“It’s all still just baseball,” Troy Johnston said Friday night, which is precisely how the Rockies are treating a player who arrived in Denver as a November waiver claim and suddenly sits atop their lineup numbers. Johnston entered Friday’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers at Coors Field leading the Colorado Rockies with a.320 batting average and ranking fifth in the majors.
Johnston’s surge has weight: he leads the Rockies with 63 hits, a.377 on-base percentage and a team-high 17 doubles. He also owns a.404 batting average on balls in play and a.287 expected batting average, a contrast that gives his hot start both credibility and a sign of underlying volatility. With runners in scoring position he was hitting.431 (22 for 51) entering Friday, including seven doubles, and he’d driven in 27 runs while posting multiple hits in a career-best four straight games.
That production matters now because Johnston’s path to this moment was narrow. The Gonzaga product was a 17th-round pick by Miami in 2019, did not make his major league debut until July 29, 2025, and played 44 games for the Marlins last season. Colorado claimed him off waivers in November, and he came to the Rockies with a 2025 line of.277/.331/.420, four homers, two doubles, one triple and 13 RBIs in those 44 games.
Manager Warren Schaeffer has not tried to dress the numbers up as anything other than a combination of skill and temperament. “People (who) watch television can point directly to Troy, he’s got a big personality,” Schaeffer said. “We love Troy here. We absolutely love him. He brings a lot to the table in terms of his skills — on and off the field — and does bring a (special) vibe.”
Schaeffer framed Johnston’s value the way most teams value young hitters who make contact and stay steady: “It’s all mentality. It’s all about how even-keeled you can stay. How slow is your heartbeat?” he said. “I mean, you look at guys like (former Rockies third baseman) Nolan Arenado, or other guys who drive in a lot of runs, they stay the same guy. They don’t freak out because of the situation. They keep the same mentality — which is confidence. And Troy has a ton of it.”
Still, the numbers that make Johnston’s start eye-catching also create the obvious caveat. His.404 BABIP sits well above a.287 xBA, signalling that some of his results have outpaced the quality of contact the metrics expect. That split, more than the batting average itself, is why the question about sustainability is immediate: Colorado had 99 games remaining when Johnston entered Friday’s game, and over that stretch the BABIP gap and a modest 20.4% strikeout rate and 7.4% walk rate will determine whether his average drifts toward the xBA or holds.
Johnston described his mindset without drama. “You have to have a good, sound approach and still be athletic. And you have to have fun. So I’m doing what I can to make the team, make the adjustments I need to make, and go out and have fun,” he said. “I don’t have that many games in the big leagues, but what I have found is that when you just try to put the ball in play, don’t press too much, and just try to make things happen, well, sometimes good things do happen. And sometimes it’s out of your hands. That’s all part of baseball. I try to remember that.”
The immediacy of Johnston’s run matters to Colorado beyond a single stat line. His.320 was the highest a Rockie had posted on June 5 since Nolan Arenado hit.343 in 2019, and Colorado players have won 11 National League batting crowns, the last one eight years ago — a reminder that batting titles are part of the club’s history even if they remain rare. For a team still searching for consistent offense, Johnston’s emergence supplies an unexpected source.
What happens next is simple and unavoidable: he plays. Friday’s home date with the Brewers at Coors Field was the next public moment to test whether Johnston’s approach and Schaeffer’s even keel can resist regression. The club also made roster moves that day, recalling right-hander Zach Agnos from Triple-A Albuquerque and placing Tanner Gordon on the 15-day injured list retroactive to June 2 with a right hip impingement, moves that sharpen the roster’s short-term contours as Johnston tries to turn a hot start into something that lasts the remaining 99 games.
