Other Installments in the 2024 Midseason Top 50:
30.) Brayan Buelvas, OF
How Acquired: International free agent (2018, Colombia)
Current Team: Lansing
2022 Midseason Rank: 24
2023 Midseason Rank: 43
It’s taken three years for Buelvas to figure out the Midwest League, but he has now, and he only just turned 22 this week. It’s been a circuitous route to upper-minors-readiness for the Colombian outfielder, once considered a top 10 prospect in the system circa 2021, but he’s slowly figured things out and still has the balanced toolset that got evaluators so excited about him half a decade ago.
Fundamentally, the thing that’s always stood out about Buelvas is how explosive his wrists are. He’s not a big guy and is still plenty lean enough to steal bases and cover a good bit of ground in center field, but his wrists generate a ton of bat speed in a short distance and can send baseballs absolutely rocketing out of the park. He shows the ability to adjust the barrel and cover the whole strike zone, and he’s increasingly been able to hit the ball hard to all fields.
Buelvas’ improvement has largely been tied to simplifying his setup at the plate and getting in better counts. He’s much more focused in the box than he used to be, and he executes his plan consistently and doesn’t play himself out of at-bats by chasing sliders off the plate. He’s also improved his balance and doesn’t swing from his heels as much as he did two years ago.
Still, progress has been fairly slow here, all things considered, and Buelvas has remaining issues that need to be cleaned up. HIs route-running in the outfield is inconsistent, and he’ll have a few bad misplays every year where he tries to do too much and compounds misjudgments. His baserunning has occasional baffling mental lapses as well. His swing has always tended to be bottom-hand-heavy and he still has issues looping underneath the ball and struggling to truly command the barrel (though he can certainly move it around as noted earlier, it’s not always accurate). This has led to career-long trouble with hitting too many infield popups.
The nature of Buelvas’ progress has meant that he keeps juuuuuust hanging in there–every time it feels he’s in a make-or-break situation in terms of his prospect status, he dials in enough improvement to keep things encouraging, or encouraging enough, at least. There are still a variety of directions things can go from here, and I think the biggest factor is going to be the barrel control. If that comes around in a major way, Buelvas has all the other tools to be an impactful starting outfielder. That’s not a safe assumption, though–hence his rank here–and the more likely possibility is that his improvement continues its slow-but-steady pace and eventually makes him a versatile bench outfielder who brings a bit of everything.
29.) Ryan Lasko, OF
How Acquired: Drafted (Round 2, 2023)
Current Team: Stockton
2022 Midseason Rank: N/A
2023 Midseason Rank: N/A
Lasko’s full-season debut definitely has not gone as well as you’d like for a second-round pick from a power conference. The Rutgers product has finally been able to get his batting average stably over the Mendoza Line in June and has started to get to a bit of power in games, but slowly getting his head above water in Low-A (especially in Stockton's friendly confines) can’t be said to be anything other than falling short of expectations.
The good news is that Lasko brings a lot to the table otherwise. He’s an Eric Byrnes-style all-out effort guy in the outfield, with solid range and one of the best arms in the system, and he’s a solid, aggressive baserunner. He also has a disciplined approach at the plate, has worked a ton of walks this year, and has the strength to clear a lot more fences if he can develop better barrel control.
That’s the issue here: Lasko’s swing has been pretty stiff and grooved this year, geared for impacting pitches down in the zone. He’s had trouble getting his hands going on time and particularly has swung through a whole lot of fastballs in the upper half, and though he’s settled in a bit as the year has progressed, the totality of his performance is troublesome enough that it has to be some cause for concern.
Still, Lasko is early enough in his professional journey that the possibility of adjustments can’t be discounted here, and if he can make meaningful gains in his ability to move the bat around, the rest of his skillset will give him a big league role. He’s the sort of player for whom the next year or so is huge: he could figure things out and surge back to a place commensurate with his draft status, fade to longshot status, or anything in between.
28.) Jackson Finley, RHSP
How Acquired: Drafted (Round 8, 2023)
Current Team: Stockton
2022 Midseason Rank: N/A
2023 Midseason Rank: N/A
On paper, Finley’s full-season debut might seem like a disappointment, seeing as he’s put up a 6.56 ERA in Stockton after being a senior sign out of Georgia Tech last year. As my confidence in this ranking shows, I think that superficial performance undersells what the former college two-way player brings to the table.
Finley is a complete pitcher who brings a relatively traditional four-pitch mix from a clean, athletic delivery. He’s had a bit of a velo spike as a pro and now more regularly sits in the mid-90s than pre-draft reports last year indicated he did in college. He’s still figuring out what breaking ball shapes will work best for him but can spin the ball on a variety of trajectories, and his changeup flashes good finish. He’s the sort of athlete who could make some late-blooming gains all around, too, especially considering that he split his time between the plate and the mound in college.
The questions around Finley mostly revolve around how everything will come together. He’s had some trouble with finding his feel in the first innings of appearances, and he also hasn’t mastered sequencing from either a pitch type or location perspective–he throws too many fastballs over the middle of the plate and tends to wildly vary his usage patterns of the offspeed offerings. But those are the sort of nuances that can come together with experience, and FInley has had plenty of excellent outings this year where he’s shown what he can do when that happens. It’s just a matter of the pieces staying together on a consistent basis, and I think there are a lot of possibilities for how that might happen.
27.) Cooper Bowman, INF
How Acquired: Trade (from Yankees with Luis Medina, Ken Waldichuk, and JP Sears for Frankie Montas and Lou Trivino, 2022)
Current Team: Midland
2022 Midseason Rank: N/A
2023 Midseason Rank: 40
Bowman has been on fire for the past month and a half, and he already has a pretty good Texas League season under his belt, showing a varied offensive skillset in addition to his game-changing speed.
Bowman is a ridiculous 122-for-135 on stolen bases in his career and is always a threat to be on third base two pitches after he reaches first. He’s often on first because he’s a patient hitter who walks a ton and does just enough damage on contact that pitchers still have to pitch him fairly carefully. The A’s have had increasing success merging Bowman’s feel for backspinning the ball with a slightly lower launch angle that has managed to turn some of his popups into liners. He’s not all that physically imposing at the plate and can be beaten by quality stuff, but he has enough bat speed and ability to adjust the barrel that Bowman maintains his status as an offensive threat.
Though he’s obviously very fast (though perhaps more of a very smart 70-grade runner than a true 80) and shows plus range at second, Bowman’s profile is compromised to some extent by his awkward arm stroke on defense, which limits him to second base, at least as far as the infield goes. There have long been rumblings of trying him in center field, and it’s something I’ve mentioned as a possibility for almost his whole tenure in the A’s organization, but we have yet to see the A’s try it. Bowman’s offensive profile feels like a more comfortable fit in utility work than as a true starter unless he really hits his ceiling, so defensive versatility is going to be key for him to have a strong chance to serve a productive MLB role. The lack of opportunity in the outfield likely has little to do with Bowman’s ability out there–Midland’s outfield is stacked–so that’s more a source of uncertainty than negativity at the moment. Bowman should get plenty of time in Las Vegas down the stretch in the second half, and he may only need to add the outfield defense to his tool belt to be ready for a big league audition.
26.) Will Simpson, INF
How Acquired: Drafted (Round 15, 2023)
Current Team: Lansing
2022 Midseason Rank: N/A
2023 Midseason Rank: N/A
I’ve done a deep dive on Simpson already this year (and not very long ago), so there’s not a ton of need to go into huge depth here. Simpson is a good athlete for a first baseman (with some chance to find another position), he hits the ball very hard, and he gets to power without having to really sell out for it and thus covers the strike zone well. The questions are going to revolve around his ability to shrink his hitting zone, particularly against spin, and loft the ball rather than just hit screaming liners. The standard at first base is high enough that he’s a long way off from proving he can meet it, but he’s also early enough in his pro career that plenty of progress remains possible. Putting him much above this would be too large a vote of confidence in the bat, but much below this would undersell his thunder.
25.) Myles Naylor, INF
How Acquired: Drafted (Round 1 supplemental, 2023)
Current Team: Stockton
2022 Midseason Rank: N/A
2023 Midseason Rank: N/A
Like Lasko, Naylor is a high 2023 draft pick who has struggled in Stockton in his pro debut but showed flashes in a variety of areas. In general, that’s more understandable for a high school draftee from a cold-weather area (Ontario, in his case) than a power-conference college bat, and so Naylor’s struggles are a little easier to explain away, though they are a bit more acute as well.
The thing that’s stood out amidst the sub-Mendoza Line batting averages has been Naylor’s power, which is already immense and comes with relative ease. His thirteen homers in his Stockton career–dating back to late last summer–often are hit to the deepest part of the ballpark and clear the fence by a substantial margin, and he also hits plenty of screaming liners. He’s got plus bat speed and can catch up to premium velocity and punish it.
Like a lot of young, talented players thrown into the full-season fire early, Naylor has struggled to slow the game down, though he’s a lot more polished in 2024 than he was in 2023. In particular, his plate approach has improved significantly, and he takes a lot of walks. He also makes significantly better defensive decisions and doesn’t try to throw everything across the diamond at max effort like he did in his debut.
Naylor has played basically only shortstop thus far, but he’s a big guy like his older brothers Josh and Bo, and it’s hard to imagine him sticking there. Most evaluators seem to have him projected to third base, which he certainly has the arm for and would definitely be a cleaner fit, though I’d have to see him there before I’m fully convinced he’s an infielder long-term. I honestly wouldn’t be shocked if he could do what Bo does and catch effectively, and right field would also be a sensible destination, since Naylor has some athleticism and looks his best at shortstop when he’s running after shallow flies in the outfield.
At the plate, the question is–like it is with Lasko–adjusting the barrel, again in particular against high fastballs. Naylor’s wrists tend to force his swing to loop underneath the ball and he has to exert a lot of physical effort to move the bat off that path; that effort also tends to send him pulling off of pitches away from him. So he will flash the ability to adjust, but the effort involved compromises Naylor’s barrel accuracy and still leaves him with an in-zone contact rate well south of 70% at the moment.
But Naylor is still just 19, he brings his power into games in a big way, and he’s a good athlete in the box who is building a solid approach. The mechanics are going to have to come together and he’ll need to find a position, but he brings enough positives and upside to sneak into the top 25 right now.
24.) Ryan Cusick, RHRP
How Acquired: Trade (from Atlanta with Shea Langeliers, Joey Estes, and Cristian Pache for Matt Olson, 2022)
Current Team: Las Vegas
2022 Midseason Rank: 8
2023 Midseason Rank: 21
For the second straight year, it’s a heck of a challenge to figure out where Cusick belongs on the midseason A’s prospect list. His A’s system career has been a roller coaster, plagued by injuries in 2022 and 2024 and a strange developmental odyssey the year in between.
Cusick still slots in in the top 25 because he’s flashed dominant form in all three seasons. When he’s going right, he sits around 95-96 mph and touches 98 mph with big extension and finish, and he now has two distinct breaking balls that both can be above-average offerings, though he’s toyed with their shapes and it’s unclear what their final form will be (he’s gone from cutter/sweeper to cutterish slider/bigger curve, albeit in roughly the same velo bands). He’s had moments of strong command as well, and he opened 2024 with two dominant starts in Midland that reinforced that there’s a very effective pitcher in there.
But Cusick went down with an oblique/side issue after those two starts–a similar injury to what knocked him out for a while in 2022, from what I understand–and he hasn’t been sharp since he’s returned, though he’s still hit 98 again. When he’s not going well, he tends to get on the side of the ball too much and drop his arm slot, which costs him both command and vertical movement on his fastball. That was the case early in 2023 (when his velocity was way down and the delivery was notably lower-effort, changes he reversed midseason) and again now after his return in 2024. He also still doesn’t really have a changeup, though the cutter, added late in 2023, does give him a third pitch and something he can throw to lefties with some frequency.
The lack of a changeup and the inconsistent command have long inspired discussion of moving Cusick to relief, and early indications are that the A’s are at least trying him in that role in Las Vegas right now. On one hand, that makes sense–it’s his Rule 5 eligibility year, he’s struggled to stay healthy, and neither Cusick’s command nor arsenal depth have consistently felt like starter attributes. But it’s also a shame, because every year he’s had moments where he looks like a top 5 pitching prospect in the system. I’ve long referenced Frankie Montas as an interesting developmental analog for Cusick: Montas also battled injuries, couldn’t find a changeup, toyed with a cutter along with his electric fastball/slider combo, and had command that came and went. The industry had basically given up on Montas as a starter before he came up with his splitter and started dominating in Oakland, and I still think there are similarly sneaky right-tail outcomes available for Cusick, the possibility of which he’s reinforced as recently as two months ago. But enough keeps going wrong with his development at a frequent enough rate that that’s got to be a corner-of-the-eye possibility, not an expectation. For now, the hope has to be that he can get on top of the ball again, stay healthy, and emerge as a quality reliever in fairly short order. That seems a lot more realistic, though hurdles remain along that path too.
23.) Pedro Santos, RHRP
How Acquired: International amateur free agent (2019, Cuba)
Current Team: Las Vegas
2022 Midseason Rank: 38
2023 Midseason Rank: 34
The easiest way to sum up Santos’ intrigue is to say he has two 70-grade pitches, and neither of them are the carrying four-seam fastball that touches 99, which is of course plenty good in its own right. He’s ascended from Low-A to Triple-A in under a year largely because of the addition of a mid-90s cutter to go with his 96-99 mph fastball and huge power curve. The fastball and curve have about a four-foot difference in vertical movement and enable an eye-level-changing approach in the extreme, but the cutter is a pitch Santos can throw for strikes a lot more than the curve, and it’s so distinct from the fastball while retaining such power that it gives hitters fits, especially lefties. He’s also toyed around with a mid-80s slider–because why not?–and that looks pretty solid too. We’re looking at obvious closer stuff here: the best arsenal of pitches an A’s minor leaguer not named Mason Miller has displayed in the last four years (2021-era Jorge Juan flashed an arsenal that comes in a close third, then probably Luis Morales is fourth, unless I’m forgetting someone).
But that’s just the stuff, which is of course not all of pitching. The big Cuban has 146 career walks in 179 career innings and has retained high walk rates at every stop. Now, some of this is because hitters have such a hard time putting the ball in play off him, and some of it is that they increasingly know their best chance of reaching base is to exercise a ton of patience, but some of it is definitely that Santos has a longstanding tendency to rotate off line to the plate–his shoulders rotate rapidly, and the inconsistency in that rotation can pull his arm off line–and start missing badly, most often to the glove side. The good news is that he’s just 24 and has less experience than most 24-year-olds because of two missed seasons (2020, then TJ that wiped out his 2022), and he’s not a bad athlete on the mound; he’s just got long limbs and a lot of mass to coordinate. Those are ingredients for late growth in mechanical consistency, which has shown up to an extent in 2023 and 2024, and the walk issues haven’t worsened as he’s flown through the minors. There still are plenty of moments of effective wildness rather than just effectiveness, and once or twice a month he has a below-50%-strikes nuclear outing, but he was still unhittable in Midland, and I’m backing him to continue to get the command together in his mid-20s. He’ll probably never get to average in that area, but Santos is just so hard to hit that it often won’t matter.
22.) Blake Beers, RHSP
How Acquired: Drafted (Round 19, 2021)
Current Team: Midland
2022 Midseason Rank: 26
2023 Midseason Rank: 24
When the A’s drafted Beers in the second-to-last-round of the 2021 Draft, just about everything other than his ability to spin a breaking ball was in question after his rough senior season at Michigan. When he became a surprise standout in 2022, he showed way-better-than-expected command but was basically a two-pitch guy who didn’t throw all that hard. In 2023, Beers worked on diversifying his arsenal from two solid pitches to five, adding a two-seamer and cutter and improving his splinker-type changeup, but he still was often averaging just 92 with the fastballs and around 80 with his signature long sweeper. In 2024, he’s still got the five pitches and pitches heavily off the cutter-sweeper mix–I don’t think there’s a starter in the system who throws fewer fastballs than Beers–but now he’ll sit 93-96 with the heat and touch 97. The sweeper has added power as well and is more consistently 82-84, making it an improved swing-and-miss pitch in addition to its customary backdoor/frontdoor freeze utility.
All this is to say that this is a pitcher who has clearly worked his tail off to improve and is constantly attacking perceived weaknesses in his game. Beers has a ton of in-game mound savvy along with this especially proactive approach to his development, and he’s a zone-pounder who clearly thinks a lot about smart sequencing, a bit of a Zack Greinke type of on-mound vibe. He’s got a very clean delivery, and his five-pitch arsenal opens all four quadrants of the zone to him against batters from both sides of the plate.
That said, Beers is 25 and having something of a middling season in Midland, where he struggled down the stretch last year. Even at the higher velocity, neither of his fastballs has bat-missing shape, and he’s had significant trouble with the home run ball even though he’s no longer an extreme flyball pitcher. That doesn’t feel like a recipe that’s bound to work great in Las Vegas, and it may be the case that Beers ultimately moves to relief and throws even more breaking stuff (and even harder) to bypass those issues at that level. Still, even though he hasn’t gotten good results over the past year or so, I wouldn’t count out a guy who’s improved this much to solve his remaining couple of issues and stick in a big league rotation. Colin Holderman-style relief isn’t a bad fallback option.
21.) Nate Nankil, OF
How Acquired: Drafted (Round 7, 2023)
Current Team: Stockton
2022 Midseason Rank: N/A
2023 Midseason Rank: N/A
You don’t see Nankil really pushed this high up on other public lists, and though the reasons for that are understandable, I do think they vary in quality. He’s the sort of player whom analytical models probably like more than a cursory eye test. Nankil was very young for a college draftee and is 21 all season, and he’s hitting very well in Stockton in his full-season debut, pushing his on-base percentage up over .400 and being one of the team’s top power threats (in a ballpark that gives righties like him fewer advantages than lefties). But though he’s got a strapping 6’2” frame, Nankil presents as a very quiet hitter in the box, working counts and focusing on using the whole field, especially the gaps. But he’s also got a lot of force and sneaky loft in his short swing and quietly manages to combine strong coverage of the strike zone with real pop that I expect to come into games more consistently as he matures. He's the sort of hitter you have to watch a lot to really appreciate, but once you watch him a lot, you do really appreciate what he brings into the box.
Nankil isn’t an overwhelming athlete and is almost certainly limited to the corner outfield positions defensively, though he’s fundamentally sound and has the arm strength to play right field. And that’s where the more valid concern is: this is the sort of player who, though undeniably skilled, doesn’t have much of an MLB future if he can’t clear a certain (high) threshold of offensive production. There are only so many pure lefty-mashing corner guys out there, after all; it’s starter or the MLB/AAA shuttle for players like this unless they happen to be in the right organization at the right time.
Nankil has all the ingredients to get on the right side of that threshold, and he’s shown very few weaknesses so far, but he’s going to have to keep proving himself offensively at every level. Don’t be surprised if Nankil makes it to Lansing in the second half and keeps hitting, which would make him a bigger name in the system. I just think he’s a complete enough hitter that I’m banking on that here, and even if that transition doesn’t go smoothly, Nankil’s age gives him more time than most college players to rebound and still remain ahead of the age curve.