Under the chill of winter at Coors Field on Saturday, the boys of summer provided some warmth to baseball fans at Rockies Fest.

With a mix of top prospects, current players and Hall of Fame alumni in attendance, the 2026 version of Rockies Fest had a multigenerational feel with a common message: There are signs of a new day dawning for the franchise after a 119-loss season in 2025.

“Today was really the first day I was able to meet some of the new coaches. I’m excited about the direction we’re heading,” said Tyler Freeman, who played 60 games in right field and 12 games at second base for the Rockies in 2025. “I think we hired a great group of guys, and they’re a group of guys who are going to take us to the next level.

“We’re all so excited about this season. It’s going to be different Rockies baseball. Bringing back ‘Schaeff’ (manager Warren Schaeffer) was great. He’s the guy we’re behind and we’re excited to play for him.”

“A championship organization”

Rockies president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta said more than 150 members of the organization, ranging from scouts to coaches to executives, gathered at Coors Field last week to align on the franchise’s new direction.

“We want to build a championship roster here in Denver, but that’s not all of it,” DePodesta said. “We also want to build a championship organization throughout everything we do. That includes creating alignment starting with the major league team and then driving that down through our entire operations, including the minor leagues and into the Dominican Republic and all of our scouting operations.”

Changes to Coors Field coming

Rockies executive vice president Walker Monfort said Saturday Colorado’s two Hall of Famers will be honored with statues at Coors Field in 2026. Larry Walker will have his statue unveiled Aug. 23 while Todd Helton’s statue will become public Sept. 19.

“It really came down to who deserves a statue at Coors Field, and I think it’s pretty hard to argue that Larry Walker and Todd Helton don’t based on their accomplishments and what they mean to the Colorado Rockies, our brand and our fan base,” Monfort said.

Monfort also mentioned the statues would “hopefully be just the first of many” at Coors Field in the future.

Hunter Goodman improvements

Coming off a season in which he earned an All-Star bid and the National League Silver Slugger Award for catchers, Goodman said his focus for 2026 will be at the plate and behind it as well.

“One of the weaker parts of my game has been my swing decisions,” said Goodman, who struck out in 26.3% of his 579 plate appearances last season. “When I’m swinging at the good pitches, it goes well. When I’m not, that’s when it goes downhill.

“Then also just getting really comfortable behind the dish. Last year, for the whole first half, it was like I was in flight or fight mode the whole game, so just trying to get to where I’m comfortable behind the plate and working to get our pitchers strikes and call better games.”

Just keep driving

Jake McCarthy, acquired by the Rockies in a trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks on Jan. 10, won’t have to change his routine too much for his first spring training with Colorado. The Diamondbacks and Rockies share Salt River Fields at Talking Stick as a spring training venue, so the 28-year-old outfielder just has to switch sides and parking lots this spring.

“One day after I got traded, I drove by all of my friends and just waved to them as I went over to the Colorado side of the complex,” McCarthy said with a laugh. “I’m just going to the same building in a different door. I just go a little further when I drive, so that’s a pretty convenient part of spring training for me.”

Charlie Condon’s big lesson

Condon, ranked second on Colorado’s prospect list, reflected on his second pro season, a year when he advanced to Double-A and got additional at-bats in the Arizona Fall League to prepare for a possible Denver debut in 2026.

While the focus of much of his development is on the field, Condon added that one of his biggest areas of growth since being drafted third by the Rockies overall in the 2024 draft has been in the clubhouse.

“Learning to bond and create relationships with your Latin teammates is important,” Condon said. “That’s something you don’t get a lot of playing baseball coming up is diverse baseball. When you get in a clubhouse professionally, there’s a language barrier and it takes some work to get to know these guys.

“We’re playing our best baseball when we’re all playing together. Testing my Spanish was a new fun challenge. We have some great Latin guys in this organization, and we need to move forward together. Being as close as we can be, that’s the best outcome.”