Adael Amador Prospect Report

Adael Amador lit up the minor leagues before making his early Major League debut on June 9th, 2024. Amador turned 21 back on April 11th, making him the third youngest player to make their debut for the Rockies. So what causes the Rockies to call up such a young player from Double-A?

Besides filling in for an injured Brendan Rodgers, Adael showed signs of extremely advanced hitting and plate vision in 277 minor league games. Thomas Harding shared a popular Amador statistic on MLB.com the day of his MLB debut, saying that he’d struck out fewer times than drawing a walk during his minor league career. It’s not just his vision that makes him an outlier; he’s got a solid amount of power with good swing speed from both the right and left side of the plate. Despite picking his pitches carefully, Amador loves to swing his bat! His stellar performance at a young age earned him the #1 spot for Rockies’ top prospects in 2024, leading several other talented Rockies on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 prospect list at #32.

Adael was acquired during the 2019 international prospect signing period. Getting a bonus from the Rockies of 1.5 million right after he turned 16! He’s currently ranked in MLB’s prospect list directly below Jasson Dominguez and Emmanuel Rodriguez, both prospects coming from the same 2019 international pool as Amador. Dominguez and Rodriguez are both electric bats like Amador and may be ranked slightly above him, but both received much more in signing bonuses from their teams. At the end of the day, the Rockies’ chose well in this international class by choosing a hitter with a good swing path that can play impactful infield positions.

To represent how elite of a prospect he is and how fast his track to the majors really was, here’s a chart by Fangraphs in 2012 that shows the percentage of players who had gotten through to their respective leagues at a certain age.

For example, only 9% of players in Double-A were 21 or younger.

Though these numbers and leagues have changed, this remains a good gauge of how often a 21-year-old like Amador can be seen at high levels. For Adael to receive a major league call-up shortly after turning 21 is a huge accomplishment in itself, not only for him but for the Rockies’ organization as well.

Our time watching Amador on the Rockies has sadly been cut short this season because of the quick return of Brendan Rodgers and the previous oblique injury that Adael had been dealing with. Judging by his ability to adjust quickly, it’s likely we’ll see him get consistent playing time with the Rockies again very soon. Though fans will probably see him in Double-A Hartford or Triple-A Albuquerque after his recovery to get some everyday at-bats before the Rockies can find an official role for him. 

Until then, there are a number of potential moves or trades that could be made before the trade deadline and during next year’s offseason to make room for Amador at 2nd base. Though Adael was signed and played mostly shortstop like a lot of hitting prospects, it wouldn’t add up for the Rockies to move Ezequiel Tovar to 2nd, as he was just signed to a multi-year deal and has one of the best shortstop gloves in the major leagues. As fans, we are starting to see what could turn into another star-studded Rockies infield, along with a whole list of talented outfielders that can stack the lineup for our hitter's park!