{"id":628437,"date":"2026-03-17T16:49:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T16:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/628437\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T16:49:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T16:49:21","slug":"tuesday-rockpile-rockies-prospect-ethan-holliday-is-making-the-most-of-his-2026-spring-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/628437\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday Rockpile: Rockies prospect Ethan Holliday is making the most of his 2026 spring training"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ethan Holliday (No. 2 PuRP<\/a>) made his debut with the Colorado Rockies big league club on Saturday against the Chicago Cubs at Salt River Fields. The shortstop \u2013 who was drafted fourth-overall<\/a> in the 2025 MLB Draft \u2013 played six innings and went 0-for-2 with two strikeouts at the plate, but also made a spectacular diving stop to nab first baseman Carson Kelly right before being lifted (the clip below doesn\u2019t do it justice, but alas).<\/p>\n

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Holliday also turned two double plays.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a blessing to be out there with those guys,\u201d Holliday said after the game. \u201cI look forward to things like this in the spring. I was super fortunate to be able to go out there, enjoy some baseball and get better. It was fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holliday, of course, is the son of Rockies legend Matt Holliday and has grown up around the game. But that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean he\u2019s ready for MLB action quite yet. In 18 games with the Single-A Fresno Grizzlies in 2025, Holliday batted .239\/.357\/.380 with 14 runs scored, four doubles, two home runs and six RBI. He also walked 12 times (14.3%) and struck out 33 times (39.2%).<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t really know how it feels until you experience it,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you first get out there, the speed of the game gets on you a little bit, but take a deep breath and just remember you\u2019re playing a game that you\u2019ve always played, and it\u2019s the same game you played back when you first started.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He\u2019s also taking camp one day at a time, \u201cmaking adjustments, and [I] still have some time until the stats really matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just trying to improve my game every single day and trying to get my body healthy and get ready for it to be worked this season,\u201d he continued. \u201cAnd I\u2019m just really trying to prepare for what\u2019s ahead, but focus on the now and just try to improve every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holliday is in his first spring training, but it\u2019s not his first experience with the Rockies \u2013 both from his dad\u2019s time and his own short experience last summer after his draft. But he\u2019s taking note of the new atmosphere surrounding camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been great [with] the new front office and a lot of new faces around here, even from when I was just here for the summer,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s been really cool to kind of get to know these people. And there\u2019s a really cool buzz around this place right now, and it\u2019s a super exciting time to be a Rockie and we\u2019re in a really cool spot. So I\u2019m super excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In addition to his normal routines, Holliday has also been selected to represent the Rockies in the Spring Breakout game next weekend and was also selected to play for Team USA in their exhibition game against the Rockies on March 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was insane,\u201d he said of the Team USA experience. \u201cI walked out there and Clayton Kershaw was on the mound. You look around and you\u2019ve got Hall of Famers all around you, and it\u2019s an emotion you really aren\u2019t ready for. But you get out there, and it was so much fun. I really enjoyed it, so it was a great experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Even though he was surrounded by baseball giants, there was one player in particular he was excited to meet.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBryce Harper was pretty cool to meet,\u201d Holliday said. \u201cI\u2019d heard a lot of things about him, and I\u2019ve always looked up to him. I\u2019ve always watched him since I was young, so it was really special to interact with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he added that, \u201call of the guys treated us like we were part of the team, so that really meant a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finishing out the spring, Holliday said, \u201ceveryone\u2019s goal is to get up to the big leagues fast and have success\u201d but their timelines are out of their control.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of those things where you work for it every day and you follow a process, but the answer people want is to get up there as fast as [they] can,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I want, so I\u2019m going to work hard every single day and help the team win.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cAnd I\u2019ll be ready,\u201d he continued. \u201cWhen my time\u2019s right, I\u2019ll be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rockies bench coach manages first Major League game with dad at his side | MLB.com<\/a><\/p>\n

We always know that baseball is a family business a lot of the time, and Saturday was no different. Rockies bench coach Jeff Pickler served as the manager for one of the split squads, and his dad, Scott, served as his bench coach. It was a fun full-circle moment not only for the Picklers, but for many players and coaches who knew Scott from previous teams he coached them on.<\/p>\n

Projecting the Rockies\u2019 Opening Day roster, batting order | Kevin\u2019s take | Denver Gazette ($)<\/a><\/p>\n

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Kevin Henry shares his second attempt at predicting the Rockies\u2019 Opening Day roster. What are your projections?<\/p>\n

Please keep in mind our\u00a0Purple Row Community Guidelines<\/a>\u00a0when you\u2019re commenting. Thanks!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ethan Holliday (No. 2 PuRP) made his debut with the Colorado Rockies big league club on Saturday against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2405],"tags":[5,1207,34,24,1147,167,52,4316,6489,21434,1026,4,168,32219,4819,1605],"class_list":["post-628437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-colorado-rockies","tag-baseball","tag-bryce-harper","tag-carson-kelly","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-clayton-kershaw","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-rockies","tag-coloradorockies","tag-ethan-holliday","tag-exhibition-game","tag-matt-holliday","tag-mlb","tag-rockies","tag-salt-river-fields","tag-team-usa","tag-the-rockies"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116245546771034317","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}