Colorado Rockies outfielder Zac Veen bunts during a spring training drill, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Zac Veen looks a little different heading into the 2026 season. He hopes his play reflects it.
The Colorado Rockies outfielder showed up to spring training at a sturdy 245 pounds on what he estimates is a “6-4.5, maybe 6-5” frame. It’s the kind of physique scouts projected him having when he was a first-round draft pick in 2020 (No. 9 overall). Last year, he finished the season at what he called an unhealthy 202 pounds.
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Even his hair hints at change. The platinum highlights are gone. So is the purple hair he once wore as a nod to the Rockies’ primary color. Veen is back to his natural brown.
But the most significant transformation isn’t cosmetic.
“Definitely one of the bigger, main things was sobering up,” the 24-year-old Veen recently told MLB.com. “I had a pretty big substance abuse problem for a few years. But I’m completely clean and sober.
“There were times last year where it was out of hand. Coming home in the offseason, I had to look in the mirror and make some adjustments. And I definitely got closer to God, and it made me want to be the best version of myself in every aspect.”
The changes didn’t come without a wake-up call. Veen went 4-for-34 (.118) in 12 games during his brief MLB-debut stint last season before being sent back down to Triple-A Albuquerque. He later spent time on the injured list and even did a stint in the Arizona Complex League during the offseason. During a stretch when he wasn’t in Albuquerque’s lineup, a club official said privately that he “needed a timeout.”
In Veen’s own words and actions, it was a season of self-sabotage.
“Looking back, a lot of my meals were smoke — and things that shouldn’t have been,” Veen told MLB.com. “I was smoking weed every day. If I couldn’t find any weed, I was drinking every single day. I’d say ever since I got home in 2021 after my first season, it was a consecutive streak of not being sober. Being able to cut that out of my lifestyle and replace that with protein is very beneficial to the genes God gave me.”
Rockies player development director Chris Forbes and Veen’s high school coach Johnny Goodrich became key voices in his life, helping guide him toward change.
“It was a collaborative thing — I can’t thank them enough,” Veen told MLB.com. “I participated in an 11-week program with substance abusers and alcoholics — people wanting to better themselves. I started going to church. I got baptized, went to Bible study every Wednesday.”
The contrast with last season is stark. During his short time in the majors, Veen celebrated one of his two extra-base hits by mimicking smoking marijuana. At the time, he thought it was harmless fun. Now, he sees it differently.
“At that point, in my head at the time, any substance made me stronger,” he said. “But God works in great, mysterious ways.”
His growing relationship with God has reshaped his habits and reframed how he’s now approaching his career. He launched a 468-foot walk-off home run in a Feb. 23 spring training game, then followed it up with a 447-foot walk-off home on Feb. 27, showing some of the raw talent that made him one of the organization’s top prospects. Overall, he’s hitting .286 this spring entering Wednesday, and has a chance to make the big-league opening day roster.
The on-field success is just one part of what he’s hoping to continue progressing in, though.
“I’d say it’s really just striving to be the best version of myself every day,” he recently told the media. “Being up [in the big leagues] for that little bit, you realize that everybody’s being the best version of themselves up there. The game’s already hard enough, so you’ve got to truly be the best version of yourself mentally, physically, spiritually, and putting your best foot forward every day.”
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