Tuesday, June 24

Hello! Welcome to another edition of the A’s beat newsletter. This edition was written by MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo.

People often go to Las Vegas when they want to gamble for the future. There can be huge payoffs, but they come with big risks.

But what if you could play for the future in Vegas with a little more confidence, with a bit more assuredness in getting return on your investment? That might be how the A’s are feeling right now.

Every team asks for help from its farm system as the season goes on, but not every organization has a good pool of talent to choose from when assistance is needed. The A’s, it appears, are a team that has built a fairly deep pool to wade in.

Just being able to call upon top prospect Nick Kurtz would be enough to feel good about. He clearly is the jewel of the system as the A’s first-rounder from last year is now getting settled into the big league lineup after just 32 Minor League games.

While perhaps no one else on the Aviators roster will have the same kind of long-term impact, there are a whole lot more options than the A’s have had in a long while that the front office would be comfortable with stepping into Major League roles if needed.

Case in point: Gunnar Hoglund, the club’s No. 14 prospect, made his big league debut on Friday, becoming the first A's pitcher since 1943 to allow one run in six innings pitched while allowing zero walks in his Major League debut. Even with Kurtz and Hoglund in the Majors, there are still seven active members of the Las Vegas roster ranked among the A’s Top 30 Prospects, with Jack Perkins (No. 9 prospect) throwing four scoreless innings Thursday night in his first post-rehab start. Five of those seven are in the top 11. 

“It’s been fun to watch these guys develop,” longtime A’s farm director Ed Sprague said. “It’s fun to see homegrown talent at the big league level, and see these other guys knocking on the door.”

It’s not just quantity. It’s a danger to draw any big conclusions after only one month of the Minor League season, but for the most part, the players in that Triple-A pool are performing well. Colby Thomas (No. 2) is slashing .291/.366/.482 with four homers and 12 extra-base hits. Denzel Clarke (No. 5) is continuing to make adjustments at the plate, drawing more walks than ever and, as Sprague said, “His defense wows you every night.”

Max Muncy (No. 6) has also been raking since he was sent down.

Even Logan Davidson (No. 30), who seems like he’s been a prospect forever (a 2019 first-round pick who I first talked to when he played in the Arizona Fall League … back in 2021), is really figuring some things out. He was just added back to the Top 30 for the first time in a while, and for good reason. Prospects figure things out at different times, and maybe this is his: He’s slashing .355/.492/.484 with Vegas so far this year, all while playing five defensive positions.

“He’s done great,” Sprague said. “He lulled there for a while -- maybe he was relying on his first-round status. Then, he had to start playing, and he did. He’s going to get to the big leagues at some point.”

It’s not just in the box. Hoglund is up in the big leagues. J.T. Ginn is hurt currently, but he made the jump to the big club after a pair of Triple-A starts. Mason Barnett (No. 3) is in the Vegas rotation. Carlos Duran (No. 29), just acquired last month from the Dodgers, also is getting a chance to show what he can do.

As Spring Training approached, it looked as if the A’s could have a Triple-A rotation devoid of six-year Minor League free agents. Nothing against the free agents -- they often went on to help the big league team -- but there was a different buzz seeing Ginn, Hoglund, Perkins, Barnett and Brady Basso (No. 19; injured this spring) as the projected rotation.

“It was exciting looking at our big board, at that Vegas rotation,” Sprague said. “It’s all our guys. It’s been fun. The last few years, the way we’ve drafted, traded and developed, it’s all kind of come together.”

No one wants to get too excited. The A’s front office is full of veterans of the game who know better than to assume they’ve got it all figured out. But A’s assistant general manager Billy Owens has had his hand in just about all of those means of player acquisition. I caught him on the Draft trail, looking at the next wave of talent the A’s will try to bring in via the 2025 Draft.

With the big league club playing good baseball right now and that Las Vegas club in first place in its Pacific Coast League division (at the time I caught up with Sprague and Owens, every A’s affiliate was over .500; not the be-all, end-all in terms of development, but it didn’t go unnoticed by Sprague), Owens is, shall we say, cautiously optimistic.

“The prospect journey through the Minors always has challenges and hurdles,” he said. “Every level presents different obstacles. Triple-A is the closest to the Majors and brings high-level experience. It’s been fun to monitor our guys navigating the toughest Minor League level.

“We’re hoping our nucleus in the Majors and upper levels is ready to contend starting now in 2025, and beyond.”

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