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Happy Fourth of July weekend, everyone, and welcome back to another Up-and-Coming Dynasty Player installment.

This week, I head west and turn my attention to a player who can supply his own fireworks in Hunter Goodman of the Colorado Rockies. If you haven’t been paying attention to the Rockies, and really, who is considering how bad they are this season, then you probably don’t really know how good Goodman has been this year.

So let me summarize for you his 2025 campaign entering Friday’s game. This is where he ranks vs. follow catchers this season:

• Home Runs – 3rd
• Runs – 2nd
• RBI – 2nd
• Average – 3rd
• OBP – 5th
• SLG – 3rd
• OPS – 3rd

Goodman has having a great season, and one I think he can duplicate over the next several seasons.

Career Statistics

Road to the Show

Hunter Goodman started his post-high school career at the University of Memphis and immediately showed off his power as he hit 13 homers and slugged .573 his freshman year. The 2020 season was cut short due to Covid, but in 17 games, he hit eight homers and drove in 31 while slashing .357/.416/.743. In 2021, he added 21 homes and 51 RBI in 56 games while slashing .307/.401/.678. Goodman’s 42 homers when he left were a school record, and he slugged .638 during his career at Memphis.

The Rockies selected Goodman in the fourth round of the 2021 draft, and the right-handed slugger mashed his way through the team’s minor league system. In 294 career minor league game,s he hit 80 homers and drove in 255 runs while slashing a solid .280/.353/.575.

In his first full season in minor league ball in 2022, Goodman played at three different levels and hit 36 homers in 135 games while driving in 106 runs and slashing .294/.354/.572. He followed that up in 2023 with 34 home runs and 111 RBI with a .259/.338/.580 slash line, earning him a stint with the Rockies at the end of the season. He split time between Triple-A and the Rockies last year, but appeared in 70 games for the Rockies and slugged .417 with 13 homers and 36 RBI.

Tools

If you have Hunter Goodman on your team, expecting him to help your batting average, then you have the wrong opinion of him. Yes, he is currently hitting .286 for the Rockies, but that average doesn’t match his career numbers with Colorado and only matches what he did in the minors.

Is Goodman a .200 hitter like he was in his first 93 games with the Rockies? No, I think he is better than that. In the end, I expect him to be a .250-.260 hitter, and I can easily live with that. He won’t kill your batting average, and he won’t kill your OBP.

During his brief MLB career, Goodman has a 5.0% walk rate, way below the 8.4% MLB average. This season, his walk rate ranks in the 19th percentile. Couple that with a strikeout rate that ranks in the 18th percentile and Whiff% that ranks in the 6th percentile, and you get a hitter that isn’t exactly going to get on base a lot.

OK, so Hunter Goodman isn’t likely to be a great “hitter” when it comes to batting average and OBP. But when you have the kind of power he has, you can easily overlook that. Who wouldn’t want Cal Raleigh as their catcher right now? Am I saying Goodman IS the next Raleigh – not quite. But there are similarities between the two, with the most obvious being the power, like this shot to center field in Dodger Stadium.

Just look at where Goodman ranks in SLG, AEV, Barrel%, Hard Hit%, and Bat Speed in the chart above. Those are some pretty good rankings. Raleigh ranks much higher in SLG (96th percentile) and Barrel% (98th percentile), but is lower than Goodman in AEV (85th percentile) and Hard Hit% (84th percentile), and is slightly ahead of Goodman in Bat Speed (89th percentile).

In his last 156 games, Goodman has hit 29 homers and driven in 86 runs. I will take that kind of production from my catcher every year.

Like most catchers, speed is not the name of the game for Goodman. He has one steal this season and has one steal in each season he has been with the Rockies. But overall, do not expect Goodman to add to your steals total.

The Verdict

The reason you want and need Hunter Goodman is because he is going to hit home runs, and we all love home runs. That one ability helps in runs scored, RBI, SLG, OPS, and, of course, home runs. If you have a team of Goodmans, you will likely win most of the offensive categories, losing in batting average and OBP but doing pretty well in the other stats, and that is the goal of the game, right?

There have been questions about Goodman’s ability to remain at catcher, a position where he is not that proficient. He struggles defensively and has seen playing time at right field, left field, and first base with the Rockies and during his time in the minors and college. But at no one position is Goodman really a standout, so this year he has seen time only at DH and catcher.

His future is more than likely as a DH with some time at catcher, which will keep him eligible at that position. While he has yet to play first base this year, the Rockies still may give him some time there, and if that happens, it will only increase his value. But even if Goodman is eligible only at catcher after this season, I am fine with that. His power at that position makes him one of the better catchers in baseball.

As I stated, I think his batting average will slip, but his power is not going to disappear. Go and grab him if you can. I say ‘if” because most fantasy owners have already jumped onto the Hunter Goodman bandwagon. He is owned in 85% of Yahoo leagues and 72% of ESPN leagues.

But if you are hurting at catcher and have excess pitching or whatever, try to make that trade to land Goodman.

Thanks for reading, have a great Fourth of July weekend, and come back again next week.