Charlie Condon was drafted just last year, so unlike the previous installments in this series, the 22-year-old corner infielder isn’t exactly revisiting “an old scouting report” here. The observations and opinions he is responding to were written by Eric Longenhagen this past January, less than sixth months after Condon was drafted third overall by Colorado out of the University of Georgia. At the time, the young power hitter had only 109 minor league plate appearances under his belt in the High-A Northwest League.
Eric wasn’t as bullish on him as many other evaluators were when our 2025 Rockies Top Prospects list was published. Our lead prospect analyst ranked Condon second in what he described as a “talented but imbalanced system,” but Eric also gave him just a 45+ FV, citing last year’s poor performance during his first professional season as one of the reasons to be concerned; Condon slashed .180/.248/.270 with a 40 wRC+.
The 6-foot-6, 215-pound right-handed hitter is doing his best to dispel doubts that he can develop into an offensive force at the big league level. After recovering from a non-displaced fracture of his left wrist suffered in spring training, Condon put up a 131 wRC+ over 167 plate appearances with High-A Spokane this season and earned a promotion to Double-A. Since joining the Hartford Yard Goats at the beginning of this month, he’s gone 6-for-27 with a pair of two-baggers.
In a twist to our Old Scouting Reports series, here are Condon’s responses to excerpts from Eric’s January write-up.
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“Condon went third overall, signed for $9.25 million, and then had a no good very bad pro debut at Spokane during which he hit .180 and struck out 31.2% of the time.”
“That’s just baseball, man, “ Condon said of his disappointing debut. “It’s part of the learning experience, and you have to be able to accept failure and take the positives out of it. I think I’ve learned since then. It’s a tough game.
“Some of it was timing,” the slugger said when asked to elaborate. “I was also getting a little big sometimes. I had to clean up some things with my bat path to help get ready for this year.”
“During instructs, Condon played defense but didn’t get at-bats, as if he was being given time away from the plate to reset.”
“I was dealing with a hand injury that I played through that first year of pro ball,” Condon explained. “I was dealing with that as well. We were trying to get on top of that at instructs, so I kind of took some time off of hitting to let my hand heal. So yes, I was just working on some defense stuff.”
“Condon’s swing is relatively grooved and stiff. He swings really hard and has an incredible ability to turn on pitches on the inner third, especially for a 6-foot-6 guy, but Condon doesn’t have great feel for manipulating the barrel.”
“That’s someone’s opinion,” the first-rounder replied. “I disagree with it. I hit .430 in college, so nobody can really say that. I know that the hit tool is in there. I didn’t show it very well last year, but I think I can manipulate the barrel pretty well.
“Everybody has got their hot and cold zones,” he added. “But I think I’m pretty good at what I do. I just need to continue to tighten things up and show it on this stage.”
“He was late on basically everything after the draft and wholly unable to pull the ball, which wasn’t the case when he was at Georgia, where Condon had a 90% contact rate against fastballs.”
“Yeah, I just didn’t have a great year,” Condon admitted. “I had to clean that up. Now it’s better.”
“He played third base, first base, and all three outfield spots during his time in Athens, and third base and left field after the draft.”
“I’m going to continue to keep playing a lot of positions,” Condon said. “I’m playing a lot of first base right now. It’s just wherever they need me, wherever I can help.”
“He is a better thrower from the outfield than he is from third base, and I thought he looked surprisingly skillful in center field at Georgia.”
“I was just trying to bounce around and play as many positions as I can,” he explained. “I played a lot of corner outfield before, and my last year of school they tried me in center field. I was pretty comfortable there, too. I’ve been able to move around.”
“Here Condon is projected as a flawed but powerful multi-positional role player rather than an impact third baseman.”
“Again, that’s someone’s opinion,” countered Condon. “Not mine. I disagree. I think I’m really good at what I do. I’m going to keep playing my game and putting in the work that got me here.”
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Previous “Old Scouting Reports Revisited” interviews can be found through these links: Shane Baz, Cody Bellinger, Matthew Boyd, Dylan Cease, Matt Chapman, Erick Fedde, Kyle Freeland, Max Fried, Lucas Giolito, Randal Grichuk, Ian Happ, Jeff Hoffman, Tanner Houck, Matthew Liberatore, Sean Newcomb, Bailey Ober, Matt Olson, Austin Riley, Joe Ryan, Max Scherzer, Marcus Semien.
