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Rockies To Sign Keston Hiura, Nick Martini To Minor League Deals

By Darragh McDonald | January 15, 2025 at 3:18pm CDT

The Rockies have agreed to minor league deals with infielder Keston Hiura and outfielder Nick Martini, per Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. Both players will receive an invite to Colorado’s major league spring camp. Hiura is represented by CAA Sports, while Martini is represented by Meister Sports Management.

Hiura, 28, has shown huge power potential in the majors. Unfortunately, that has been undercut by a massive strikeout problem. At this point, he has 1,084 major league plate appearances. 50 of those resulted in homers but 390 ended with a strikeout, a 36% punchout rate.

In 2024, he was only in the majors briefly, as the Angeles had him on the roster for a few weeks in July. He got 27 plate appearances in 10 games, hitting .148 with ten strikeouts. He also stepped to the plate 364 times at the Triple-A level, between the Tigers’ and Angels’ systems, hitting 26 home runs but striking out 29.4% of the time. Defensively, Hiura came up as a second baseman but his glovework hasn’t been well regarded at that spot. That’s led him to spend more time at first base, with a few stops in left field along the way.

With the big strikeouts and lack of defensive contributions, Hiura hasn’t managed to contribute much in his career yet. However, he’s a fine enough depth add for the Rockies. They’ve lost over 100 games in two straight seasons now, so competing in 2025 will be a challenge. There could be a path to playing time in the club’s first base/designated hitter mix. Kris Bryant will be one option there but he’s coming off three straight injury-marred seasons. Michael Toglia is also in the mix but he’s fairly Hiura-esque himself, having hit 25 home runs last year with a 32.1% strikeout rate.

Perhaps an injury to someone in that group, or someone in the corner outfield mix, could open up some playing time for Hiura. If he gets a roster spot, watching him hit at Coors Field could make for a good show. He is out of options but has less than four years of service time.

Martini, 35 in June, has a far less extreme profile. He has 575 career plate appearances over five separate seasons. His 9.6% walk rate and 21.7% strikeout rate are both slightly better than average. His .252/.336/.400 batting line leads to a 101 wRC+, indicating he’s been very slightly above average as a hitter in his career. Defensively, he’s played all three outfield slots, though mostly in left. His glovework there has been graded just a shade below par.

The outfield mix in Colorado projects to include Brenton Doyle, Nolan Jones, Sam Hilliard, Jordan Beck, Greg Jones, Sean Bouchard, Zac Veen and others. If Martini gets a roster spot at any point, he is out of options but has less than three years of service time.

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Colorado Rockies Transactions Keston Hiura Nick Martini

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17 Comments

  1. Rsox

    6 months ago

    Martini on the Rox…

    12
    Reply
    • Fever Pitch Guy

      6 months ago

      Rsox – When Nick found out he was going to the Rockies, he was shaken … not stirred.

      8
      Reply
      • Rsox

        6 months ago

        He’s no longer dry…

        4
        Reply
  2. This one belongs to the Reds

    6 months ago

    Nick is probably having a double tonight after this.

    2
    Reply
    • jramey1

      6 months ago

      “Better make it a double” *rough voice

      3
      Reply
  3. Acoss1331

    6 months ago

    Keston at Coors Field might just light up his bat. Might be a good place for him to restart his MLB career!

    5
    Reply
    • tangerinepony

      6 months ago

      I highly highly doubt it. Scouts over rated this guy coming out of college. As a brewers fan, I’ve seen him at his worse. He’ll have better luck in Sunday night beer softball league

      Reply
  4. BigRedMachine

    6 months ago

    Why would you rather have Huria than Rodgers? if Huria gets that opportunity…

    Reply
    • Seamaholic

      6 months ago

      Hiura doesn’t really play 2B anymore. They chose Thairo Estrada over Rodgers. About the same player (better bat, worse glove) but half the cost.

      3
      Reply
  5. hellsbells51

    6 months ago

    I’m on the edge of my seat for the Roki Sasaki decision that I thought this headline read, “Roki Sasaki signs Kestan Hiura! Lol

    Reply
  6. stubby66

    6 months ago

    Some team needs to put Huira in leftfield leave him there then get him to work with his college coach in hitting. Then watch him take off. Milwaukee messed with his swing in trying to add launch angle. He is actually a really decent outfielder, plus he seemed more relaxed. Hard to go to the ballpark when CC was looking for any excuse to bench him or get rid of him.

    1
    Reply
    • da60435

      6 months ago

      Is that what happened to him? He was a really good player as a rookie.

      Reply
    • sugoi51

      6 months ago

      @Stubby66 yeah, you could tell his confidence was shot after that first season. Power stayed similar, but strikeouts were way up and OPS way down in the second year. I didn’t watch a lot of Brewers games, but enough to see a change in body language. Hope he gets it back.

      Reply
    • bill l

      6 months ago

      Whenever I saw him in Nashville, the problem wasn’t just with the uppercut. He looked like he was forcing his obliques to generate as much torque as possible. I’m surprised he didn’t injure himself, but I’ve never seen a swing even at AAA that disregarded basic eye-hand contact as much as his. But I will say I enjoyed seeing Jace Peterson get playing time when Wong was injured and Keston sent down.

      Reply
  7. HalosHeavenJJ

    6 months ago

    Keston was all about contact and line drives at UC Irvine. Be nice if he can refind that groove and make it back to the bigs.

    Plenty of alley space at Coors to hit doubles if he gets there.

    2
    Reply
  8. 3 finger split

    6 months ago

    Colorado is making it’s move…Man I feel so bad for Bud Black

    Reply
  9. t0bIe1CaN0bI

    6 months ago

    If he got a chance to start, Keston would prob hit 20-25 hrs for a bad team in Colo which would prob not mean much for anybody except Colo.

    Reply

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