Fantasy Baseball Prospects Report: Charlie Condon, Zac Veen are beating down the door but have no clear path

The Rockies are in a strange place developmentally. They're still mired in last place, making them not substantively better than in the previous four years, and yet if you look up and down their lineup, you'll see a bunch of players who genuinely deserve to be starting in the majors.

Mickey Moniak has built on his success from a year ago. TJ Rumfield has been a nice find. Cole Carrigg has made a strong first impression. Jake McCarthy has gone a long way toward restoring his value. Ditto Willi Castro. Troy Johnston and Tyler Freeman have been solid contributors even as the Rockies have struggled to find consistent playing time for each.

So what do they do now that some of their top prospects are knocking on the door? The trade deadline can't come soon enough.

FIVE ON THE VERGE

(Here are the prospects most worth stashing in redraft leagues.)

Charlie Condon, 1B, Rockies

2025 minors: .268 BA (365 AB), 14 HR, .820 OPS, 52 BB, 112 K
2026 minors: .286 BA (269 AB), 18 HR, .994 OPS, 49 BB, 78 K

How hot is Charlie Condon? Since just a week ago, he's hit another four home runs, including three in his past two games. His batting average is up another 16 points, and his OPS is closing in on 1.000. The hitting profile doesn't necessarily scream greatness, but it presents no obvious red flags either, with most of his Statcast readings measuring in the 75th percentile or better.

The Rockies are settled at first base and the outfield and are about to have a redundancy with Brenton Doyle on the mend from an oblique injury, so it may take them selling off Jake McCarthy and/or Mickey Moniak for Condon to have a path. But if a couple injuries hit this week, you're going to feel pretty stupid for not picking him up ahead of time.

Joshua Baez, OF, Cardinals

2025 minors: .287 BA (418 AB), 20 HR, 54 SB, .884 OPS, 59 BB, 103 K
2026 minors: .262 BA (294 AB), 26 HR, 13 SB, .923 OPS, 22 BB, 99 K

Joshua Baez's splashy summer has entered the doldrums over the past week, with him going 1 for 20 with seven strikeouts in his past five games. That and Condon's June surge are the reasons why Baez slips to No. 2 here after consecutive weeks in the top spot. Though his power isn't in dispute at this point and his speed adds a useful element for Fantasy, Baez's swing-and-miss issues are harder to overlook when he's scuffling.

"Big league pitchers are the best in the world at exploiting weaknesses," president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom recently told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, referring to Baez's backsliding contact skills. "There's always an adjustment period regardless, but it's on us to help our players build the right foundation for success at the highest level. He's got the ceiling of an impact player and not just a one-dimensional guy, and we want to make sure he's prepared to do that."

Maybe Baez snaps out of it tomorrow -- I'm still calling him the second-best prospect to stash, after all -- but Nathan Church hit a big home run Tuesday and seems to be satisfying the Cardinals well enough for now. I'm still bullish overall, but the urgency is slightly diminished.

Kade Anderson, SP, Mariners

2026 minors: 7-0, 1.22 ERA, 0.71 WHIP, 66 2/3 IP, 10 BB, 99 K

Aside from his only real miss this season, a five-run outing at Northwest Arkansas on May 15, Kade Anderson had allowed just two earned runs all season ... until his latest outing Monday, when he allowed two more. The performance, which you'd have to call his second-worst even as he struck out nine, raised his ERA 20 points. It's all the way up to 1.22 now. Horror of horrors.

Clearly, I've run out of things to say for what's obviously the game's top pitching prospect. The Mariners are already trying to make six starting pitchers work, devising crazy piggyback schemes that they've struggled to follow through on, so I wouldn't say Anderson's arrival is imminent. But it is inevitable at some point this summer, and if you hesitate to add him, you risk missing out on what could be the most impactful call-up of the season. Already, he's 50 percent rostered in CBS Sports leagues.

Luis Lara, OF, Brewers

2025 minors: .257 BA (513 AB), 2 HR, 44 SB, .712 OPS, 86 BB, 99 K
2026 minors: .327 BA (272 AB), 7 HR, 21 SB, .900 OPS, 46 BB, 41 K

At this time a week ago, Luis Lara had just snapped a slump with a five-hit game. He's 7 for 21 (.333) since then, so I think it's fair to say he's righted himself at the plate, putting the onus back on the Brewers to make a move. In a way, they've done this to themselves by locking him up with a seven-year deal in early June. They're paying him major league money to play in the minors after taking all service time considerations off the table. What does he need to work on? Getting bigger and stronger, I guess. He's only 21 and is hitting the ball just 87.9 mph on average. His overall bat skills and plate discipline are more than likely enough for him to succeed, though, and he'd instantly become the Brewers' best defensive outfielder. Garrett Mitchell continues to hang in there at the major league level. Perhaps they're just waiting for him to slip (and/or fall).

Zac Veen, OF, Rockies

2025 minors: .289 BA (377 AB), 11 HR, 15 SB, .823 OPS, 39 BB, 86 K
2026 minors: .327 BA (275 AB), 14 HR, 14 SB, 1.004 OPS, 38 BB, 65 K

By placing him at the opposite end of my Five on the Verge, I'm obviously suggesting that Zac Veen is behind Charlie Condon in the call-up pecking order, but I may be wrong about that for one simple reason: Veen is already on the 40-man roster, having gotten a brief look in the majors last year. In any case, they're both among my top five prospects to stash, which counts for more than the precise order.

The 24-year-old Veen has had a tumultuous minor league career since being drafted ninth overall in 2020, but I dare say his stock has never been higher than right now. It's not just that he's hot, batting .395 (45 for 114) with 10 home runs in his past 27 games. It's not even that he's reaching base at a higher rate and hitting the ball with more authority. It's that he's doing it all after coming clean about his substance abuse issues this spring, reporting in a better place both mentally and physically.

FIVE ON THE PERIPHERY

(Here are some other prospects doing something of note.)

Max Anderson, 2B, Tigers

2025 minors: .296 BA (504 AB), 19 HR, .828 OPS, 36 BB, 87 K
2026 minors: .308 BA (198 AB), 11 HR, .890 OPS, 14 BB, 29 K

Gleyber Torres is down for a second time with an oblique injury that cost him a month the first time. A player of some prospect stature himself, Hao-Yu Lee, has been filling in, but not particularly well, which opens a lane for Max Anderson. The 24-year-old hit .296 in the upper levels of the minors last year and is batting .308 now. He's enjoying a particularly hot stretch, having gone 5 for 6 with two home runs in a game Saturday. Clearly, he excels at putting bat to ball and maximizes his power output with a high pull rate, but his poor exit velocity readings (87.6 mph average and 109.7 mph max) make me less than confident he'll be an impact player in Fantasy. He's also not much of an on-base threat and is stretched defensively even at second base, which makes me less than confident he can stick as an everyday player in the majors. Still, he's interesting and potentially close to being promoted, so he's worth mentioning here.

Bo Davidson, OF, Giants

2025 minors: .281 BA (449 AB), 18 HR, 19 SB, .844 OPS, 68 BB, 119 K
2026 minors: .269 BA (238 AB), 17 HR, 10 SB, .853 OPS, 26 BB, 65 K

Ever since he took the lower levels of the Giants' minor league system by storm as an undrafted player in 2024, I feel like some evaluators have been waiting for Bo Davidson to expose why he went undrafted in the first place, and for a minute there, it looked like it may be happening with his move up to Double-A. But his June dispelled that notion rather decisively. For the month, he hit .309 (29 for 94) with 11 homers and seven steals. He remains a burgeoning power/speed threat in an organization that's light on outfield talent.

Bryce Rainer, SS, Tigers

2025 minors: .288 BA (125 AB), 5 HR, 9 SB, .831 OPS, 20 BB, 33 K
2026 minors: .262 BA (225 AB), 9 HR, 14 SB, .826 OPS, 40 BB, 94 K

Coming back from surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder, Bryce Rainer's swing was out of sorts earlier this year -- too busy and exaggerated, according to Baseball America -- and it led to him striking out 44 percent of the time in his first 31 games. He managed to calm everything down in the second half of May, though, and was clearly back to form in June, slashing .352/.478/.662 for the month with six homers, five stolen bases, and a more palatable 27 percent strikeout rate. The former 11th overall pick is still just 20 years old, despite his health woes, and is hurtling toward a promotion to Double-A. Reaching that level at that age would go a long way toward reinforcing that he's still one of the top shortstop prospects in the game.

Andrew Fischer, 3B, Brewers

2025 minors: .311 BA (74 AB), 1 HR, 8 SB, .848 OPS, 11 BB, 22 K
2026 minors: .291 BA (223 AB), 24 HR, 7 SB, 1.123 OPS, 52 BB, 97 K

Another week, another Brewers hitting prospect to highlight. Andrew Fischer, the 20th overall pick last year, has quickly made a name for himself as a power hitter. A two-homer game Tuesday gives him six in 11 games since moving up to Double-A and 26 overall, putting him in a three-way tie for the minor league lead. The game was suspended in the fifth inning, which means the stats haven't been credited to him yet, but it also means he could add on even more before the game is done.

Fischer stands out just as much for his on-base skills as his power, reaching base at a .437 clip between his two stops this year, and as a left-handed-hitting third baseman, he should get plenty of runway. The only problem is that he's striking out more than 33 percent of the time, even at levels where pitchers aren't throwing many breaking balls yet. He can't afford to trip up too much as he moves up the ladder, seeing as he's already 22.

Henry Lalane, SP, Yankees

2025 minors: 0-0, 2.33 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, 19 1/3 IP, 14 BB, 22 K
2026 minors: 3-1, 3.09 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 55 1/3 IP, 22 BB, 70 K

Henry Lalane had the look of a burgeoning prospect as a teenager in the lowest levels of the Yankees system, but then his past two seasons were wrecked by shoulder issues. He seems to have overcome them now, though. Just over the course of this season, the 6-foot-7 lefty's average fastball is up 2 mph, and his peak fastball is up 3 mph, reaching 98. This all culminated in him throwing seven one-hit innings in his latest outing for Low-A Tampa, striking out 12 and walking none. Low-A is obviously a low level for a 22-year-old, but you can understand his development being stunted by injury. Where he finishes in 2026 will be more important than where he began.