Undrafted guys aren’t supposed to make it look this easy.
signed a minor-league deal with the Rockies in January, after a solid season for the Billings Mustangs in the independent Pioneer League put him on the affiliated-ball radar. Since joining the organization, the son of former Rockies general manager Dan O’Dowd has skyrocketed through the system: It took just 22 games for him to conquer Low-A Fresno. Then only 34 games to master High-A Spokane.
Now in Double-A Hartford, Rockies farm director Chris Forbes knew the utilityman needed a bigger challenge when Forbes went to see a series in Spokane, and O’Dowd had two walk-off hits in three days.
“He put up video-game numbers in Fresno, then he went up to Spokane and did the same thing there,” Forbes said. “By the time I saw him about a month after (his promotion to High-A), he had a two-out, walk-off single (on a Thursday) and then
“I talked to him after that second game, and he told me he was going up there to walk it off. He was hunting for the win. I was like, ‘OK, bud.’ That moment (turned my head)… If we said that he was going to do all this when we signed him, I wouldn’t have thought it possible.”
O’Dowd has defied projections this season while making his rough senior year at Texas in 2024 (when he hit .207 in 44 games) look like a fluke.
He hit five homers in his first 11 games in Fresno. He homered in his first two at-bats with Spokane . He’s significantly older than the average position player at those levels — 3.9 years older in Fresno and 2.5 in Spokane — and O’Dowd understands that “it’s a very fine line to walk” between playing with a sense of urgency and not pressing in the box, as he did in his final season with the Longhorns.
“In my situation (as an undrafted guy), there’s not much room for error,” O’Dowd said. “There’s a short rope and coming into this season, I knew I could not afford to not play very well. Someone in my shoes has to perform well a lot to continue to get opportunities.
“But I also know that I’ve gone through a lot of failure that a lot of other guys haven’t been through until they get to pro ball. In the long run, that failure ended up being a blessing. And it made me come into this season with the mindset of having nothing to lose and trusting that what I’ve gone through in the past has set me up for success now.”
O’Dowd started his college career at Vanderbilt before where he saw limited time as a sophomore before posting a strong junior season. But his inconsistent senior year tanked his chances in the draft, even after he played well in 63 games in the that summer (.306/.377/.420 slash line).
That led him to the Pioneer League. He originally signed with the Idaho Falls Chukars, but was before the season. The move gave O’Dowd an opportunity to learn to catch, a position he didn’t play in college and played only sparingly in the MLB Draft League. The tutelage came from Billings manager , who was a former professional catcher himself.
“Jack came in as kind of a platoon catcher for us,” Maddox said. “He did really well from the start. It’s one of the hardest positions in the game to learn, and he’s trying to learn it on the fly at the professional level. He was leading our team in homers but he’d be the first one to say, ‘Hey guys, who needs to throw a bullpen today? Whoever it is, I can catch him.’
“He continued to work on all aspects of the defensive side of his game. He knew his back was against the wall (in terms of his odds of making it to affiliated ball), so he had to be a complete player to get an opportunity.”
Maddox noted that adding catching to his defensive repertoire helped because it gave O’Dowd another position to get into the lineup.
“The ability to play multiple positions has helped him solidify himself within the Rockies organization, and be able to let his bat talk,” Maddox said.
Forbes says O’Dowd’s defensive projection at the big-league level is to be determined, and that the Rockies are considering adding corner outfield to O’Dowd’s ability to hold down catcher (23 games this year), first base (18 games), designated hitter (35 games) and, in a pinch, second base (his primary position in college).
“Is he more than a half-catcher? I think time will tell,” Forbes said. “There’s some stuff we’ve got to do with his arm strength. But we like the way he calls a game. He can really block a baseball, too. … We’ll just try to find spots for this guy so we can keep his bat in the lineup.”
Offensively, Spokane manager Tom Sutaris says there are some comparisons between O’Dowd’s surge this year and the breakout of All-Star catcher Hunter Goodman, a fourth-round pick who rocketed through Colorado’s system despite never being a highly ranked prospect.
“He controls the zone and can get (his A) swing off in any count,” Sutaris said. “It reminds me a little bit of Hunter in the fact that he’s very aggressive, but when he’s swinging at the right pitches, he can impact it at any point in an at-bat. He hit it out to all fields, he can grind out at-bats, he can battle, he can spoil pitches to get to the pitch he wants — very similar to Hunter in that regard.”
As O’Dowd’s career continued to ascend, he admits that his family history with the Rockies — in addition to his dad, his brother was also a Colorado prospect — is a strong motivator. O’Dowd, who has been playing through a severely bruised left thumb over the past month, is currently hitting .267 with 4 homers in 20 games for Hartford since his promotion to Double-A on June 30.
“I’m trying to make my own name for myself (apart from my dad), but it is cool being a part of the Rockies organization,” O’Dowd said. “I’ve always wanted the Rockies to win. To be a part of this, and hopefully a turnaround (at the big-league level) at some point, it lights that fire. I want the Rockies to be good. This is personal for me.”
