The Rockies announced a series of roster moves this afternoon, highlighted by the club’s decisions to select outfielder Nick Martini’s contract and option outfielder Zac Veen to Triple-A. The Rockies’s 40-man roster stands at 40 after the addition of Martini.
Martini, 35 in June, figures to replace the recently-traded Nolan Jones in left field for the Rockies entering the year. A seventh-round pick by the Cardinals all the way back in 2011, Martini toiled in the minor leagues for several years before finally making his big league debut with Oakland back in 2018. He got into only 55 games for the A’s that year, but hit quite well with a .296/.397/.414 slash line in 179 trips to the plate. Things took a turn for the worse from there, however, as Martini hit just .238/.338/.315 in 57 games from 2019 to 2021 while jumping between the A’s, Padres, and Cubs.
Those lackluster numbers led Martini to try his luck overseas, and he hit a strong .296/.365/.461 in 139 games as a regular for the KBO’s NC Dinos. That served as a springboard that allowed him to return to the majors with the Reds for the 2023 season, and Martini made the most of the opportunity as he hit an excellent .264/.329/.583 in a brief 29-game stint with the club. Cincinnati was impressed enough to keep Martini in the fold last year, though his numbers took a nosedive as he hit just .212/.272/.370 in 52 games for the Reds last year. Martini departed the Reds following that down year and caught on with the Rockies on a minor league deal this winter.
He entered the spring as a long shot for a big league job, but has crushed the ball to the tune of a .389/.511/.556 showing in 16 spring games this year. That performance, combined with the club’s recent move to trade Jones back to Cleveland, cleared the way for Martini to make the Opening Day roster, where he seems poised to platoon with Sean Bouchard in left field.
Veen, meanwhile, was in competition with Jordan Beck and Bouchard for the everyday right field job but will now head to the minor leagues to begin the year. The 23-year-old was Colorado’s first-round pick back in 2020, Veen was a consensus top-50 prospect early in his pro career but has been limited to just 111 games by injuries over the past two years. 2023 saw him struggle to a lackluster .209/.304/.308 in 46 games, but last year Veen bounced back in 65 appearances, with a strong .258/.346/.459 line split mostly between the Double- and Triple-A levels. Like Martini, Veen has enjoyed an incredible spring as he’s hit .298/.375/.509 in 25 games for the Rockies during camp.
Unfortunately for Veen, it appears that strong performance wasn’t enough to force his way onto the roster even after the Jones trade cleared an outfield spot. With Veen now ticketed for Triple-A, he’ll look to build on the 21 games of experience he got at the level last year and stay healthy as he waits for his first big league opportunity. Should an injury to the big league outfield mix occur, Veen’s status on the 40-man roster could give him a leg up over some potential alternative options, though Greg Jones and Yanquiel Fernandez are both on the 40 as well.