If you’ve been to a Yard Goats game over the past few months, you probably noticed Colorado Rockies top prospect Charlie Condon. It’s hard not to notice the 6-foot-6 first baseman. The 22-year-old slugger had an August to remember with the Goats, hitting six home runs in 25 games and putting up an OPS of .998. That kind of heater at the plate has sparked talks that a promotion to Triple A isn’t too far off for Condon.
Condon was picked by Colorado third overall in the 2024 MLB draft. Getting selected would probably have been a long shot when Condon joined the Georgia Bulldogs as a walk-on in 2022. Redshirting that year to work on adding muscle to his then 6-foot-5-frame, Condon first saw the field for Georgia in 2023. The redshirt freshman burst onto the scene with one of the greatest freshman seasons in school history. As Baseball America’s Freshman of the Year, he won the team’s Triple Crown with a .386 average, 67 RBIs, and 25 home runs.
Condon’s 2024 follow up was one of the greatest seasons in college baseball history. The righty slugger set the BBCOR bat era-record with 37 home runs and slashed an astronomical .433/.556/1.009. Condon won just about every award a college baseball player can receive, winning the Golden Spikes and Bobby Bragan Slugger Award and receiving the Dick Howser Trophy.
After tying the record for the highest draft bonus ever received with a payout of 9.25 million dollars, Condon was assigned to the High-A Spokane Indians. Despite being less than two months removed from the final game of his historic season with the Bulldogs, the wheels fell off for Condon over a month’s worth of games with Spokane. Over 25 games, Condon put up an OPS of just .518 with only one home run while striking out in 31 percent of his plate appearances.
“I was dealing with a hand injury that I played through that first year of pro ball,” Condon said in an interview with FanGraphs. “That’s just baseball, man. It’s part of the learning experience, and you have to be able to accept failure and take the positives out of it.”
The second-year pro had to wait for a chance to rebound, as he fractured his left wrist in March during spring training. Upon his return to the instructional leagues, he initially only played defense. Condon fell down multiple prospect rankings, as Baseball America slid him from 16 to 52, while FanGraphs dropped him out of their top 100 entirely. When Condon did get back in the batter’s box, however, the results were reminiscent of the slugger the Rockies hoped they would get at third overall.
Condon tore through the Arizona Complex League to earn a promotion back to Spokane. This time, Condon was one of the better players in the Northwest League. He was fourth in hits and third in walks for the month of June and cut his strikeout rate down to 21%, earning himself a trip to the All-Star Futures Game and a promotion to Double A Hartford to begin July. There was an adjustment period over Condon’s first month at the Double A level, as he got on base at only a .295 rate in his first month. Yet again, Condon showed his ability to rebound. He crushed the ball in August with a triple slash of .289/.409/.589. He also has two home runs in six games to start September.
“The margin for error gets a lot smaller (at the Double A level),” Condon said in an interview with MLB.com. “Just being able to stick to your approach and really trust in that and not get away from it because, if you do, it’ll show.”
Condon has quickly become a fan favorite among Yard Goats fans. Both kids and adults at Dunkin’ Park can be found lining both ends of the dugout trying to get a signature or photo from Condon, who is known to be generous with his time. It isn’t uncommon to see a fan walking around wearing a Georgia jersey with Condon’s collegiate number 24 on the back. A photo from early in his Yard Goats tenure was featured on the cover of the August edition of the team’s souvenir program.
“This is the gold standard here, it’s always a good crowd,” Condon said in the MLB.com interview. “To have this as home and to have these fans out here every night, we’re lucky,” he said. Condon also added that having the fans there makes it more fun to come to the park every night to play.
Condon may not be with Hartford for much longer, as the team’s regular season ends this week with a road series against the Richmond Flying Squirrels. A promotion to Triple A could soon follow. That could change if Hartford finishes within the top two of the Eastern League Northeast standings, a position which they currently sit 3.5 games back of. For a team that will need a strong week in Virginia to make a late playoff push, they couldn’t ask for a more levelheaded player to be at the center of that effort.