Chase Dollander, Rockies’ top pitching prospect, aiming to be a bona fide ace: “We are truly building a top-of-the-rotation guy”

Chase Dollander is the Rockies’ ace-in-waiting.

At 22, he holds the promise of a pitcher with enough talent and confidence to defy the odds in Colorado’s mile-high altitude.

Ubaldo Jimenez in 2010 (19-8, 2.88 ERA, third in NL Cy Young Award voting) and Kyle Freeland in 2018 (17-7, 2.85 ERA, fourth) had phenomenal seasons with the Rockies, but their star power proved unsustainable.

With Dollander, selected ninth overall out of Tennessee in the 2023 draft, there is legitimate hope he can become an ace for the long haul — something the Rockies have never had.

Of course, that won’t be determined until Dollander tests his potential in the majors. Right now, he’s acing his minor-league exams.

In August, Dollander went 2-0 with a 0.92 ERA in five starts, earning the Double-A Eastern League’s pitcher-of-the-month honors. Dollander whiffed a league-best 41 batters and held opponents to a .163 average.

“I probably didn’t expect him to make these kind of strides this quickly,” Rockies farm director Chris Forbes said. “But I’ve always known that we are building an ace here. We aren’t building a No. 5 pitcher. We are truly building a top-of-the-rotation guy.”

Dollander’s performance in the Yard Goats’ 3-2 loss to the Altoona Curve on Thursday night provided a glimpse of what he’s made of.

His high-90s fastball was humming, but his wicked slider was a bit wonky. He gave up two runs on four hits and a walk in the second inning because of some soft hits and sketchy defense behind him. Nonetheless, he finished with a fine line: two runs allowed over six innings on five hits with one walk and seven strikeouts.

With men on base, he kept his cool and controlled the running game.

“I’ve been so impressed by his ability to make in-game adjustments,” Yard Goats manager Bobby Meacham said. “When his slider is not clicking, he changes things up and goes with a different strategy. He has the ability to move his fastball around.

“He uses his changeup, which I think is going to be a very good pitch. So, seeing him make adjustments and not just try to overpower hitters is really encouraging for a young pitcher.”

Dollander, who received a $5.7 million signing bonus last summer, is fast becoming a student of the game, something that has allowed him to evolve from fireballer to pitcher in his first season of professional baseball. He’s worked overtime studying opposing hitters on video and analyzing his own tendencies.

In his Aug. 30 start, the 6-foot-3, 210-pound right-hander showed just how dominant he can be. He racked up 10 strikeouts over 5 2/3 scoreless innings in the Yard Goats’ 3-0 win over Binghamton. Dollander allowed only three hits, struck out seven straight at one point, and dominated a lineup that included Jett Williams and Ryan Clifford, two of the New York Mets’ top prospects.

“It’s been really fun learning to approach hitters and learning how to use my pitches to be effective,” said Dollander, who was 4-1 with a 2.83 ERA, 111 strikeouts and just 28 walks in 14 starts at High-A Spokane before his promotion to Double-A Harford. “Reading hitters is the one thing that’s been huge for me this year.”

From a scouting perspective, Dollander checks off all the boxes: a high-90s fastball, biting slider, baffling changeup, and an improving curveball — all garnished with self-confidence.

“I feel like all of my pitches have gotten a lot better,” he said. “I’ve really been able to hone in on the shapes. Now it’s a matter of consistency. They are all really good pitches, and they’re going to be able to play in the majors.”

Forbes concurs.

“He has an absolutely dominant fastball that gets outs within the (strike) zone, on top of a slider that we feel will be a plus pitch,” Forbes said.

Meacham is especially intrigued by Dollander’s mid-80s changeup, which plays well off a fastball that touches 98 mph when he cuts loose.

“It’s a really, really good pitch,” Meacham said. “It can be as effective as his slider to keep hitters off-balance. It comes out looking like his fastball, and then it has all this movement on it. Lefties are going to have a really hard time with it.”

While there are plenty of flame-throwing pitchers with good stuff, what sets Dollander apart are the intangibles and his commitment to becoming great.

“He’s a phenomenal kid,” said Tennessee coach Tony Vitello, who led the Volunteers to the national title this summer. “There are a lot of kids with potential, but Chase has been able to tap into that potential.

“He had a strong foundation when he came to Tennessee after starting out at Georgia Southern. He’s got a strong work ethic, but baseball is very important to him.”

Vitello said Dollander has always been able to take his game to the next level.

“It should be important to everybody — their craft — but there is a difference between the elite and the non-elite,” he said. “Chase has this inner desire that’s very obvious if you are around him every day. So, whatever you provide for him, he’s going to make the most of it and then take it to the extreme.”

Dollander’s days at Rocky Top weren’t perfect. After transferring from Georgia Southern, he had a sensational sophomore season at Tennessee, going 10-0 with a 2.39 ERA and 108 strikeouts. But as the white-hot spotlight found him as a junior, he felt the heat.

Dollander, while attempting to improve the action of his slider, changed his pitching motion a bit. He regressed from his sophomore season, posting a 4.75 ERA but still ringing up 120 strikeouts.

“I found that toward the beginning of my junior year, I was really thinking about how much people were worried about how I was performing rather than just focusing on myself and the team I had around me,” Dollander said shortly after the Rockies drafted him. “I kind of got lost in what people were saying about me, so it became really hard, but I started working with a mental performance coach, and as soon as that happened everything turned around and I started pitching a lot better.”

In retrospect, his subpar junior season was a blessing, even if it cost him a few spots in the draft. He started following a regular, customized weight room routine, used band therapy to keep his right arm flexible and strong, and started eating healthier.

“What I learned at Tennessee is that having a consistent routine is only going to help you,” he said. “It’s like taking a penny and doubling it every day for 30 days to see how much money you are going to have. It’s a compound interest kind of thing.

“You keep stacking it, day in and day out, and the consistency starts paying off to what you’re seeing now.”

The Rockies have drafted other highly-touted, hard-throwing pitchers over the last decade, including Jon Gray (No. 3 overall in 2013) and right-hander Riley Pint (No. 4 in 2016), but neither of those players could match Dollander’s preparedness.

Dollander’s maturity and professionalism have blown away Forbes.

“His routines are very disciplined,” Forbes said. “You can go into the training room on a Wednesday after he starts on Sunday and they’re you’ll find him, taking notes, studying video.

“For a lot of players who make it in the big leagues, the difference is routine. He has that in place right now, with such an unbelievably solid foundation.”

Forbes calls Dollander’s weight room routine “phenomenal,” and marvels at the young pitcher’s dietary discipline.

“He gets his meals premade,” Forbes said. “He’s not some college kid crushing chicken wings and five beers after a game. He’s a lot more advanced and professional than most 22-year-old athletes.”

When Dollander was promoted from Spokane to Hartford in late July, Meacham wondered about the person the Yard Goats were inheriting. He knew about Dollander’s talent but wasn’t quite sure about the attitude.

“I’m always curious about the first-round picks because I was one,” said Meacham, who was selected by the Cardinals with the eighth overall pick in the 1981 draft. “I try to figure out why. Why is this guy a first-round pick? Because there a lot of guys who throw hard, but now I’m starting to see why with Chase.”

Meacham has seen Dollander interact with his teammates, listen to his coaches and soak up the experiences of minor league baseball.

“He listens really intently, not only to his manager and coaches but also his teammates,” Meacham said. “He doesn’t respond with an attitude of like, ‘Yeah, I already know that.’ ”

Forbes has witnessed the same thing, never encountering the stubbornness that some bonus babies carry with them from college to the pros.

“For a guy coming out of a power-five program like Tennessee’s, sometimes you can battle some rigidness and how they go about things,” Forbes said. “You run into an attitude of, ‘This is what I have done, this is how I’m always going to do it.’

“But Chase has been unbelievably coachable and unbelievably active in his own development.”

Meacham, who played six seasons with the Yankees (1983-88), has been a coach or manager for over 30 years and knows something about what makes young players tick. He likes how Dollander operates.

“The character I see in successful players is that they are very confident,” Meacham said. “And there is no question that Chase is confident in his ability, but he’s humble, too.

“It fits. When those two pieces come together, you have a fierce competitor who refuses to believe he can’t complete his dreams. But he also knows that he still has to learn. That’s huge. That’s what I’ve seen from Chase in the weeks he’s been with us.”

Next spring, Dollander will get an invitation to the Rockies’ big-league camp. That will be his next major test. Then he’ll likely make a pitstop at Triple-A Albuquerque before he makes his major league debut.

Dollander insists he’s not watching the clock.

“I wouldn’t say I’m targeting anything or any time,” he said. “It’s more of a when they think I’m ready, I’ll be ready. I know that I could pitch (in the majors) now and have some success because of the preparation I have put in. It’s just a matter of when they think I’m ready. And I will be ready, I promise you that.”

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