\u201cI would wake up in the morning and have all these TrackMan numbers sent to me from late, late in the night,\u201d recalled Clay Greene, the Memphis hitting coach who recruited Goodman. \u201cCome to find out, Goodman (and one of his teammates) would eat dinner, play some video games, then go back up to the cages and hit.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was not going to go to sleep unless he had a good round. And he was not going to sleep until he figured it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
A week after that five-strikeout game, Goodman homered twice on the same day, one dinger in each game of a doubleheader. He didn\u2019t look back, and that afternoon was one omen sandwiched between many that foretold his rise into one of the majors\u2019 preeminent power hitters.\n<\/p>\n
At 2, Goodman would wait on the porch for his dad to get home to hit tennis balls past dark. At 6, he gave his mom a bloody nose when he cranked a whiffle ball into her face in the front yard.<\/a><\/p>\n At Memphis, as he burst onto the college scene as a sophomore, he hit a grand slam in three straight games in a single series. After he fell to the Rockies in the fourth round of the 2021 draft \u2014 there were concerns about him coming out of a mid-major, as well as over Goodman\u2019s strikeouts and potential behind the plate \u2014 Goodman kept hammering harbingers.\n<\/p>\n He blasted 36 homers across his first season of pro ball. Then 25 homers for Double-A Hartford in \u201923 before getting promoted to Triple-A Albuquerque, whereupon Goodman hit a grand slam in his Isotopes debut.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n The power hasn\u2019t let up since his establishment in the majors, as he set a Rockies record for homers by a backstop over the past two seasons while becoming only the fourth NL catcher to hit 30-plus dingers in consecutive seasons. The 26-year-old\u2019s list of accomplishments dates back to those late nights in the Memphis cages, where Goodman would hit round after round of breaking balls off the pitching machine to address what was then a kryptonite.\n<\/p>\n \u201cI hit some home runs in high school, but it wasn\u2019t a crazy amount,\u201d Goodman said. \u201cCollege is when I started to realize I could hit a lot of homers and that I can do a lot of damage. Learning to adjust to the breaking ball and be able to pull that, and get it to the pull side in the air, I focused on that a lot. That was a turning point in my hitting career.\u201d<\/p>\n Swing path, barrel rate, bat speed<\/p>\n A combination of swing mechanics and approach cemented Goodman\u2019s status as an elite big-league power hitter, which in turn has made him the subject of an array of trade rumors leading into the Aug. 3 deadline<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n At 5-foot-11, 200 pounds, Goodman\u2019s lower half is built like a tank. He is a traditional pull-hitter with his power \u2014 all but eight of his 31 homers so far have gone to left or left-center. But that pull-happy approach is enabled by an opposite-field mindset.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s trying to hit fastballs just off the right of center field, which puts him on time for all the offspeed,\u201d Greene explained.<\/p>\n That strategy also enables Goodman to keep his barrel on plane in the zone. Hence his 97th percentile ranking<\/a> in barrel rate at 17.6%. That, combined with bat speed (75.4 mph average, which ranks in the 88th percentile), enables Goodman\u2019s consistent power despite a launch angle sweet-spot percentage<\/a> of 34.9% that only ranks 102nd.\n<\/p>\n \u201cHis bat is in the zone for a long time, from deep in his swing all the way to extension,\u201d Rockies assistant hitting coach Jordan Pacheco said. \u201cThat\u2019s why he can get sliders out front with power, and he can handle hard 98 (mph fastballs), too.\u201d<\/p>\n Goodman\u2019s high leg kick is central in his fluid power swing, as it enables his back leg to corkscrew into the ground.\n<\/p>\n \u201cHe generates a lot of force in his back leg, so even though he has that big forward move (with the leg kick during load), he\u2019s still holding the ground really well to generate power from the back side,\u201d explained Spokane Indians manager Tom Sutaris, who worked with Goodman as the Hartford Yard Goats hitting coach in 2022 and \u201923, shortly before Goodman\u2019s debut.\n<\/p>\n During his time in Hartford in \u201923, Goodman went through a June slump (.207 with only two homers and 27 Ks in 24 games). His power waned, his swing looked tired, and he wasn\u2019t consistently tapping into his backside strength because he was jumping at pitches. But he worked with Sutaris and Rockies minor league hitting coordinator Nic Wilson to straighten himself out,<\/a> and he debuted less than two months later. Goodman still leans on the lessons from that slump three years, two all-star selections and a Silver Slugger Award later.\n<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a blessing in disguise that (a horrible slump like that) happened then, because when I go through it here in the majors, I can lean back on moments like that and then figure it out from there,\u201d Goodman said.<\/p>\n There are still improvements for Goodman to make at the big-league level, even as he\u2019s mastered the art of torquing his hips in preparation to create a slingshot effect on the pitch as soon as his front foot comes down from what oufielder Mickey Moniak describes as \u201cone of the most controlled leg kicks I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n While Goodman can hit the ball as hard as just about anyone \u2014 his max exit velocity is 116.2 mph, the 10th-best in baseball \u2014 he still strikes out too much (32.3% K rate ranks in the bottom 5% of MLB), swings too much (54.2% of the time) and chases too much (swings at 40.4% of pitches outside the zone).\n<\/p>\n But none of that matters much to the buyers on the trade market, especially those who are in desperate need of a catcher who can rake, and rake in the clutch. Goodman\u2019s 11 homers in the seventh inning or later this season lead the majors, and since the start of last year, he\u2019s tied for the second-most homers in that category with Mariners backstop Cal Raleigh. A massive haul for Goodman?<\/p>\n Three teams from the American League East are likely among the teams calling Colorado<\/a> about Goodman.\n<\/p>\n The Rays, in the divisional lead by 2.5 games over the Yankees, have gotten a combined six homers from their two catchers. The Yankees\u2019 Austin Wells (.158 average, 6 homers) is having a dismal season. And the Red Sox, who climbed back into the playoff chase with a recent hot streak, have gotten four homers from their two catchers.\n<\/p>\n Rockies president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta acknowledged he\u2019s received ample interest on Goodman, as well as other players, from clubs around the league as Colorado stands as a clear deadline seller.\n<\/p>\n DePodesta wouldn\u2019t go so far as to say Goodman (who is under club control through 2029<\/a>) is untradable, noting that \u201cthere are probably a lot of players that would be very difficult for us to trade. Goody being one of them, because we see him as part of our future.\u201d<\/p>\n But DePodesta left the door slightly cracked to a potential deal for the slugger, if a team was willing to give Colorado the moon and the stars in return. Such a package could include a big-league starter and\/or high-caliber starting pitching prospects that Colorado desperately needs.\n<\/p>\n \u201cFor us to move him, the pieces that would be coming back would have to be really meaningful for us to even entertain that,\u201d DePodesta said. \u201cWe\u2019re also under no sense of urgency to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n Goodman\u2019s salary is $810,000 this season, but using Fangraphs\u2019\u00a0WAR-to-salary converter,<\/a> he would be worth $19.2 million this year in free-agent\u00a0dollars. By that metric, the Rockies are getting about 24 times more value out of Goodman<\/a> than for what they are paying him.\n<\/p>\n A major factor in Goodman\u2019s trade allure, beyond his home run tally and contract controllability, is that he can\u2019t simply be dismissed as a product of Coors Field. Entering Wednesday\u2019s series finale against the Nationals, he\u2019s done far more damage on the road than in LoDo, with a higher average away from Coors Field (.282 vs .231), more homers (18 vs 13), a higher OPS (.964 vs .814), and a significantly higher wRC+<\/a> (156 vs 92).\n<\/p>\n Goodman says he\u2019s not expending energy thinking about the possibility of a trade, or in another vein, a multi-year extension with Colorado that could be on the horizon. The even-keeled, chaw-chewing, small-town Tennessee outdoorsman is simply worrying about mashing more homers.\n<\/p>\n Meanwhile, as the phone rings in DePodesta\u2019s office, the Rockies could have a major, franchise-altering decision to make as Colorado tries to climb out of the hole of the last three 100-loss seasons.\u00a0<\/a>The massive haul that a trade for Goodman would demand could drastically accelerate the rebuild.\n<\/p>\n On the other hand, as Goodman\u2019s homer pace flirts with the Rockies\u2019 single-season record of 49 (set by Larry Walker in 1997 and then matched by fellow Hall of Famer Todd Helton in 2001), it\u2019s easy to see the catcher as a centerpiece of the next competitive Colorado team.\n<\/p>\n Whatever happens, Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer notes the whirlwind of the trade deadline clearly isn\u2019t affecting Goodman in the box.<\/p>\n \u201cThe trade rumors have been swirling for a while now, and (Sunday) he hit three homers,<\/a> and (Tuesday) he hit another game-winning homer,\u201d Schaeffer said. \u201cI ain\u2019t worried about Hunter Goodman right now. He\u2019s got his head on his shoulders.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Hunter](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP19111508037079.jpg\")
Hunter Goodman bats during a Tulane at Memphis NCAA baseball game on Tuesday, April 20, 2019 in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo\/Brandon Dill)<\/p>\n![\"Starting](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2269292584.jpg\")
Starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo #44 of the Philadelphia Phillies delivers a pitch to Hunter Goodman #15 of the Colorado Rockies in the sixth inning at Coors Field on April 4, 2026 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Justin Edmonds\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\n![\"Hunter](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/TDP-L-YARD-GOATS_DSC3569.jpg\")
Hunter Goodman (35) takes the field with the Hartford Yard Goats to play the Reading Fightin Phils at Dunkin\u2019 Park in Hartford August 02, 2023. (Photo by Andy Cross\/The Denver Post)\n<\/p>\n
\n![\"Hunter](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2278662212.jpg\")
Hunter Goodman #15 of the Colorado Rockies celebrates in the dugout after hitting a home run in the eighth inning against the Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium of Anaheim on June 1, 2026 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by John McCoy\/Getty Images)\n<\/p>\n