Zac Veen

Zachary Richard Veen

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 6' 4", Weight 190 lb.
• High School Spruce Creek High School

• Born December 12, 2001 in Port Orange, FL USA

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

Outfielder Zac Veen was the 9th player selected in the 2020 amateur draft, by the Colorado Rockies; however, he was only the second high schooler, after Robert Hassell who was taken just before him.

He knew he wanted to play baseball from a very young age, as when he was just a sixth grader, he would bike two miles to Spruce Creek High School to watch its baseball team practice. Coach Johnny Goodrich eventually noticed him and allowed him to take part in some of the drills, seeing he was a true "baseball rat". He eventually enrolled at the school and made the varsity team as a freshman, before he had a growth spur. By the time he was a senior in 2020, he was considered the top high school player in the country, ahead of Hassell. He became friends with Austin Hays, a Baltimore Orioles prospect who was a Spruce Creek graduate, and the two practiced together. He had also worked out with Brendan Rodgers, a top Rockies prospect, in Orlando, FL. As a junior in high school, he was the Gatorade Florida High School Player of the Year. He had a commitment to attend the University of Florida, but was expected to let it drop in order to sign with the Rockies.

He was named to the National League team for the 2022 Futures Game and went 2-3 while scoring on a Jasson Dominguez fielding error. Veen had been progressing nicely through the Rockies system until the middle of 2022. After being called up to AA on August 9th after hitting .269/.368/.439 with 23 extra base hits and a whopping 50 stolen bases, he hit only .177/.262/.234 the rest of the way for the Hartford Yard Goats of the Eastern League. 2023 was a throw-away year for the 21-year-old. After spending some time in Major League spring training as a non-roster invitee, he hit just .209/.304/.308 back in Hartford. On June 22nd, he had surgery to repair a tendon in his wrist, which put an end to his season. He originally incurred the injury while playing in Spokane the previous season, and had been playing through it the entire time - which perhaps explains his struggles during the period.

Further Reading

• Mark Feinsand: "Rockies pick Veen: 'I want to be an MVP'", mlb.com, June 10, 2020. [1]
• Thomas Harding: "At No. 9, Veen joins friend Rodgers on Rockies", mlb.com, June 11, 2020. [2]
• Thomas Harding: "Rockies top prospect Veen has season-ending left wrist surgery", mlb.com, June 22, 2023 [3]