​ST LOUIS, MISSOURI – AUGUST 9: Hunter Goodman #15 of the Colorado Rockies rounds third base after hitting a home run against the St. Louis Cardinals in the eighth inning at Busch Stadium on August 9, 2026 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images) | Getty Images As my father, a Boston Red Sox fan, was grappling with his own favorite team’s identity last year in the wake of the Rafael Devers trade, he asked me who the “big players” for the Colorado Rockies were these days. I had no idea how to answer that question.He wasn’t assuming that they had a future Hall of Fame player — if so, he would have heard of them. It was more an attempt to understand which players Rockies fans would feel good about buying a jersey of and that he, as a baseball fan in general, should probably know about. For his Red Sox, the sudden departure of their franchise icon meant a new era headlined by some combination of big-money free agent Alex Bregman, burgeoning ace Garret Crochet, and/or potential superstar prospect Roman Anthony.For the Rockies in June of 2025 the answer was… no one?Fast forward to the end of August the following year though, and there is one clear and obvious answer. The face of the Colorado Rockies is Hunter Goodman.National name recognitionThere was a time when one could make have made the case that Kyle Freeland owned this designation for the Rockies. The national profile he earned with his early career success combined with both his hometown kid narrative and longevity with the team mean that he has earned a level of name recognition that has exceeded what his on-field performance has warranted in recent seasons.The combination of Freeland’s recent injury and impending free agency, however, mean that his time being a standard bearer for the organization is coming to an end.Even if Freeland were to remain with the team next year, Goodman’s recent accolades underscore that his national profile has become the highest on the team. With two All-Star selections and a Silver Slugger under his belt, Goodman has begun to carve out a name for himself among the wider baseball media ecosystem.View LinkThis past offseason, Goodman was the Rockies lone mention in MLB Network’s annual “Top 100 Players Right Now” feature. The show is more of a fun offseason exercise than it is a serious analysis of the varying talent levels of all Major Leaguers, but it does provide a datapoint in how players are perceived nationally. Goodman barely made the list at 97th, but he was on it unlike any other Rockie, and he surely will be again this offseason.The flurry of trade rumors surrounding him at this year’s trade deadline and subsequent lack of a deal generated a great many headlines informing fans around the league that Goodman is a slugging catcher for the Rockies. The percentage of baseball fans that looked at Goodman’s Baseball Reference page for the first time this summer and realized how good he’s been the past couple of