La Rosa, Jiménez imparted wisdom that belongs to a small fraternity of pitchers who have tamed Coors Field. And the Rockies are hoping their experience -- along with that of many other former Colorado stars -- will be a boon for the next generation.