The Rockies designated Edouard Julien for assignment last week to open a roster spot for outfielder Zac Veen, and every other team in baseball took a pass. With no claims coming in, Colorado outrighted him off the 40-man roster to Triple-A Albuquerque, according to MLB Trade Rumors.
It's a quiet procedural move on paper, but it closes the book on a swing-and-miss reclamation project that lasted barely half a season. The Rockies acquired Julien and pitcher Pierson Ohl from the Twins back on January 28 for minor league arm Jace Kaminska, betting they could get more out of a former top prospect who'd cratered in Minnesota.
That bet never paid off. Julien broke in with the Twins in 2023 and finished 7th in AL Rookie of the Year voting after hitting.263/.381/.459 with 16 homers, a genuinely encouraging debut. Since then it's been a steady slide — a.199 average in 2024, a midseason demotion in 2025, and a.208/.322/.292 line in 276 plate appearances this year in Colorado that did nothing to reverse the trend.
At 27, Julien's service clock still sits shy of 3 years, which means he doesn't have the right to reject the outright assignment or elect free agency. He's staying in the organization whether he likes it or not, now as non-roster depth grinding it out with the Isotopes while the Rockies see if there's anything left to salvage.
For Colorado, it's another reminder of how thin the margin is for reclamation bets on former top prospects — the swing-and-miss profile that made Julien a Rookie of the Year contender in 2023 never got fixed, and now he's off the 40-man with the door barely cracked for a way back.