Jameson Hannah, Rockies prospect, turning heads at spring training

For Rockies fans, Jameson Hannah was a complete unknown coming into spring training as a non-roster invitee. But it’s only taken him playing five exhibition games to change that.

The 23-year old center fielder, acquired by trade with the Reds in November, has quickly put himself on the franchise radar with his Cactus League performance. Hannah is 3-for-4 with 4 RBIs and homered against Cincinnati on Monday. He’s also demonstrated range and speed with several flashy catches in the outfield.

For Hannah, the early success in his first big-league camp hasn’t changed the tunnel vision of a former second-round pick by Oakland in 2018 who has been traded twice in the last two seasons.

“It’s been a young career and I’ve kind of bounced around with different organizations,” Hannah said. “It’s good to be wanted here, but there’s a lot of work to do. I’m happy with where I’m at right now, and I’m definitely trying to stay with this organization. There’s a lot of room to grow.”

Prior to the 2020 minor league season being canceled, Hannah spent 2019 in Class-A Advanced in both the A’s and Reds organizations. In two MiLB seasons, he slashed .275/.340/.371 with three homers. Despite that thin professional resume, the Rockies are high on Hannah, especially when looking forward to finding someone to patrol Coors Field’s vast grassy expanses.

“He needs to polish some things up in the minors, but he’s interesting,” manager Bud Black said. “‘He’s got some energy to his game, and there’s a toughness to this kid. We’re looking forward to watching him develop. That was a good swing (Monday), he showed a little of the pull power that we’ve talked about, and he’s made some nice plays in the outfield. He’s progressing so it’s good to see some of his skill sets show up in exhibition games.”

With a swing modeled after Ken Griffey Jr. and a defensive style modeled after Jackie Bradley Jr., the sure-gloved Hannah wasn’t always on a big-league track. He was underrecruited out of high school at Flower Mound, a Class 5A Texas power, and ended up at Dallas Baptist.

“In high school I was a smaller, underrated player, especially coming out of a powerhouse state like Texas,” Hannah said. “Being under-looked lit a fire under me and made me want to progress as a baseball player.”

Hannah was part of Flower Mound’s title team as a junior in 2014, when he started in right field and hit in the bottom half of a loaded lineup.

“He was still learning his swing at that point in time, and because of that, he wasn’t highly recruited,” Flower Mound coach Danny Wallace said. “But it was very obvious that a lot was there, and schools didn’t want to pull the trigger. Dallas Baptist was the one that was smart enough to do it, and he went there and blew up. When he got there, it happened very quickly and he figured it out. The light came on.”

As a freshman at Dallas Baptist in 2016, Hannah earned Louisville Slugger freshman All-American honors and was also named the Missouri Valley Conference co-freshman of the year. He followed that up with another big season, earning 1st Team All-MVC honors as a sophomore, before hitting .363 as a junior.

Now, the Rockies are hoping Hannah — who came to Colorado with right-hander Robert Stephenson in exchange for right-handers Jeff Hoffman and Case Williams — can blow up the learning curve in professional baseball as he did as a breakout star in college. Hannah, who could begin the minor league season in Double-A Hartford or possibly even Triple-A Albuquerque, is ready for the challenge.

“I knew the opportunities I had coming into this organization, and I wanted to take full advantage of it,” Hannah said. “Obviously I’ve heard (Coors Field) is a big ballpark but it plays to my strengths, because I can run it down and get the ball. When I get the opportunity to play center at Coors, I’m going to take full advantage of it.”

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