This story was excerpted from Thomas Harding’s Rockies Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
DENVER -- Rockies No. 20 prospect Welinton Herrera, the left-handed pitcher whose 0.73 combined May ERA at High-A Spokane and Double-A Hartford earned him Rockies Minor League Pitcher of the Month honors, really doesn’t mind the nickname.
He’s OK with “Beef,” “The Beef” or any derivative of the beef-and-pastry dish, Beef Wellington, a gift from England. It wasn’t on his table while growing up in Fantino, Dominican Republic. Herrera, 21, learned of it from baseball buddies, and good-naturedly accepted social media’s obvious flourish.
It just so happens that it’s appropriate in a much more personalized way for Herrera, who is listed at 6-feet tall with wide, meaty shoulders.
“‘The Beef’ … if fans want to call me and players want to call me [that], I’ll invite it,” Herrera said in a phone interview, with Edwin Perez interpreting. “I like the nickname.
“But the nickname from early in the Minor Leagues, one I’m used to, is ‘The Muscles,’ because I’m a little built and have muscles, so people call me ‘Muscúlos.’”
The Rockies are going with a mostly young bullpen -- with five of the eight members either rookies or with less than two years’ service time at the start of the season, and a group of similar pitchers at Triple-A Albuquerque, as well as on the Hartford staff.
And Herrera, who announced his presence to a wider audience at the Spring Breakout game against White Sox prospects in March, makes no bones about wanting to power his way into that group before season’s end.
Herrera attacks from a low-three-quarter motion with a fastball-slider mix. It’s an mid-to-upper 90s fastball, one that he can beat batters with at the top of the zone, and he can manipulate his slider into a sharp downward break or a slurve, which has smoother, horizontal movement. He can also add or subtract speed on the slider.
Since turning pro in the Dominican Summer League in 2021, Herrera has struck out 12.94 batters per nine innings, with his rates accelerating to above 13 each year since joining the Arizona Rookie League in 2023. This year, he fanned 29 in 18 1/3 innings over 15 games at Spokane, and he has 14 strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings at Hartford in his first seven games of Double-A experience.
“In my head, I’m always thinking that this year, I can make it to the Major Leagues,” said Herrera, who received a taste of high-stakes competition when he posted a 1.80 ERA in 10 games with Águilas Cibaeñas in the Dominican Winter League before the season. “That’s my main drive.”
This season, he is demonstrating aptitude.
Last year at Fresno, he dominated Single-A hitters to the tune of 62 strikeouts and nine walks in 34 innings pitched. After being promoted to Spokane, he fanned 30 in 28 1/3 innings, but he walked 14. After limiting walks to six in Spokane, he has had just two in Double-A this season.
This year’s performance continues a growth pattern the Rockies like.
“We have the January program in Dominican, then we have Spring Training season, and then instructional league in the States, and then instructional league in the Dominican,” said Rockies vice president of international scouting and development Rolando Fernandez, who zeroed in on Fernandez when he represented the Dominican Republic in the U16 World Championships in Mexico. “Every time he comes to a program, he shows up better physically.
“He works hard, he knows what to do when he goes home, and he knows what to do on a daily basis. He’s one of the hardest workers I’ve seen.”
Herrera said his mother, an avid baseball fan, noticed baseball talent immediately, and enrolled him in a league owned by a member of the family when he was just 5. His father introduced him to his other passion, horses.
Which leads to another name story.
The Rockies’ No. 9 prospect is catcher Drew Romo, who is at Triple-A Albuquerque. Who knows if they’ll work together? But Herrera has worked with another Romo.
“I had a friend that was a little older than me, and he had his own farm, and he had his own horses and his own stable,” Herrera said. “I started riding, using his horse. I couldn’t buy it yet. Then eventually I had the money and was the right age.
“His name is Romo.”