Athletics Prospects: Jacob Wilson begins rehab

Oakland’s top prospect is back in action in the complex league.

There are a few storylines to follow from last week and this one upcoming in the Oakland Athletics system, the biggest ones both involving the Aviators. Colby Thomas, the leader of the Midland Rockhounds offense for much of the season, got his well-deserved Triple-A call up and had a solid debut. Then on the injury front the system is getting a bit healthier, with Jacob Wilson making a rehab appearance in Arizona and eyeing a quick return to Triple-A.

Las Vegas Aviators

Game Results

Record: 35-34, 3rd in PCL West, 10 GB

Season stats

• Nick Allen - 25 G, 124 PA, 1 HR, 9.7% BB, 15.3% K, .361/.419/.472, 126 wRC+
• Joe Boyle - 9 ⅔ IP, 5.59 ERA, 22.7% BB, 20.5% K, 0 HR, 5.22 FIP
• Lawrence Butler - 27 G, 126 PA, 4 HR, 12.7% BB, 19.8% K, .255/.349/.418, 93 wRC+
• Logan Davidson - 31 G, 119 PA, 4 HR, 5.9% BB, 35.3% K, .288/.336/.477, 99 wRC+
• JT Ginn - 20 IP, 6.30 ERA, 7.9% BB, 28.1% K, 4 HR, 5.43 FIP
• Brett Harris - 31 G, 127 PA, 3 HR, 15.7% BB, 25.2% K, .286/.409/.438, 119 wRC+
• Max Muncy - 22 G, 87 PA, 2 HR, 9.2% BB, 23.0% K, .274/.379/.438, 108 wRC+
• Ryan Noda - 37 G, 162 PA, 8 HR, 18.5% BB, 30.9% K, .213/.377/.472, 111 wRC+
• Royber Salinas - 6.1 IP, 9.95 ERA, 24.2% BB, 24.2% K, 1 HR, 7.34 FIP
• Jacob Wilson - 6 G, 25 PA, 0 HR, 4.0% BB, 8.0% K, .375/.400/.458, 119 wRC+

Top Performers

The biggest news again from Las Vegas is roster movement, though in the coming weeks would should get a chance to see Jacob Wilson back in action with him beginning his rehab in Arizona. In terms of roster movement Lawrence Butler is of course up in Oakland now, despite coming off of a pretty rough week in Vegas. Butler only had a .619 OPS as he struggled against secondary stuff throughout the week and wasn’t hitting the ball as hard as he has been, though he has been cutting his strikeout rates a bit. It remains to be seen if this is even going to be a permanent move for Butler, who the A’s don’t seem to have a host of confidence in at the moment. Then coming up from Midland is Colby Thomas, who has been on an absolute tear down there for the Rockhounds. Thomas is already off to a quick start with a double and a single in his first game.

Where Las Vegas has been particularly weakened is in the pitching staff, as there haven’t been many exciting additions as guys have gotten hurt or called up. Joe Boyle didn’t appear last week and hasn’t pitched since June 9th. I don’t dislike what we’ve seen from JT Ginn at Triple-A so far, even though he did allow three earned runs in only four innings. He’s probably a guy, at least in current form, who really can’t get through a lineup more than twice and preferably only once, but the sinker/slider combination is at least solid and he has success with the slider. He landed the pitch well to his glove side throughout that outing on Saturday, and wound up with six strikeouts. Unless we see a useful third pitch pop up for him he’s probably not a major league starter, at least not unless he is given a very atypical and careful usage, but if he can command his slider that well there is enough quality to feel like you’re getting a major league pitcher out of Ginn. Grant Holman has been putting up very good numbers out of the bullpen all season, and last week didn’t allow a run while striking out six batters in three appearances. I don’t really like his pitch mix enough to think that he’s going to find long term success in the major leagues but it’s hard to argue with what he’s doing and he can probably fit into a low leverage middle relief role. Pedro Santos has been awful after a promising start in Midland this year. The stuff is major league quality absolutely, and he’s worth stashing for Oakland. A random run of good command would turn him into an easy seventh-inning type arm, but that is increasingly unlikely as he enters his mid-20s.

Midland Rockhounds

Game Results

Record: 35-28, 2nd TL South, 8 GB

Season stats

• Cooper Bowman - 59 G, 267 PA, 8 HR, 12.4% BB, 19.9% K, .265/.360/.429, 122 wRC+
• Denzel Clarke - 48 G, 194 PA, 5 HR, 6.7% BB, 39.7% K, .219/.278/.371, 80 wRC+
• Ryan Cusick - 14 IP, 2.57 ERA, 11.1% BB, 25.9% K, 1 HR, 3.90 FIP
• James Gonzalez - 36 ⅓ IP, 4.46 ERA, 10.6% BB, 19.3% K, 2 HR, 3.89 FIP
• Gunnar Hoglund - 73 IP, 3.45 ERA, 7.4% BB, 21.3% K, 10 HR, 4.51 FIP
• Brennan Milone - 58 G, 243 PA, 5 HR, 10.7% BB, 21.4% K, .275/.366/.408, 120 wRC+
• Daniel Susac - 41 G, 171 PA, 3 HR, 4.1% BB, 29.2% K, .260/.297/.349, 81 wRC+
• Colby Thomas - 59 G, 261 PA, 14 HR, 6.5% BB, 18.0% K, .282/.340/.568, 145 wRC+

Top Performers

The turnaround for Denzel Clarke’s season continued with probably his best overall performance last week, as he raised his OPS by more than 60 points in the six games he played. Much of this was centered around two three-hit games, during which he had a home run and four total extra base hits. The strikeouts for Clarke have remained quite high even as he has gone on a recent hot streak, he has a 117 wRC+ over his last month of play with a huge portion of that being from his power output. Clarke’s hitting the ball hard at this point, though his approach and success on breaking pitches has regressed from last season a bit and if he can get back to the patience he showed at the plate prior to his injury there are definitely the building blocks for him to break out. He and Daniel Susac have really been the two main disappointments from the system this season, though like Clarke there have been recovery signs out of Susac. Susac has had a handful of solid weeks, though he hasn’t really had a breakout stretch of hot play, and finished out last week with a home run to dead center field in Saturday’s game. Over his past 15 games Susac has worked his strikeout rate to where it’s sitting around 22%, quite a departure from the strikeout rates well in the 30s from earlier this season, and notably he has seen his power climb as he has a .162 isolated power in that span. The efforts to quiet down his swing and lower his hands a bit through his load process seem to be paying off, as his bat now taking a more direct path to contact has improved his contact rates. Susac still chases far more than you’d like to see, but if he can make contact at this rate and continue to show average-ish in game power production you’re looking at him trending back in the direction of a major-league-quality catcher.

Midland got one last ride with Colby Thomas, and it’s been impressive just to see how much he has improved over the past couple of months. Thomas has steadily increased his contact rates and isn’t chasing as much out of the zone on breaking pitches, both key signs for him that are the reason the A’s felt he was ready for Triple-A. Against Wichita he had more walks than strikeouts and still came away with three extra base hits, and though it’s been awhile since he’s hit a home run he is still making impact contact. Thomas’s explosive bat speed has allowed him to punch above his weight class and mitigate some of the issues with his swing path, though Triple-A pitchers are likely going to pepper him with breaking balls and see if his patience holds up and he can get to pitches on the outer half consistently. Since May 23rd Thomas has 10 walks to 11 strikeouts in 89 plate appearances — along with an isolated power of .307.

After a rough run of play at Vegas Ryan Cusick is back with Midland to try to repeat his early success, but that didn’t show up well in his first outing. Cusick’s command has been poorer than it was in the first half since coming off of the injured list, and it seems to me that he may be shaking off a bit of rust. He’ll need more of the command he had early in the season to really have success, so I’m taking a wait-and-see approach to see if that was the fluke or if he is really just working back from an oblique injury. Core injuries are particularly annoying in baseball so I’m tending towards leniency at this stage. There have been things to like about Gunnar Hoglund this season, as his command has trended up and his changeup seems to be in a good spot. Otherwise though it’s steadily a problem of him not being able to live with his breaking balls at this point and even with some improved strikeout numbers he is being hit too hard. There just isn’t really a standout trait for him that bleeds confidence into his numbers and while health is really the primary focus for him his fastball isn’t good enough to survive unless he can develop a strikeout-quality breaking ball. Until then hitters will just sit fastball and wait for him to leave it in the zone, so while he’s been able to throw strikes and have some success based purely on that it’s going to be tough for him to avoid getting bombed like he has.

Lansing Lugnuts

Game Results

Record: 32-31, 3rd in MWL East, 6 GB

Season stats

• Euribiel Angeles - 57 G, 241 PA, 6 HR, 4.6% BB, 11.6% K, .291/.324/.441, 112 wRC+
• Henry Bolte - 59 G, 272 PA, 10 HR, 12.9% BB, 32.0% K, .289/.401/.531, 160 wRC+
• Brayan Buelvas - 57 G, 261 PA, 6 HR, 14.6% BB, 20.3% K, .271/.379/.477, 140 wRC+
• Will Johnston - 29 IP, 4.03 ERA, 7.4% BB, 26.4% K, 3 HR, 3.73 FIP
• Luis Morales - 32 IP, 4.59 ERA, 9.0% BB, 22.6% K, 4 HR, 4.53 FIP
• Will Simpson - 55 G, 240 PA, 5 HR, 16.7% BB, 26.3% K, .294/.413/.477, 151 wRC+
• Chen Zhong-Ao Zhuang - 12 IP, 3.00 ERA, 6.3% BB, 29.2% K, 0 HR, 1.98 FIP

Top Performers

Henry Bolte is on a special, special run and the way the bat is jumping off of his bat right now is impressive. His home run on Sunday was an absolute bomb, then on Tuesday he goes opposite field with relative ease, and it just seems like he find the barrel every time he makes contact. With his Bolte’s swing shape I do expect him to struggle especially against velocity on the inner half of the plate, but while I won’t say he’s solved his problems against breaking balls he’s made major strides in not swinging at pitches that he can’t do anything with. Despite his swing shape his ability to find the barrel is good enough that I don’t expect him to be a guy that sees as much of an increase in strikeout rate as he advances like you see with guys who have major pitch recognition and approach problems, and really his contact quality is so high a 30-ish percent strikeout rate makes him a good major leaguer. Double-A will be a challenge and at every level he’ll certainly face a bigger adjustment than others might, but at 20 he has an electric presence on the field and already feels like the player who knows how to make the adjustments needed to succeed. He had one bad game last week — a three strikeout game after he sat for two straight games, and other than a couple of random high strikeout games he’s made contact at a relatively high rate.

Typically on the pitching side of things there would be two main guys to go to here, but the story for Lansing’s staff was the combined no-hitter from Thursday. Jake Garland was simply phenomenal. He’s been a guy all year who has had an inconsistent role and hasn’t missed a ton of bats, but he had one of those games where all of his secondary pitches were working well and Cedar Rapids really couldn’t do anything with it. Garland located well and went five hitless innings with six strikeouts. Then it went to Grant Judkins, who struck out three batters over 2 ²⁄₃ innings. Judkins has really been quite good lately with a 1.93 ERA and 13 strikeouts over 14 innings pitched, and this has been by far the best season of his career. Colton Johnson then finished the game out, and he has been great for the Lugnuts all season. Johnson had missed the previous two seasons, but so far in 2024 has 31 strikeouts and a 2.93 ERA in 27 ²⁄₃ innings. Johnson is a guy who has some actual MLB potential as a middle reliever, as his low arm angle gives his fastball a flat path to the plate and makes him tough on left handed batters in particular. This year Johnson has a 30% strikeout rate and .529 OPS against when facing a lefty.

It wasn’t the greatest outing for Luis Morales, but I’m not particularly concerned with the final line as I think his results were overall in the realm of decent. Morales had four strikeouts and only one walk over 3 ²⁄₃ innings, and while the contact was a bit louder than you would like to see I’m more focused on seeing him generally around the zone with his pitches. In June Morales has 12 strikeouts and three walks in 11 ²⁄₃ innings. Then Chen Zhong-Ao Zhuang has been the breakout player in the system all season and once again delivered a brilliant outing. Zhuang was fully in control once again with five strikeouts over five innings, and while there has definitely been some hesitance for the A’s in letting work deep in games so far as they’ve pushed him over 70 pitches he still looks good and healthy. With his command and deep pitch mix these lower levels aren’t a problem for him, and really I don’t expect Double-A to be one either. He’s developed at a point where I could see him in Oakland next year, and could be a guy that fits into a 4/5 role for a long time. I’m a fan especially of the splitter and cutter he throws, I think his splitter is his best overall pitch, though I’m not sure the fastball shape/velocity and mix of breaking balls are enough to project him above mid rotation. Still a ton to like here and as long as he keeps having this level of success Oakland should just keep pushing him up.

Stockton Ports

Game Results

Record: 25-36, 4th in CAL North, 15 GB

Season stats

• Steven Echavarria - 22.1 IP, 8.87 ERA, 11.6% BB, 18.2% K, 1 HR, 4.73 FIP
• Ryan Lasko - 58 G, 272 PA, 3 HR, 16.2% BB, 28.7% K, .230/.371/.329, 102 wRC+
• Nate Nankil - 53 G, 226 PA, 5 HR, 14.2% BB, 17.7% K, .258/.394/.412, 125 wRC+
• Myles Naylor - 54 G, 236 PA, 7 HR, 16.1% BB, 34.7% K, .179/.314/.316, 78 wRC+

Top Performers

The Ports got 2022 comp pick Clark Elliot back from the injured list last week, but as with the beginning of his career he wasn’t much of a factor in anything. Elliott has just one hit so far in five games, though he has drawn six walks, and so far he’s been swinging and missing a ton. Same of course goes for Ryan Lasko if we’re talking about disappointing players, but it was actually a strong week overall for Lasko as he had a home run and an OPS over 1.000. Lasko’s strikeouts remain high but he seems to be trending towards taking better swings, where early in the season he could be prone both to chases late in counts and being overly patient early, he’s found a bit of a middle ground and is starting to make a bit more impact on his contact in the zone.

Steven Echavarria had been throwing a lot better of late, and it felt like he was really working in the right direction. Last week though was a total mess, he didn’t get out of the first inning and everything was falling down for hits against him. On Tuesday he at least completed two innings, but his command in the past couple has been unmanageable and when he’s that far off it’s just hard to glean any positive results or observation. Some of it can be chalked up to a lot of batted balls just falling at once, in the end it’s really just a young player going through a tough stretch, but you hate to see a good streak of play end with him falling this flat on his face for a couple.

Yunior Tur was a guy I was keeping somewhat of a close eye on given how gaudy his strikeout rates were last year, but this year the focus was more on command and he started out a bit flat. His strikeout rate was below 20% through the beginning of May, but he’s started to have some rebound outings lately and had a great one last week. Tur struck out six batters over five innings of one run ball, and he’s managing to progress both his strikeout and walk rates. His strikeout rate is 26.1% over his past seven outings, and given his age it’s probably close to time for him to make the trek up to Lansing. He’s big and his fastball has a good vertical shape, and though I don’t think the command is good enough to make him a starter there is some arm talent and you hope he can continue to progress.

ACL Athletics

Game Results

Record: 10-21, 5th in ACL East, 11.5 GB

Season Stats

• Cesar Gonzalez - 12 G, 46 PA, 0 HR, 8.7% BB, 30.4% K, .244/.326/.366, 80 wRC+
• German Ortiz - 31 G, 137 PA, 2 HR, 16.1% BB, 18.2% K, .313/.434/.420, 129 wRC+
• Carlos Pacheco - 21 G, 81 PA, 1 HR, 12.3% BB, 23.5% K, .219/.383/.266, 89 wRC+

Top Performers

We finally are seeing Jacob Wilson back on the field, and he got a hit in his first (and so far only) rehab appearance. Hopefully it’s a quick stay in Arizona and Wilson can go back to showing up at the upper levels of the system. He was well on his way to getting a chance in Oakland this season and if he can come back as strong as he started a second half call up would make for interesting viewing.

There were some interesting performances from the younger prospects as well, specifically with Cesar Gonzalez having a big week and an OPS of 1.270. Gonzalez was off to a rough start as he was striking out a lot coming off of a presumed injury. He’s settled down though and the strikeout rates have tumbled dramatically. Carlos Pacheco also hit his first home run of the season, and though he only went 2-15 that certainly makes for an intriguing storyline. Pacheco got off to a rough start but the swing and miss problems have died off and he’s now looking like he’ll continue to have a solid year in Arizona.

Jacob Wilson rehab - 1-2

DSL A’s

Game Results

Record: 3-8, 8th in DSL West, 6 GB

Season Stats

• Erick Matos - 10 ⅓ IP, 0.87 ERA, 18.2% BB, 27.3% K, 0 HR, 4.24 FIP
• Edgar Montero - 10 G, 45 PA, 1 HR, 15.6% BB, 24.4% K, .270/.386/.541, 135 wRC+
• Jose Ramos - 10 G, 37 PA, 0 HR, 18.9% BB, 27.0% K .233/.378/.300, 95 wRC+
• Sebastian Rojas - 10 G, 42 PA, 1 HR, 19.0% BB, 21.4% K, .194.390/.355, 110 wRC+
• Franco Zabaleta - 5 IP, 9.00 ERA, 10.3% BB, 27.6% K, 0 HR, 3.44 FIP

The Athletics are getting exactly what they want out of their top signings from last season, specifically with the performances from Montero and Ramos. Strikeouts for both are a bit higher than you want exactly, but it’s both small samples and a league where numbers aren’t all that important to begin with. Montero has overall been the better of the two, but Ramos has made some progress. His strikeout rates are dropping and his walk rates are going up, so it seems for him a breakout may be imminent. Sebastian Rojas got a good chunk of money himself and has been doing very well. A low BABIP is killing his numbers but he already has a home run and the peripherals are fantastic. Erick Matos was the top guy among the pitchers, and while he is walking a lot of guys that’s what you would tend to expect from 17 year olds. The important thing is that he’s maintaining a strikeout rate of 27.3%, and when guys have made contact they’ve done nothing with it. Matos has an ERA below one through his first three outings and has only allowed seven hits.