When high school dominance met pro ball reality, Zac Veen was shook.
Veen, Colorado’s first-round draft pick at No. 9 overall in 2020, had to wait nearly a year to make his minor-league debut after the pandemic wiped out the ’20 season.
And when he finally began his career with Low-A Fresno in ’21, it was a rough start for the former Spruce Creek (Fla.) sensation. The line in his first six games: 3 for 20, with 13 strikeouts.
“I don’t think I struck out that many times in one entire season in high school,” Veen said. “But I just had to go through it. There’s really no words for it. When you go from hitting .500 in high school to having an 0-for-4, 0-for-10 stretch, you realize things are way different.”
That rough start and the surge that followed it as Veen transformed into a California League postseason all-star epitomized the rocky road the corner outfielder took to his big-league debut earlier this week.
There were hot streaks and promising signs, including an appearance in the 2022 All-Star Futures Game, that showcased Veen’s athleticism, speed and signature edge to his game.
And there were notable lows, too. In 2023, he tried to play through a left wrist tendon injury from diving for a flyball, but it eventually required season-ending surgery. Then last season, he ruptured a flexor tendon slapping the top of his helmet as he entered the dugout following a failed at-bat. His right thumb got caught between the top of the dugout and his helmet and he spent the next two months on the shelf.
Between those injuries, Veen missed most of the last two seasons. Once Colorado’s top prospect, he fell in the rankings. But those who knew him best, such as his high school coach and mentor Johnny Goodrich, never doubted he’d finally find his way to LoDo.
“It’s never been a talent issue with Zac,” Goodrich said. “It’s like a wine — it’s got to mature before it’s ready. That’s the process that we’ve dealt with for Zac. … He had to understand how to take care of himself, how to mentally and physically keep his body prepared, how to keep weight on.
“It’s a lot of the off-the-field stuff where he had to learn, too: getting (a routine) in order, nutrition. How to wash your own clothes. I remember he called me up two years ago: ‘Coach! I can make an omelette!'”
That learning curve is typical, especially for players drafted high who arrive in pro ball with enormous expectations, both from themselves and the club. In the case of Veen, a $5 million signing bonus added to the pressure.
Veen’s baseball upbringing featured practically no adversity. As a middle schooler, he rode his bike five miles from his house to Spruce Creek High School every day to hit in the cage and watch the team practice.
From the time he hit three homers in a single game at a tournament in Cooperstown at age 12, he seemed destined to be drafted.
But Veen’s potholed road to the majors is commonplace, despite being a Top 10 pick expected to be an all-star caliber player. In the Rockies’ clubhouse, third baseman Ryan McMahon recalled how “I struggled for a whole year to find myself” in his first season in make-or-break Double-A in 2016. Southpaw Kyle Freeland encountered similar self-doubt during his first full pro season in 2015.
Freeland, the No. 8 overall pick out of Evansville in 2014, started ’15 hurt with a shoulder impingement. Then, he had elbow cleanup surgery, which set his summer back further. And the awful topper came in his Arizona Fall League debut, where the Thomas Jefferson High School product was torched by some of baseball’s best prospects and didn’t make it out of the first inning.
“I remember sitting in front of my locker, thinking to myself, ‘This is as far as I go. This is the highest level I’m going to reach,'” Freeland recalled. “I couldn’t get a guy out to save my life that night. But the competitor in me and the person I am wouldn’t allow myself to give into that.
“It was one of those reality checks, where it hit me that this game is so hard and I can’t just coast through the minor leagues just off of talent alone.”
Veen’s had several of those reality checks along his journey to Coors Field, where he bunted for his first MLB hit on Tuesday in his third career at-bat. In the lead-up before his debut, Veen’s progress coming off his injury setbacks was promising. The 23-year-old swung the bat decently in Double-A Hartford after returning from his thumb mishap to finish the year in Triple-A, then had a solid showing at spring training as he won the team’s MVP award.
In the Cactus League, he hit .270 with two homers, a triple, four doubles and 11 RBIs along with an .812 OPS. He also had nine steals, but showed there was still room for growth with 21 strikeouts to seven walks. That kept him off the opening day roster. The Rockies went with Sean Bouchard, Nick Martini and Jordan Beck over him, believing Veen needed to demonstrate more consistency in his offensive approach.
Veen took the decision in stride, and hit .387 in eight games in Triple-A before taking the roster spot of Beck, who was struggling.
“I think one day, especially now that he’s here, (Veen) might look back at all that he’s gone through and be thankful for it,” McMahon said. “A little bit of adversity can go a long way in changing you — it can show you how you’re going to be. Like, are you going to be the guy who goes down, or the guy who’s risen above it? He’s clearly the guy who’s risen above it.”
Veen echoed McMahon’s sentiment, noting, “all the different things I went through in the minors really prepared me for what could happen here.”
“I really wouldn’t have wanted it any other way,” he said. “It was a fun roller-coaster.”
Now in the majors with what manager Bud Black labeled “a certain unique flair,” Veen will need to master the toughest learning curve of them all: becoming a big-league regular.
With his bleached hair — it was purple when he showed up to spring training but quickly changed after Veen says one of his teammates advised against it — he stands out in an organization that prefers its players flavor-free. But Veen vows to remain true to the eccentric personality and aggressive baseball instincts that got him to Coors Field.
That was on full display after his first career extra-base hit on Thursday in the win over Milwaukee, a double off the right-field wall, after which Veen celebrated on second by making a lighter gesture near his mouth because he “wanted the fans to get lit.” Afterward, Veen was all smiles in the clubhouse as he soaked in his first MLB victory.
“I’ve told him a thousand times, I don’t want to ride a horse in the Kentucky Derby that I have to beat its (rear) around the track,” Goodrich said. “I want a horse I can pull the reins back on.
“And that’s one thing we’ll all see, is that we never have to spur that horse. He is always on the go. There’s times you may have to pull the reins back, but that’s okay. You will never have to motivate Zac to work or motivate him to win, because that’s what drives him.”
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