Other Installments in the 2024 Midseason Top 50:
Alright, it’s that time of year again. We’re nearing the midpoint of the seasons of all minor league levels except the Dominican Summer League and getting within a few weeks of the 2024 MLB Draft. That means that here at Excessive Prospect Analysis, it’s time for the 3rd Annual Midseason A’s Top 50 Prospects list.
I’ve toyed around with a few different formats for the list over the years, and I’m changing things up with it a bit this season. We’re starting today with 20 honorable mentions who just missed the list. All of these players have credible cases for being included on the top 50, and I thus wouldn’t really argue with anyone who would include them on their own list. For these players, I’ll say a bit about what each brings to the table and what more they’d have to prove to move more comfortably into the top 50 area.
Starting tomorrow, I’ll be rolling out the top 50 itself in 10-player-per-day installments. They’ll be more detailed than my top 50 writeups have been in the past–often about 500 words per player or so–in part because I haven’t gotten to cover as many players in depth this year as I have in the past. Either over the next weekend or early the following week, I’ll have a summary post or two about the list as a whole, some interesting trends, and what we can say about the state of the A’s system at this point in the 2024 season.
Since it’s been a year since I did one of these, I’ll say a bit up front about what informs my list and what sort of projection I’m trying to make.
In general, my list is just about completely informed by my consumption of A’s minor league system video over the past three-plus seasons.* I do look at statistics, of course, and I compile a ton of my own data through charting every pitch of every game I watch–somewhere between 200 and 250 per year–but I’m always considering those data in conversation with the visual evaluation of the player’s abilities. The opinions here are pretty much entirely mine–there really is no influence here from sources inside or outside the A’s organization.
*Just for those who might be new to my work, it bears mentioning: I’ve been doing minor league baseball analysis since 2008 and have covered players from across the minor league landscape for a whole bunch of outlets, including three full years of a ton of live-game looks from 2012-15. So while the project of this site in evaluating the A’s system began in 2022, I brought a lot of preexisting experience to apply in this specific direction.
An important note up front is that, because there is no video of the DSL A’s this year, I am not including 2023 international signees as eligible for this list. I’m sure guys like Erick Matos and Edgar Montéro are very interesting players and probably merit a spot on the top 50, but all I could do is regurgitate what other sources say and then throw a dart at where those guys belong, and that’s not interesting or useful analysis in any way, so I’m omitting them from consideration. DSL repeaters are fair game, though, since there's 2023 video of them to work from, at least. I suppose while on the subject of who's eligible, I'll note that a player has to officially have rookie status right now, i.e., be under 45 days of MLB service time on June 9, 2024.
You’d think, given the attention to detail I try to maintain in everything I do on here, that I’d have some sort of extremely detailed philosophy on how to rank players, but I really don’t–probably in large part because I don’t think ranking is as interesting as analysis (though I totally get how ranking is a great conversation starter and an interesting project in its own right…that’s why I do it). Overall, it’s mostly a pretty intuitive who-would-I-rather-have/who-will-have-the-best-career. I don’t consider stuff like how likely the player is to be a successful big leaguer with the A’s (i.e., hitting minor league free agency, being selected in the Rule 5, etc.) particularly heavily in here–I’m mostly interested in the player’s overall potential to be a substantial big-league contributor, period. The timetable of staying in the A’s organization does have peripheral relevance at times, though, because it can shorten the timetable for a pitcher to remain a starter or (slightly) affect the player’s priority (and development) in the A’s organization or his next one, for instance. I’d say that relative to some lists, I find mine to weigh players’ floors more heavily, while relative to others, I weigh their ceilings more heavily, so I don’t think there are particularly huge extremes at play in what I’m doing relative to what people are used to in reading lists.
In general, I think I’m not that interested in, say, the bottom quarter of outcomes for players, because, like, a quarter of the top 50 prospects in baseball often don’t amount to much. So I’m thinking more about percentiles 25-100 or so for everyone, which means I’m zeroing in on the middle of that range, like a 65th or perhaps 70th percentile outcome, rather than 50th percentile, if that makes sense. But really, that’s more just me accounting for what seems to be my intuitive process here rather than a mindset I try to go into the ranking process with in a very strict sense.
I think that’s all the general preamble I need, for now. Let’s get to today’s specifics–the twenty honorable mentions. I’ve just listed them in alphabetical order rather than doing a 70-51, because rankings beyond 50 are very much splitting hairs (which is why I always cut the main list at 50, interesting as these players (and more!) are). For those curious, the hardest four players to cut from the top 50 right now (again in alphabetical order) were Baum, Brown, González, and Trocónis, but because rankings in this tier are very fluid, that wasn’t necessarily the case as recently as a week ago.
It felt to me like these twenty were in a pretty distinct tier, though; the distance between 70th and 80th feels larger than the distance between 55th and 70th in the system at this exact moment. Seventy is a nice round number to cut things at, but that’s just the number my list of “players who merit real consideration for the top 50” organically ended up with.
Tyler Baum, RHP
What He Brings: Baum has been very effective as a reliever up through the Double-A level, showing a fastball that can reach 98 mph and an arsenal that is aided by his funky over-the-top delivery. His changeup in particular can be nightmarish for hitters to stay back on when he has a feel for it because he sells it so well. When he’s going well, he looks very, very tough to hit, and it's easy to see how he could be an effective power reliever.
What He Has To Prove: All the moving parts in the quasi-Tim Lincecum-style delivery Baum uses are a lot to coordinate, and that’s proven to be a bit of a challenge for Baum against the disciplined hitters of the upper minors. That was particularly true in a Las Vegas trial earlier this year, where it seemed like the challenges of that environment threw Baum off his game somewhat, as he started to lean on his breaking stuff a lot more than he usually does. He’s 26, which is an age where ideally a pitcher has little left to prove in the minors, but Baum still has to clear that hurdle. In fairness, the pandemic year and then two seasons of struggling with the yips definitely account for a lot of lost time, from which Baum has picked himself up admirably and progressed quite quickly, all things considered. He’s gotten back on track in Midland and should probably move back up to Triple-A at some point this year. If he can pitch with 40-grade command on a consistent basis–and he’s repeatedly flashed that over the past two seasons–then Baum has a chance to be quite effective in a big league bullpen.
Ryan Brown, RHP
What He Brings: A finesse closer at Oregon State, Brown was picked in the 16th round last year and has turned into an interesting minor league starting pitcher. He’s had a bit of a velo bump in 2024 and now sits 90-94 mph with big running action and some carry, and his changeup has huge velocity separation and tumbling action. He also brings a very clean delivery that he repeats terrifically and has a shot to pitch with true plus command.
What He Has To Prove: Brown’s slider is playable, but it’s not particularly high-velocity or high-spin, so it lacks sharpness and has been only marginally effective in Stockton. He likely will need better breaking stuff to stay a starter, particularly since he’s still on the more finesse-y end of the pitching prospect spectrum. He’s also 23, has very little starting experience, and hasn’t really been tested at an appropriate level for his polish yet, so there’s just a lot left to find out about how he’s taking to the starting role and pro ball in general.
Felix Castro, RHP
What He Brings: Castro, 20, was very effective as the DSL A’s closer in 2023, showing a high-octane fastball in the mid-90s. Moved up to Arizona and into a starting role this year, he’s been inconsistent, but he still shows potentially explosive arm strength and plenty of on-mound athleticism. He’s probably in a starting role mostly to get more reps, since the heat makes him a high-priority arm among complex-level guys, but he’s likely bound to head back to power relief at some point. His arm strength, athleticism, and projectability give him a chance to have one of the best fastballs in the system a couple of years down the line.
What He Has To Prove: Castro is still figuring out how to put his talents together into consistent performance in the US, and as he’s already 20, you’d like to see a bit more coming together for him to feel confident he belongs in the top 50. The fastball hasn’t missed bats all that much this season, his slider needs work, and a consistent changeup still seems a long way off–he doesn’t throw it very much. Though his delivery is athletic overall, his arm gets going very late, giving him more of a spray command profile right now. Some of Castro’s struggles can be ascribed to the starting role, which he isn’t well-suited for (though I get why the organization wants to maximize his reps), but he’s got to prove the fastball plays and that he can come up with a good complement to it. Once he’s getting stateside results, Castro will merit more attention.
Danis Correa, RHP
What He Brings: Correa was effective up through Double-A in the Cubs organization and has continued that this year with the A’s. Like most minor league free agent signees, Correa feels like a vet–and he is, having made his pro debut in 2017–but he’s just 24 and has an electric arm and good athleticism on the mound, reaching 98 mph with his fastball and blowing it by hitters with cut and carry. He throws a hard curve and a split-like changeup that both flash some finish.
What He Has To Prove: Correa has struggled to throw strikes in Triple-A in both the Cubs and A’s organizations. He takes a very short, almost Tyson Ross-esque stride down the mound that gives him well-below-average extension that can make his stuff play below its raw quality. Neither of his offspeed pitches is quite consistent enough to profile as an out pitch, at least for now, which puts the onus on his command to come around more fully if he’s going to be a consistent big league presence. Correa’s athleticism intrigues enough that that’s a real possibility, but he’ll have to prove he can handle Triple-A first. He’s in a pretty similar position to Baum in a lot of ways.
Reynaldo De La Paz, OF
What He Brings: De La Paz is a wiry-strong outfielder who had a strong pro debut in the DSL last year; the A’s made him the youngest player on the Opening Day ACL A’s roster in 2024. He’s showed a feel for the strike zone and line-drive contact, and he’s got a prototypical right field body and the potential to grow into some real thump as he matures.
What He Has To Prove: De La Paz’s introduction to US ball hasn’t gone particularly smoothly, as he’s struck out a lot and struggled to slow the game down. He’s got plenty of time to do that given his youth, so it’s not cause for alarm. But as a corner guy, De La Paz has to be an impactful hitter to be seen as a likely big leaguer, so any performance blips do register. If he can get his bat going at some point over the next year, that would be a huge boost.
Tyler Ferguson, RHP
What He Brings: Yeah, I know, it’s weird to call a 30-year-old a “prospect,” but Ferguson hasn’t exhausted his rookie eligibility yet, he’s been the A’s most effective minor league pitcher this season (dominating in Vegas!), he hasn’t looked overmatched in limited big league opportunities, and he has an obvious big-league-caliber pitch mix of two fastballs, a cutter, and a slider. He’s obviously not an upside guy, but he’s shown a legitimate skillset and legitimate results this year, and you can’t talk about all these guys at the low levels of the minors who are relative longshots to ever be effective Triple-A pitchers (albeit with obvious upside) and not acknowledge Ferguson.
What He Has To Prove: It feels strange to talk about what a 30-year-old has to prove, to an extent, because you have to mostly take a “he is who he is” approach here, but the main thing he’s got to keep doing is throwing strikes. The reason Ferguson never made it to the bigs before 2024 is that he always had elevated walk rates, even last year; as such, he really hadn’t ever been particularly effective in Triple-A prior to 2024. He is a high-effort thrower with a fair bit of stiffness to his short arm action. You could make a decent argument for stuffing Ferguson onto the top 50 on his stuff/results combo, but 30 innings of strike-throwing doesn’t erase a whole career of issues in that department (barring a clear mechanical explanation for the improvement, which I don’t have). But Ferguson’s place on or off the top 50 doesn’t really matter. If he keeps throwing strikes, he’ll be an effective big league reliever right now and for presumably at least a couple more seasons. If he doesn’t, he’ll be in Triple-A. We’ll know soon enough.
Jesús Fernández, INF
What He Brings: Fernández hit .300 as a 17-year-old in the DSL last year, sporting an exceptionally high contact rate and making better swing decisions than most young contact mavens do. He also showed relatively advanced hands and instincts for a teenage infielder. His feel for contact could remain a true calling card his whole career. Recently added to the ACL A’s roster, he supplants De La Paz as the squad’s youngest player this season.
What He Has To Prove: In a word, strength. Fernández has plenty of time and room to grow into his body–he’s was listed at 5’11” 145 upon signing–but he’s going to have to make very meaningful strength gains to maintain strong performance in the US. His contact quality was not very good even among DSL A’s hitters last year, and he doesn’t have the speed to be an effective slap hitter (and rightfully, he doesn’t employ a slappy style). Fernández also had intermittent issues chasing breaking pitches last season, and his arm strength may make him more of a second baseman than a shortstop long term (though he should be a quality defender at second). If Fernández can find an extra gear with the strength of his bat and arm, he’ll emerge as a very notable prospect. Until then, his hand-eye coordination makes him someone to keep an eye on, waiting for those extra gears to emerge.
Cesar González, C
What He Brings: Still just 19, González was a high-bonus signee in 2021 who has hit well across two-plus years of rookie-level baseball. He’s filled out some physically and now very much looks the part of a big, imposing backstop, and he started to clear fences last year in the DSL. He made notably strong swing decisions in the DSL and showed the possibility of putting together a strong all-around offensive profile while staying behind the plate.
What He Has To Prove: González is 19 and is just getting going in US ball, since he missed three weeks of action in Arizona earlier this season; thus far, he’s striking out a lot more frequently than he did in the Dominican and walking a lot less. He’s got a long way to go defensively, particularly in terms of his functional arm, since he’s caught only 11% of basestealers across his career. Though he can occasionally really lay into the ball, his contact quality–in part because of his hands not always being in great hitting position–has also not been very consistent: he hit just .218 in the DSL last year even with a low strikeout rate. The ingredients for a solid offensive identity are in there, as evidenced by González’s overall DSL body of work, but González has to figure out what that identity is going to be in a stateside context. There are a number of possible directions–he could lean into his raw power now that he’s bulked up, or he could opt to continue the walk-heavy bat-to-ball approach, for instance, to say nothing of defense–that are sensible ways forward, but González needs to find one. It’d be ridiculous to read much into his first eight US games, so it’s very possible González will have taken steps to answer those questions (in an admittedly still-very-preliminary way) when the ACL season concludes in six weeks.
Wander Guante, RHP
What He Brings: Guante slings three solid pitches from a somewhat funky three-quarter delivery, and he’s a good athlete who’s managed to come into enough pitchability over the last couple of years to make things interesting. His tailing two-seamer makes hitters uncomfortable and his four-seamer comes in at a flat-enough angle to change eye levels. Guante’s added a tick of velocity this year and sat 92-95 as a starter in Lansing. His slider has been a strong bat-missing pitch over the past two years, and his changeup gives him enough of a weapon to potentially keep lefties at bay. Guante was given a surprisingly quick promotion to Midland after just a month in Lansing and moved to relief work for now, which is probably where he profiles long-term.
What He Has To Prove: Guante doesn’t have one huge weakness, but he also doesn’t have any massive strengths, and he’s still somewhat rough around the edges and inconsistent outing-to-outing, particularly in terms of command and consistency. His release point tends to wander (no pun intended!), with the slider tending to be thrown from a higher slot than everything else in the arsenal. None of Guante’s pitches grade out as plus by themselves, so it’s imperative for him to have them integrated into a consistent, well-tunneled package if he’s going to make it to the big leagues, barring a further velocity spike into the upper 90s. Seeing as he’s only on his second year in full-season ball, there’s still time for Guante to get things further dialed in, and his athleticism and flashes of consistency give reason to hope.
Luke Mann, INF
What He Brings: It’s hard to ask for a stronger debut from a 14th-round pick. Mann was a tremendously productive hitter in the SEC, and he’s brought his lefty-swinging thump to pro ball. Mann gets to his power mostly from strength and leverage, and his swing is fairly simple and direct as power hitters go, so he’s been able to make a fair bit of contact. He’s also worked the count well and played solid, fundamentally sound defense at third base with a good internal clock and solid arm.
What He Has To Prove: Mann was a fifth-year senior sign, so he’s already 24 and only just now got to High-A, where he’s continuing to hang in well. He contributes in a lot of ways, but he’s polished and fundamentally sound to the extent that it’s not particularly easy to see how he can further optimize his skillset whenever he encounters adversity. He’s had some trouble hanging back on offspeed pitches and can get beaten by well-sequenced quality stuff. If he can advance quickly to Midland and find an extra gear at the plate there, Mann will make significant inroads on remaining skepticism.
Jack O’Loughlin, LHP
What He Brings: It ought to be self-explanatory that when a 24-year-old is a major leaguer for any non-emergency reason, that player deserves some sort of prospect acknowledgment–there will, after all, be plenty of players on the top 50 who end up never getting all that close to big league playing time. O’Loughlin has spent a couple of weeks as a big league reliever, and he’s come a long way from when he was a middling High-A swingman in the Tigers organization two years ago. Nothing he throws is overwhelming, but he’s got a clean delivery and a feel for a traditional four-pitch mix, sitting 91-93 mph as a starter in Las Vegas this year.
What He Has To Prove: Basically, he has to prove he can close the deal at the big league level. O’Loughlin’s arsenal is a complete one, but none of his pitches are clearly impactful, so he seems more like a depth/Triple-A starter than a consistent part of a big league rotation. He could move to relief–where the A’s have used him in the bigs–but he doesn’t have an obvious out pitch to leverage in that role and hasn’t had much of a velocity spike there. O’Loughlin is probably one improvement away from being more clearly over the MLB/AAA line, but seeing as he’s been in pro ball since 2018 (2016 if you count the Australian Baseball League) and appears pretty maxed-out skillset-wise, it’s hard to forecast what that improvement would be (sort of like a pitching version of Mann). That doesn’t mean it won’t happen–unexpected improvements happen all the time–and O’Loughlin’s age, handedness, and polish will keep getting him chances for years to come.
Carlos Pachéco, OF
What He Brings: Pachéco was a $1 million signee a few years ago out of Venezuela and has intermittently popped up on A’s prospect lists since–in fact, the most recent FanGraphs list stuffed him all the way up at 11th in the system. I’m obviously nowhere near that level of confidence, but I can understand where the aggressiveness of that ranking comes from, and Pachéco does have the sort of upside that can validate it. He’s possibly the fastest baserunner in the entire organization and should be able to bring above-average defense to center field, and while a lot of his offensive game to date has been built around a walks-and-speed quasi-slashing approach (which he flashes solid ability at, working counts well and making contact reasonably consistently), he’s also got some wiry strength and could become a double-digit homer threat as he matures. That’s the foundation of a starting center field skillset if everything works together.
What He Has To Prove: Pachéco’s on his third year in Rookie ball–his first in the US–and he’s a career .212 hitter with a .275 slugging percentage. He really came on at the end of his second DSL season last year, but prior to that, he struggled to make impactful contact in games despite working the count well. Much like a number of the other young players on this list (Castro, Fernández, González, etc.), I’m taking more of a wait-and-see approach here and letting Pachéco force his way up the list as his tools translate into on-field performance, since his ability to do so far has been pretty uneven (though increasingly promising).
Junior Pérez, OF
What He Brings: Longtime followers of my A’s system coverage probably recall my enthusiasm for Pérez’s skillset in the second half of the 2022 season, and he still has the same tools and is just 22, the youngest position player on the current Midland roster. Pérez has probably the best outfield arm in the system, his speed gives him big range in center field and makes him a terror on the bases, and he boasts quality bat speed that can launch towering homers to the pull side. It’s the toolset of a no-doubt starting center fielder in the big leagues. Pérez probably has the highest 95th-percentile outcome of anyone in the system not on my top 50, and he regularly has in-game moments in Midland that reinforce that ceiling.
What He Has To Prove: Pérez’s swing has always been long, and the adjustments I was so enthused about in the second half of 2022 haven’t really stuck. He still wraps the bat and has trouble activating his hands, leaving his ability to adjust the barrel limited. His rotational style gives him balance trouble at times, and his pitch selection has also oscillated, as he’s tended to get more swing-happy as his strikeout totals have increased to alarming levels, perhaps in an effort to just get the ball in play more. The fact that he’s well over the Mendoza Line in Midland while striking out well over 40% of the time is a testament to everything Pérez does well, but that strikeout rate is a major issue that hasn’t really been addressed other than the now-seemingly-aborted 2022 alterations to his setup. Yes, Pérez is young and will have plenty of opportunities to make inroads, but he’s on his fourth full season of pro ball and is a free agent after this season, so he both hasn’t really found many avenues for improvement to date and will likely be subject to more itinerant development situations in the future unless something changes quickly. I still don’t see any reason why Pérez has to have the swing he does, but I’m not a hitting coach, so it’s very possible I’m missing something. In any case, the moment he shortens it up and can activate his hands, he’ll be a top-25 prospect in this or someone else’s system. It’s just been too long at this point to count on that happening, and Pérez’s impending free agency may not put him in a great situation to unlock his potential.
Pedro Pineda, OF
What He Brings: Pineda is Pérez, only two years younger and levels lower. He runs well, shows a good arm in center field, has strong bat speed, hits the ball very hard for a wiry 20-year-old, and flashes solid plate discipline at times. Like Pérez, he’s got a starting-CF toolset and is very exciting to watch when things are going well. He’s a former top-5 prospect in the system on many lists (circa early 2022) and all of the tools from that era are still intact.
What He Has To Prove: Pineda has never managed to really conquer full-season ball, largely because he has some of the same swing traits as Pérez, with a large bat wrap and a lot of length to the ball. He activates his hands better than Pérez does, but he doesn’t backspin the ball nearly as well, as Pineda’s swing gets very choppy and he’s tended to hit a ton of rollers to third base. His overall lack of success over the last two-plus years has seemed to affect his confidence in the box, which has backslid since 2022 and resulted in a tentative, reactive approach that compromises what originally looked to be pretty solid count-management skills. If Pineda can ever get going–and he’s still just 20, so it’s not impossible–then he could really recapture a lot of prospect helium in fairly short order. On Year 3 of these struggles, though, the onus is on him to prove it at this point.
Ángel Rivéra, C
What He Brings: Rivéra is a career .305/.449/.437 hitter with more career walks than strikeouts, and he should be able to stay behind the plate defensively. As indicated by the statline, he’s showed promise toward having an all-around offensive skillset, with a compact swing but enough strength to drive the ball with some consistency, and he’s made strong swing decisions.
What He Has To Prove: Rivéra is 21 and still hasn’t made it to full-season ball yet. Part of that is that he signed late and didn’t debut until he was 19, but part of it is also that he’s had a string of injuries that have eaten into his playing time in all three of his pro seasons, which is enough of a pattern that it begins to get worrisome. He only just now made his 2024 debut on Friday (and immediately went 2-for-3). He has yet to show extra-base thump in US ball after being a formidable slugger in the Dominican, and like most young catchers, he’s got work to do on the fundamentals of his blocking and receiving. Essentially, then, Rivéra is another one of these young players who needs to stay healthy and start putting pieces together. Since he’s older than guys like Pachéco and González, the onus is on him to do that more quickly, but it also feels like a more likely proposition. If Rivéra can stay on the field, there’s a real chance he ends the season as Stockton’s starting catcher and a clear top 50 prospect in the organization.
Drew Swift, INF
What He Brings: Swift is an athletic and smart defender anywhere on the infield, and he runs well enough to likely learn the outfield–including possibly center–well enough to be a useful defender there as well. He’s shown solid fundamentals at the plate for much of his minor league career, working the count and punching the ball through the infield. He hung in reasonably well in his first crack at Double-A last season and is already big-league ready as a baserunner and defender.
What He Has To Prove: First, Swift has to get healthy; he’s currently on the 60-day IL with an unspecified injury. Injury troubles have dogged the slight infielder his whole career, which has made it more challenging to really evaluate where his bat is. While Swift’s skillset doesn’t require him to be a power threat to be valuable, he has just two pro homers in 168 career games and has to prove he can make upper-minors pitchers respect him as something other than a baserunning pest. If he can’t, he’s going to have a hard time getting on base enough to hang in at the big league level on a consistent basis.
Donny Trocónis, RHP
What He Brings: In a word, potential. Trocónis is just 18 but already can get his fastball up to 94 mph routinely, and he’s shown the ability to spin a breaking ball. His changeup has already made strides in 2024 and thus gives him a relatively complete arsenal at an early age. He’s filled out some relative to how he looked in 2023 but still has some projection remaining, and he’s a good athlete with an easy delivery. Overall, he checks all the boxes for a prototypical pitching prospect.
What He Has To Prove: Trocónis has struggled in his first exposure to US pro ball this year after turning in a solid campaign with the DSL A’s last season (though he did just throw five scoreless innings in his last outing, bringing his season ERA under 12). That’s excusable–he’s the youngest pitcher among those who began the season in Arizona, the stuff is there, and he’s throwing strikes–but he’s got to translate these interesting raw ingredients of a skillset into some sort of stateside success before he can rocket up the list. At the moment, his struggles are mostly reflective of a lack of finish across the board. As much as Trocónis flashes the ability to do almost everything as a pitcher competently, nothing is really plus yet. The fastball doesn’t quite have bat-missing shape, the curve comes in too slow, the changeup is inconsistent, and the righthander tends to lose his release point and get on the side of the ball too frequently. Overall, he’s a pitcher to monitor, because he could break out the moment any of his skills comes around a fraction more (maybe this happened last week!), but like most teenage pitchers, Trocónis’ potential is largely theoretical at the moment.
Yunior Tur, RHP
What He Brings: Tur’s a very long-limbed, spindly righthander who gets way down the mound and unleashes a good fastball-changeup combination. He’ll backspin the fastball by guys in the low-to-mid-90s but can also lock in east-west command with it and outsequence Low-A hitters. He’s been up to 99 out of the bullpen but has shown enough pitchability to make the starting route intriguing this year. Since he was only signed last year out of Cuba at age 22, the A’s have some time to experiment with Tur in the rotation, and he’s had success there this year after being a reliever in Cuba and in his pro debut.
What He Has To Prove: Tur’s gyro slider lags well behind his other two pitches, and it’s going to be tough for him to profile as a big leaguer in any role without a better breaking ball. Like a lot of long-limbed guys, his command does waver a bit, though he’s made mechanical strides in 2024. He’s been old for his levels–which is fine from a developmental perspective because he signed so late–but hasn’t proven his command holds up against more advanced hitters.
Jack Weisenburger, RHP
What He Brings: Weisenburger has strong stuff out of the bullpen that has played well up through Double-A. He sits 92-95 with a solid fastball, leans heavily on his signature low-80s sweeper, and has a cutter and changeup that are very solid tertiary offerings as relief arsenals go. Overall, he’s tough to hang in against when he’s locating, particularly for righthanders.
What He Has To Prove: Weisenburger is currently hurt, which has unfortunately been a running theme for him over his pro career; he hasn’t topped 25 innings in a season since his first full campaign in 2021. He’s also struggled with his command when he has taken the mound in that stretch, walking a lot of hitters in Double-A. That makes sense to some extent given all the rust that factors in with the injury layoffs, and Weisenburger is a solid athlete with a relatively clean delivery, so there’s not necessarily a reason he can’t get things together. But he’s 26 already and health and command are two major questions here.
Jack Winkler, INF
What He Brings: Winkler has some of the same skillset that made Max Schuemann slowly but surely progress through the system. He’s a heady player who focuses on stinging line drives all over the field, he can catch up to fastballs, he works the count and gets on base, and he has experience everywhere but catcher and center field on defense. He’s hit well in Midland this year and taken over as the team’s everyday shortstop after Jacob Wilson was promoted to Vegas.
What He Has To Prove: Winkler is 25, hasn’t played in Triple-A yet, and has never slugged .400 in a minor league season. He’s also got some stiffness in his actions in the infield that makes him–like Schuemann–a less than ideal fit at shortstop defensively, though he can probably handle the position in spot duty in a utility role. Overall, Winkler doesn’t bring any elite attributes to the table that make him stand out even among potential utility players. His lack of huge weaknesses and established status as a quality upper-minors player are notable, though. In that sense, he’s sort of the position player version of O’Loughlin–never seen as much of a prospect, but the sort of quiet all-around producer who could find himself in the big leagues anyway.
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