Versatile Konner Eaton Flashes Intriguing Potential

Left-hander Konner Eaton has given the Rockies’ organization a happy problem. It’s not one they envisioned upon selecting him in the sixth round of the 2024 First-Year Player Draft out of George Mason.

The Rockies knew then that Eaton possessed a power arm. They knew he looked like a Major Leaguer with a strong body and a muscular lower half. They knew he walked a few too many people in college but was ultra-competitive and had a very formidable fastball-slider combination.

They had scouted him thoroughly before the draft, having seen him pitch four times in his junior year at George Mason. Twice by the veteran area scout who also had gotten to know Eaton before the draft and who had made a strong case for selecting Eaton in the Rockies’ war room as the sixth round was unfolding.

The Rockies knew plenty about Eaton. And it was all very intriguing. But they didn’t know he would become a happy problem in his first professional season. The Rockies have to decide whether Eaton should start, as he did in college, or relieve, as he did with resounding success and noticeable impact last season. First at Low-A Fresno and then briefly at High-A Spokane where combined he allowed one run in 11 innings.

It’s not a decision that has to be made once and for all during Spring Training in March. It’s not a decision that is irreversible. And there is a way to put a final decision off, a kick-the-can-down-the-road option that could enable Eaton to straddle the starting and relieving roles, at least for a while.

Eaton could piggyback with a starter, following him and working two or three innings. Or he could start, which would allow him to adhere to a starter’s pre-game routine and give way after two or three innings.

He could also start, say, on a Tuesday (when six-game series begin in the Minors) and pitch two or three innings and then relieve on a Friday, throwing an inning, ideally in a leverage situation. Pitching multiple innings would give Eaton more game action and, thus, enhance his development. And it would dictate more usage of his changeup. That’s his third pitch and would be needed if Eaton starts. The Rockies have options to ponder and choices to make with him.

Eaton will return to Spokane to begin the season. It’s where he ended 2024 with one relief appearance on the final day of the regular season followed by one in a tight spot in the Northwest League championship series, which Spokane won.

As Eaton, 22, rises in the Rockies’ farm system and nears the Majors, the Rockies will want to define his role. The sooner the better, really. He will welcome the clarity and be able to approach his craft with a sharper focus.

But right now, Eaton poses a happy problem for the organization. Does he start? Or does he relieve and pitch leverage innings?

“A happy problem, no doubt about it,” Director of Player Development Chris Forbes said. “It’s nice to have those. Too many of the other ones. It’s nice to have a good one.”

Eaton is diplomatic when discussing his future role. He said he enjoys both starting and relieving, and the choice is not his.

“It doesn’t really matter to me,” he said, adding the Rockies “can use me wherever they think they need me.”

During the Rockies’ instructional league program in September at their Scottsdale, Ariz., complex, Forbes asked Eaton what he likes to do — start or relieve.

“He goes, ‘I’ve never relieved,’” Forbes said. “But he flat-out said, ‘I like being in those innings that matter.’” Meaning leverage innings that can affect the outcome late in a game. “‘And I like having game mound touches.’” Meaning not sitting for four days between starts but being on the mound often and showing what he can do.

“So I think he’s very intrigued by going in the bullpen,” Forbes said.

Relieving would put Eaton on a path where he could reach the Majors quicker. That was borne out last year with Seth Halvorsen, whom the Rockies drafted in 2023 and who made his Major League debut last season on Aug. 30.

And with Jaden Hill, whom the Rockies drafted in 2021. He began his career starting, struggled in that role at Spokane in 2023 and began relieving that year in the Arizona Fall League. Hill made his Major League debut last season on Sept. 7.

It should be noted that the Rockies’ bullpen was a problem area last season when the team was on its way to losing 101 games. So the opportunity existed to bring up young relievers like Halvorsen and Hill with the future in mind. That said, Halvorsen and Hill had to have pitched well enough to merit promotions.

If the Rockies opt to develop Eaton as a starter, reaching the Majors will take longer. More stamina will be required. He will need to be able to throw at least 100 pitches an outing and face an opposing lineup two or three times. Eaton’s changeup is his third pitch. He will need to hone it as a starter to give him a third pitch in his arsenal, at least to right-handed hitters. And as a lefty starter, he is bound to face lineups loaded with right-handed hitters. As a reliever, a third pitch, while not a luxury, is less necessary. Getting by with two plus power pitches is very feasible.

Yes, it takes more time to develop a starter and is more complicated. But because left-handed starters are far less numerous than their right-handed counterparts, the payoff is huge for developing a successful one.

Regardless of what role the Rockies choose for Eaton and despite how little they have seen of him, they recognize their good fortune. It is undeniable.

“A really special arm,” Rockies Assistant Player Development Director Jesse Stender said, “and a steal where we got him in the draft.”

Eaton threw 62 innings in 14 starts for George Mason last year. The Rockies decided to ease Eaton into professional baseball by having him relieve at Fresno. He made eight appearances totaling nine innings with a 1.00 ERA. He gave up five hits and one run with one walk and 12 strikeouts. Steve Soliz, who managed Fresno last year, said with Eaton “a lot will catch your eye.” Namely, a live fastball and a power slider.

“I don’t know if he just caught lightning in a bottle or this is who he is,” Soliz said “I got to believe this is who he is because it was pretty consistent for the nine innings I had him.

“He was a very nice mixture of stuff, and he had the ability to execute quality pitches. He didn’t just throw the ball over the middle of the plate. He made quality fastball pitches in the zone, out of the zone. He threw a slider for a strike when he wanted to and then strike to ball when he wanted to. From a fastball-slider perspective, it was as good as I’ve seen at that level right out of the gate.”

During his appearances in the regular season, Eaton’s four-seam fastball reached 97 mph and averaged 95 mph. His slider touched 89 mph and averaged 86 mph. But it was the action of those pitches combined with their velocity that made them such effective weapons.

“The fastball was live,” Soliz said. “It got on hitters. (It had) good carry through the zone. The slider was short when he wanted it in the strike zone, short with a little depth. Then it got bigger when he wanted it for strike-to-ball versus a lefty. He could backfoot it to a righty.”

Rockies Minor League Pitching Coordinator Doug Linton said Eaton’s mound demeanor is “off the charts. Across the lines, he’s in your face. He’s going to go after you. There’s no fear.” Linton said Eaton possesses a “swing-and-miss” slider. Stender termed it a “wipeout pitch” that has “heavy action late with depth. Basically, takes a right turn.”

Fresno pitching coach Jerry Sullivan said when Eaton joined the team, one of the first things he approached Sullivan about was getting his changeup right. Sullivan immediately could see Eaton is a hard worker whose “catch play is purposeful.” When Eaton mentioned improving his changeup, Sullivan realized Eaton is “an honest self-evaluator.”

They made a slight modification of the changeup grip. And with clean mechanics and a repeatable delivery, Eaton’s changeup became more effective, albeit it wasn’t a pitch he used because he could locate his plus fastball and devastating slider and was pitching leverage innings. (He threw his changeup more in the Rockies’ instructional league program).

“This was my preference, and I talked about it with Steve (Soliz) when we’d get guys,” Sullivan said, “I like throwing guys in the fire. When you ease a guy in, sometimes they get like kind of false hope. And then you get them with their backs against the ropes, and they fall in love with an easier situation. I like doing it in reverse. I want to see a guy. I’m going to throw him in (the fire) now, and let’s see what he’s got. And let’s see what he proves to himself he’s got in that capacity.”

Eaton made his professional debut and the first of what would be eight scoreless outings in nine appearances August 9 at Rancho Cucamonga. He worked the seventh with Fresno trailing 5–0. Two days later there, he took over in the seventh with Fresno leading 7–1 and yielded one run,

On Aug. 14 against Modesto, he pitched the eighth with Fresno ahead 5–3. On Aug. 18 against that same team, he pitched the ninth with Fresno losing 4–3.

On Aug. 21, he pitched the eighth against Stockton with Fresno behind 3–1. Three days later, he pitched the ninth with Fresno beating Stockton 3–1 and earned his first professional save.

Eaton sustained a bruise on his left hand reaching for a foul ball while in the bullpen and didn’t pitch again until Sept. 2 against San Jose. He worked the ninth with Fresno winning 5–1. On Sept. 5 against San Jose, he pitched a scoreless ninth with the score tied at 3. Fresno won 4–3 in 10 innings.

“For him to rise to that challenge (of pitching leverage innings in a new role), you’re definitely dealing with someone special,” Sullivan said.

After that extra-inning game Sept. 5, Soliz and Sullivan informed Eaton he was moving up to Spokane. The bruised hand delayed Eaton’s promotion.

“It was a nice surprise for him,” Soliz said. “He was like, ‘Hey, thank you.’ I said, ‘This is what you play this game for. Go up there and win a ring.’”

“Obviously, I wasn’t really thinking about another promotion just knowing it was definitely the tail end of the season,” Eaton said. “So being able to get the extra promotion up to Spokane to go into a playoff game right away, it’s something that was pretty awesome. And it was great for me to be able to learn a little bit up there and see what playoff pro baseball was about.”

Winner of the first-half crown in the Northwest League, Spokane had clinched the second half when Eaton joined the team. A best-of-five series with Vancouver for the league championship was looming. Adding a left-handed reliever would strengthen the Spokane bullpen. But there was another reason for promoting Eaton.

“We put him in a relief situation, get him into Fresno,” Forbes said, “and then we start thinking, ‘We got this run going on in Spokane (which closed the regular season winning 10 of its final 15 games), let’s see what he can handle.’”

Soliz called Spokane manager Robinson Cancel to give him some information on Eaton.

“I told Robbie, ‘This guy’s a dude. You’re going to want him in the game. You put this guy in the game and sit back and watch because he’s that good.’ At least he was (with us).

“It’s not often that you see an arm like that from the left side. If this is who he really is and it’s sustained, we found something really nice.”

Eaton made his Spokane debut at Everett on Sept. 8, the final day of the regular season. He came on in the sixth with Spokane leading 7–1 and pitched two scoreless innings. Eaton allowed one hit and two walks with four strikeouts.

Cancel thought Eaton “was a little amped up” at the outset of that appearance, which was understandable since it was his debut following an unexpected promotion.

“I thought at first he was kind of very excited, kind of like (intent on) showing what he can do,” Cancel said. “But then he settled in and was lights out. Great arm. And I said, ‘Wow, this is impressive. He’s going to help us out. This guy can beat all those lefties (Vancouver) had.’”

The championship series began with two games at Vancouver on Sept. 10 and 11. Eaton’s passport had expired. And without a valid one, he couldn’t enter Canada. So while Spokane won Game 1 4–3 and lost Game 2 by that same score, Eaton stayed back in Spokane and played catch for several days with Alberto Pacheco. A left-hander from the Dominican Republic, Pacheco began the season at Fresno, was promoted to Spokane in mid-August and like Eaton didn’t have a passport and was unable to enter Canada.

The series shifted to Spokane for Game 3 on Sept. 13. With one out in the eighth inning and Spokane leading 3–2, Cancel brought in Eaton. The next two Vancouver batters were lefties. But they were the third and fourth hitters in the lineup — first baseman Peyton Williams and right fielder Je’Von Ward. As Fresno pitching coach Jerry Sullivan would say, Cancel was throwing Eaton in the fire. Indeed, in a leverage situation, Cancel turned to Eaton after seeing him pitch once. It was enough.

The beefy Williams is listed at 6-foot-5 and 255 pounds. In the regular season, he hit .289 with a .838 OPS and 11 homers and 50 RBI in 77 games. He hit a weak ground ball to third base on Eaton’s first pitch.

Ward hit .279 with a .836 OPS in the regular season with seven home runs and 35 RBI in 62 games. He didn’t put the ball in play against Eaton. Ward struck out swinging on four pitches, ending Eaton’s five-pitch workday.

The two innings Eaton threw at Everett in his only Spokane appearance on the final day of the regular season had registered with Cancel.

“I felt that right away when I saw those two innings that this guy’s going to help me out,” Cancel said. “I mean, throwing 97–98 (mph). Especially against those two lefties. They couldn’t handle (velocity), so I felt very comfortable bringing him in.”

Eaton was surprised he was taken out after throwing a mere five pitches. “That’s it?” he asked Cancel, who told Eaton he would have left him in for a possible save except he had a trusted closer in Sam Weatherly, who pitched a scoreless ninth to seal the 3–2 win.

The Rockies do not allow pitchers who were just drafted to have outings on back-to-back days as they get acclimated to professional baseball in their first season. Stender saw Eaton during his stay with Fresno where the next day after pitching, he repeatedly said he was good for that night’s game and wanted to be available to pitch.

“I’d rather the kid be knocking down doors, asking for the ball than happy he got through it and kicking back,” Stender said. “So there’s definitely a competitive fire in there, a desire to be good. Wants the team to win. All the intangibles that you hope you see, they definitely played out in the short time that we’ve been around him.”

Stender was in Spokane when Eaton got those two outs on five pitches in Game 3 against Vancouver. Eaton wasn’t going to be used in Game 4 the next night per organizational policy. But Cancel called Linton, the Minor League Pitching Coordinator, to ask if Eaton could be “hot” (bullpen parlance for available) for Game 4 after throwing just five pitches a day earlier.

Linton said that couldn’t happen. Cancel also said on the day of Game 4, he asked Stender, “‘Jesse, who (do) I need to talk to so I could pitch him back-to-back?’” Stender said there was no way Eaton would pitch in Game 4, which Spokane won 3–2 in 10 innings to win the Northwest League championship. But Game 5, perhaps.

“Robinson Cancel fell in love with him,” Forbes said, “95–98 (mph) with a good slider is pretty appealing.”

Eaton, taken in the sixth round, is the highest-drafted pitcher from George Mason. That achievement is “very special” to him in part because he’s grateful for the opportunity to have gone there. Eaton tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow in the first game of his senior season in high school. That calamitous event is seared in his memory. He can summon every last detail, nothing clouded by time.

Eaton precisely recalls the injury occurred in the fourth inning on his 64th pitch, a fastball. He played first base and batted the rest of the season, ultimately underwent an MRI that diagnosed the torn UCL and had Tommy John surgery July 20, 2021.

He’s thankful that George Mason coach Shawn Camp, a former reliever who pitched in the Majors for five teams from 2004–2014, let him sit out his freshman year and rehab.

“I don’t know if I would be in this position now if Camp didn’t make that decision to be able to keep me,” Eaton said, “because I know how colleges work nowadays. If you’re not healthy, there’s a good chance you might not be on the team.”

Eaton’s record erroneously shows he pitched one scoreless inning in one appearance as a freshman in 2022.

“That wasn’t even me pitching,” he said. “Somebody lost their jersey my freshman year and had to use mine. And they put my name out there and said I threw a scoreless inning. At the end of the day, yeah, I’ll take the scoreless inning. But that wasn’t me out there.”

As a sophomore in 2023, Eaton went 1–3 with a 6.38 ERA in 14 starts totaling 42.1 innings while averaging 5.3 walks and 10 strikeouts per nine innings. In his junior season last year, Eaton went 3–2 with a 5.66 ERA in 14 starts. He pitched 62 innings and averaged 4.9 walks and 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings.

“My sophomore year coming back from Tommy John, I could not find my changeup or my slider,” Eaton said. “That’s kind of the reason why the stats are not the best, because I only had my fastball. The strike percentage on my changeup and slider were very low.

“Coming back my junior year, my slider over time started to be there. My changeup has honestly always been my best pitch analytics-wise just because of the vertical break and the horizontal movement. It’s technically my best pitch. But sometimes, I have a hard feel for it or sometimes I drop my arm slot on it, so it’s easier to recognize.”

Which is why when Eaton got to Fresno, one of the first things he said to Sullivan, the Fresno pitching coach, was he wanted to get his changeup right.

“I never seemed to click in college, you could say. When I was in college, I felt like I just continued to fight and fight and fight,” Eaton said, “and I could never really figure anything out … Once I became a pro, I feel like I was freed up a lot because when you’re in college and you want to become a pro, you put a lot of stress on yourself.

“Once I got into pro ball, I feel like I was freed up a lot more just because knowing not necessarily that I made it, but I made it to the next level to where I know I can grow. And I know these (coaches) can get their hands on me and do whatever they need to do. And I feel like that’s what I did when I got to pro ball.”

Mike Garlatti is the Rockies’ area scout whose territory includes part of Virginia and who covers George Mason. He is based in New Jersey and is one of the original Rockies scouts. The late Pat Daugherty, the Rockies’ first scouting director, hired Garlatti when he assembled a small scouting staff in advance of the 1992 First-Year Player Draft in which the Rockies participated — one year before the Rockies began Major League play.

Garlatti opted not to see Eaton make his 2023 debut for George Mason against Duke on Feb. 17 in a tournament at Coastal Carolina in Conway, S.C., because Eaton had been dealing with back soreness. There would be other and better times to watch him pitch, Garlatti reasoned.

“I wasn’t really sure what it was,” Eaton said of his back situation. “It was just kind of dragging out. It happened in the fall. It dragged out to where I only got one live outing before I was heading out to pitch against Duke. There’s no excuse for that performance.”

Eaton gave up six hits and eight runs in two-thirds of an inning with one walk, one strikeout and one hit batter. He needed 41 pitches to get two outs. The Rockies did have a scout there. Scott Corman, whose territory includes Indiana, Kentucky, eastern Illinois and Tennessee where games had not begun in mid-February, saw Eaton.

“It was a horrible, rough start,” said Marc Gustafson, the Rockies’ Senior Director of Scouting Operations. “But he liked the delivery, he liked the body, he liked the presence, the athleticism.” Gustafson said Corman’s report highlighted those attributes, and “the report carried value and weight.”

Gustafson said “a wonderful scout story” led to the drafting of Eaton because the Rockies saw him early, in the middle and late in the college season. After Corman, Garlatti saw Eaton pitch twice during the season, and liked him both times. With the George Mason season winding down, Garlatti wanted one of the Rockies’ crosscheckers to see Eaton. Jay Matthews was there for Eaton’s final start of the season and his George Mason career on May 17 against Davidson.

“If Mike likes a guy, and he bangs on the table for one of us to see him, we’re going to see him,” Matthews said.

Against Davidson, Eaton threw four scoreless innings, allowed three hits and two walks with seven strikeouts in an 87-pitch outing.

“I liked his pre-game process, his stretching and his bullpen before he even toed the rubber,” Matthews said. “It was a very professional-like approach. Very confident in his ability. Even keel on the mound. The way he handled himself on the mound, you couldn’t tell if he struck out four or five or six or walked five or six.

“That particular day, his fastball was up to 96 (mph). The slider was good, too, 82–85 (mph) with good break on it.”

Matthews saw a good downhill angle on Eaton’s fastball and a slider that was tight with a late break. Matthews also thought Eaton’s changeup could be a good complimentary pitch to his fastball and slider.

“I put in my report I liked his stuff, but I thought he had upside once he got into pro ball,” Matthews said. “He was one of those pitchers who would very much benefit from pro instruction because the arrow is pointing up on Konner. And it was great to see what he did once we got him.”

That acquisition required a push from Garlatti. The Rockies’ scouts convene at the Salt River at Talking Stick complex in Scottsdale, Ariz., about a week before the mid-July draft. There they go over players and prepare the club’s draft board, ranking the players by order of preference. Of course, once the draft begins, that board gets scrambled as other teams make their selections.

The sixth round was beginning when Garlatti stood up in the back of the room and came to the front. He had one thing in mind. To speak on behalf of Eaton and convince Gustafson, general manager Bill Schmidt and assistant general manager Danny Montgomery that Eaton should be chosen in the sixth round.

“And when Mike stands up, I take notice,” Gustafson said, “because he’s a veteran scout with a good track record, with a good history.

“Obviously, I think the world of his scouting acumen. And he doesn’t normally do that type of thing. Now day three (when the draft includes rounds 11 through 20 and is completed), he’ll do it. Mike stood up in that sixth round, and I thought we better pay attention here.”

Garlatti recalled pushing for the Rockies to draft Carlos Torres, a reliever from Lehigh, which they did in the 20th and final round in 2022. Torres pitched very well last year at Spokane and then in the Arizona Fall League.

“It was one of the few times I literally walked up there (to the front of the room) and said we need to consider this guy,” Garlatti said. “I got lucky with Carlos Torres, and I think it helped me get Konner Eaton.”

And now the Rockies have to decide just how to develop Eaton. Does he start? Does he relieve? Which role is better for Eaton and the organization? It’s a happy problem, one the Rockies will gladly tackle.

ABOUT THE SPOKANE INDIANS

The Spokane Indians are the High-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies located in Spokane Valley, Wash., and are the reigning Northwest League Champions. The Indians have played at Avista Stadium—home to the MultiCare Kids Bench Seat and Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs Military & Veteran Ticket—since 1958 and have been a proud member of the Spokane community since 1903. Parking at all Spokane Indians games is FREE. The Spokane Indians Front Office and Team Store are open Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.