DENVER — This is the great litmus test, the definitive case study on whether Coors Field can be relevant for reasons other than field trips and Tinder dates.

The litmus test began Tuesday afternoon, Jon Gray hunched over a desktop computer in the Rockies’ clubhouse, learning from a team official how to secure comp tickets for friends and family. (When you’re 23 and making your Major League debut, even the littlest details are new.) It continued that night with his first pitch, a 94-mph fastball launched with the ease of a NERF toss in the backyard, and through the four innings he pitched in Colorado’s 10-4 loss to the Seattle Mariners. 

And the litmus test will continue for the duration of Gray’s career here, however long it lasts, whether it finishes in trade like Ubaldo Jimenez’s, or vanishes into history like Greg Reynolds’, or reaches an even stranger conclusion, the likes of which we’ve never seen before with a pitcher drafted and developed by the Rockies: An extended run of success.

The Jon Gray era must be a successful one. It’s the only acceptable option. If Gray doesn’t realize the potential that made him the No. 3 overall pick in the 2013 draft, something went terribly wrong, and the Rockies should re-evaluate every single aspect of their operation, from the flavor of sunflower seeds in the dugout to the men in charge of developing a pitching rotation. If he’s simply the latest buzzworthy pitching prospect to fizzle at altitude, the correct response should be combining Ted Wells and the FBI crew that hacked the hacking Cardinals for a comprehensive investigation into what the heck happened.

If Gray doesn’t work out, who’s foolish enough to trust in the three pitching prospects the Rockies got in return for shipping off Troy Tulowitzki?

That’s a lot of “ifs,” because there are virtually none with Gray.

“I think we know what we have here. It’s just a matter of putting some of the finishing touches on his development,” manager Walt Weiss said. “Obviously, the talent, the weapons, they’re all big-league caliber. That stuff’s all in place.”

This case study is on the Rockies, not Gray. Everything about the Alpha male right-hander screams real deal, except for one damning exception: The Rockies’ history with developing pitchers. Is that unfair? Hey, these trust issues were earned. There’s no excuse for this one to go like those ones.

Gray’s first start offered enough baseball eye candy to prove the rumors correct. A jumpy fastball he leaned on for 10 of his first 11 pitches, topping out at 97 mph and staying comfortably between 94-96, each thrown seemingly easier than the last. Later, a slider that flummoxed Mariners slugger Nelson Cruz for Gray’s first of four strikeouts. When he trusted it, the slider appeared to be his wipeout pitch, a devastating option that turned batters into limbo participants.

“He’s the prototypical power pitcher,” Weiss said.

Gray needs too many pitches. That was an issue in the minors and remains an issue, for now. His pitch count had reached 77 when he was pulled with the score tied at 3. His line looks like something you might see from a normal Rockies starter – four innings, three runs, five hits – but Gray isn’t.

If a video game programmer designed the ideal prospect to handle Coors Field, their creation would look like this: 6-foot-4, 235 pounds with an effortless fastball and scraggly long, blond hair creeping out from under his ballcap for effect. Toss in a subtle Oklahoma twang, just to make him sound cool, and you’ve got Gray.

“I’m glad he’s a Rockie,” Nick Hundley said when I asked for the catcher’s personal scouting report. “I’m glad I don’t have to face him.”

“He’s got electric stuff,” Hundley added. “Big powerful guy. Strikes people out. Gets soft contact. He’s exactly what we need.”

He’s exactly what you’d draw up to conquer Coors Field. If this pitching prospect doesn’t succeed, it’s fair to question if sustained winning is possible in this ballpark, at this altitude. Two decades later, it’s never happened.

As Gray updated his bunting skills in the batting cage prior to first pitch, special assistant Vinny Castilla hummed the lyrics of a “Boyz 2 Men” ballad released when Gray was 3. He’s young, one reason the Rockies implemented an innings restriction for the remainder of his first big-league season.

“The fighting side in me wanted to go back out,” Gray said afterward.

The real pressure’s not on Gray to fulfill his promise. It’s on the Rockies. If a prospect this ideal can’t succeed at Coors Field, who can?

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Twitter: @bypaulklee