Rockies top prospect Jon Gray. (Jim Thompson, Albuquerque Journal)
, ready to make his anticipated big-league debut with the Rockies on Tuesday against the Seattle Mariners. His first action in the majors will come with big expectations — .
But Gray, the Rockies top pitching prospect, was already trying to block out the hype around his call-up.
“I’m a shut-it-out guy,” he said Monday. “I don’t pay attention to anything. I just focus on what I have to do that day. And get ready for the next start.”
— and especially among fans — was building around Gray’s time in Triple-A. But on the eve of Gray’s debut, Zach Wilson, the Rockies director of player development, talked by phone with The Denver Post before boarding a plane to the Dominican Republic.
Q. Why is now the right time for Jon Gray to make his debut for the Rockies?
Zach Wilson: At the end of the day, it was the culmination of all the effort from Jon and the staff. He really brought all the aspects of his development together. If you look at his past, especially his last 3 or 4 starts, he really came together. The player will show you when he’s ready. And he did the work to get himself ready.
Q: Gray said his biggest improvement was commanding pitches outside the zone. Was that something he was tasked with?
Wilson: That’s been a definite focus. Fastball command is something we focus on with every pitcher. But command isn’t just throwing balls in the strike zone and being able to paint the black. It’s about throwing for swings and misses and chase pitches. Now he can change eye levels with it and get people to chase.
Generally, we focused on the consistency of the command and his stuff. The process by which he took to get there, the work he put in, it took hold and it’s shown. His lack of walks and the increase in strikeouts shows that.
Q: And did he get to a point where that ability to produce swings and misses will translate to the big-league level? There’s a big difference in the types of hitters in that jump.
Wilson: It’s really about the consistency of command. In his last outing, he threw 70 pitches, 50 for strikes. He breezed through his last few outings by throwing a lot of strikes. And again, it was another step in the right direction.
Q: The Rockies, with injuries to Kyle Kendrick and David Hale, need pitching help right now. Did that change Gray’s timeline? Or is now the time he was going to move up regardless?
Wilson: For me, it didn’t change it at all. We had a very specific plan with Jon. Obviously there’ve been times when we could have called him up earlier in the year in a variety of circumstances. But we didn’t and we didn’t for very specific reasons.
There was a lot of media pull and a lot of fan pull. But bottom line, we weren’t gonna send him until he was absolutely ready for the challenge. We could have sent him up in May and he would have been fine. But we’re not trying to create a 4 or 5 starter. We want a No. 1 starter because he has that kind of ability. To bring him up before he was ready would have been a disservice to him and the team.
Internally we had a very specific plan. We always held our ground and remained patient. at the end of the day, that’s all that mattered.
Q: You did have a lot of debate around his call-up and the timing.
Wilson: That pressure from anywhere else (outside the organization), you’ll always have that with any prospects. The key is that what you’re doing is right for the player.
Tags: Jon Gray, Triple-A, Zach Wilson
