Rockies’ Kyle Karros wants to be one of the best third basemen in baseball. He’s got the pedigree.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Kyle Karros doesn’t want to be just another guy in the big leagues; he wants to be “a dude.”
Explain, please.
“Not just be a player, but one of the best third basemen in the game,” the 6-foot-5, 230-pound Rockies rookie said.
On a rebuilding team, coming off a 119-loss season, Karros is intent on being part of the turnaround by playing 24-karat defense at the hot corner and becoming an offensive force — starting this season.
“Realistically, in order for us to get this team turned in the right direction, I don’t think it’s just going to be a matter of, ‘Oh, this guy squeaked out a spot on the roster over this guy,’ ” Karros said. “It’s going to take players taking a big step and showing that they are some of the best players in the game.”
During a one-on-one meeting early in spring training, he shared his lofty goal with manager Warren Schaeffer.
“I had this conversation with ‘Schaeff,’ and I told him that the expectations for myself are set at a pretty high standard,” Karros said. “We talked about what I wanted to get out of this camp. That, truth be told, I’m not here to beat out someone else or win a spot. I’m here to be a dude in the big leagues.”
So, does ‘Schaeff’ believe in Karros’ dude mentality?
“Oh, yeah,” the manager said without hesitation.
Rockies fans might be surprised by the spring bravado. After all, in 43 games last season, Karros didn’t exactly mash. After a hot start — 4 for 11 with two doubles in his first three games — he cooled off, finishing the season with a .226/.308/.277 slash line with four doubles, just one home run, nine RBIs, 15 walks (9.6% BB-rate) and 41 strikeouts (26.3% K-rate).
Schaeffer says those late-season numbers were misleading.
“Rockies fans, last year, watching Kyle Karros, have to realize that he was 20 pounds underweight and he had pretty much gone through his first full professional season,” Schaeffer said, noting that Karros was down to 210 pounds by the end of the season. “And getting called up, and getting thrown into the fire, without his best body, and without his best ability at the time? And still see flashes of good stuff? Kyle Karros has the potential to be a Gold Glove defender at third base for a long time.
“And he’s going to hit. He’s got long levers, he’s got the baseball acumen, he wants it. Now he just has to go out there and do it.”
Major League pedigree
A big part of that acumen comes from his father, Eric Karros, who played 14 seasons in the majors, most of them with the Dodgers. Eric had a career .268 batting average and slugged 284 homers. He said his son has the physical skills and intangibles to eclipse his career.
“Kyle’s desire to be great and be the best at whatever he does is 100%,” Eric said.
Eric and his wife, Trish, were at Chase Field on Aug. 8 last season when their son made his major league debut against the Diamondbacks and witnessed his first big-league hit in his first at-bat. There were hugs, and proof that there is crying in baseball.
In the dugout, after hitting an RBI single off Zac Gallen, Kyle made the mistake of catching a video of the TV broadcast.
“The camera panned to my dad and mom,” he recalled. “They were getting emotional. Then I started tearing up in the dugout. I was just trying to analyze how Gallen pitched to me in my first at-bat. I ended up walking away from the iPad with some tears in my eyes.”
Eric used to work overtime on his hitting, the very essence of a baseball cage rate. He was, and remains, obsessive about baseball, even now as he works as an announcer for select Dodgers games.
“Kyle’s very different from me,” he said, laughing. “I lived in the batting cage. Even now, I eat, breathe, and sleep baseball. That might be kind of screwed up. I don’t know.
“Kyle will take groundballs forever, and I know he will do anything to compete. But he knows how to get away from things better than I did. That’s good.”
At 19, Kyle was “kind of lanky and awkward,” according to his dad, who added, “Maybe people didn’t see the kind of body he would grow into.”
Injuries during his collegiate career at UCLA caused Kyle to fall a bit on the draft board, and he slid to the Rockies in the fifth round of the 2023 draft. But he rocketed through the minors.
He earned MVP honors in the High-A Northwest League in 2024, when he led Spokane to the championship by slashing .311/.390/.485 in 123 games. Last year, he impressed at Double-A Hartford, hitting .294 with four homers among his 23 extra-base hits over 55 games. In a 16-game stint at Triple-A, he hit .306 with two homers, four doubles and a triple.
When the Rockies shipped Ryan McMahon to the Yankees at the trade deadline, room opened up at third base. Colorado baseball fans, used to seeing sparkling plays, first by Nolan Arenado, and then by McMahon, could be in for more acrobatics at third base.
“I’ve heard people say, ‘At 6-5, there’s no way Kyle can play third base,” Eric said. “But, I know it’s going to sound corny, but Kyle looks effortless at third base, it’s pretty to watch. It’s smooth, that’s the best way to describe it.”
Growing pains
Regarding his son’s relatively rough start at the plate last season, Eric said he’s not the slightest bit concerned.
“Last year, getting a taste of the big leagues and getting called up when he did is probably the best thing that could have happened for Kyle,” he said. “The exposure he got, against some of the game’s best pitchers, showed that he can play at this level and hold his own.”
The pitchers Kyle faced during his first 43 games included Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes (the 2025 National League Cy Young Award winner), Dodgers ace lefty Blake Snell, three-time Cy Young winner Justin Verlander, and Dodgers’ World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
“Offensively, the production, obviously, wasn’t there for me,” Kyle said. “But honestly, I never felt like I was overmatched by any of the pitchers or pitches that I saw. And I faced some pretty legitimate pitchers while I was up.
“I do think there is some natural swing stuff that I had to clean up. I’m working on that. You have to, because you get a lot fewer pitches to hit in the majors than you do in the minors. So, when you miss your pitch, it’s definitely going to make it hard. I definitely felt that. I’ll work to adjust.”
His manager expects significant growth this spring.
“Kyle knows how this game works,” Schaeffer said. “He knows that nothing is given to you. I think a lot of that has to do with growing up in the clubhouse, along with his dad. He gets it.”
Want more Rockies news? Sign up for the Rockies Insider to get all our MLB analysis.