The Rockies have agreed to terms with first-round pick Zac Veen, Carlos Collazo of Baseball America reports (via Twitter). He’ll take home a $5M bonus that checks in slightly north of his No. 9 overall selection’s $4.949M slot value. Veen had been committed to Florida but will forgo that commitment to embark on his pro career.
A high school outfielder out of Florida, Veen was a consensus top-10 talent in this year’s draft based his 6-foot-5, 200-pound frame, plus raw power, potential for an above-average hit tool and above-average speed. Veen is a center fielder right now, though many scouting reports on him project that he’ll move to a corner as he fills out (and, perhaps, adds more power to his game). The Athletic’s Keith Law calls Veen the “best combination of probability and upside” among this year’s crop of high school bats.
The 18-year-old Veen ranked no “worse” than seventh in this year’s class on any of the rankings from Baseball America, MLB.com, FanGraphs, ESPN or The Athletic, and the Rockies were surely pleased to be able to select him with the ninth-overall pick. Both Baseball America (No. 75) and FanGraphs (No. 80) already have Veen as a top-100 prospect in MLB on their updated rankings, so he’ll add some much-needed talent to what is regarded as a thin Rockies farm system.
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