A’s DFA former top prospect
The Oakland A’s officially inked their new flame-throwing closer, Trevor Rosenthal, to a oneyear deal. The organization had to drop a former top prospect to fit Rosenthal on the 40-man roster.
Outfielder Dustin Fowler was designated for assignment Monday morning. The A’s one-time top prospect came to Oakland in the Sonny Gray trade with the New York Yankees that netted also them Jorge Mateo and James Kaprielian in 2017.
Fowler, 26, jumped up the prospect list as their next big outfielder, clocking in at No. 88 on Baseball America’s top 100 prospect list ahead of the 2018 season. But bad luck had already struck. A ruptured right patellar tendon sustained in his first game trying to catch a foul ball in right field with the Yankees in 2017 derailed his call-up and wound up deterring his path in Oakland.
Plus, once traded to the A’s, Ramón Laureano’s emergence clogged the pipeline and left Fowler without a big league avenue with the club. The A’s minor league system is rife with outfield prospects — Luis Barrera, Skye Bolt, Greg Deichmann, Seth Brown — that further muddied his path, too.
“Dustin is a really good player with the potential of a nice career,” manager Bob Melvin said of the DFA. “What that means when a guy like Dustin is designated is that you have a really good depth on your 40-man roster. A couple years ago we were talking about this guy being one of our best prospects. I don’t discount that he could have a nice Major League career. But it means that we’re awfully deep in our 40-man roster when you’re subtracting a guy like Dustin.”
Fowler played 69 games for the A’s in 2018 and batted .224 with two triples, three doubles and six home runs. But he struck out 47 times in 192 at bats and his OPS was an underwhelming .610. Fowler hit .277 with 25 home runs and an .810 OPS with the Las Vegas Aviators in Triple-A in 2019. With the 2017 injury stalling his timeline, he never could quite get on the right track.
Fowler could clear waivers and remain with the A’s organization, but teams will have dibs on the speedy outfielder.
On the other side of the transaction, the A’s finally have their big-time closer. Rosenthal is a top arm that is the no-brainer option to fill Liam Hendriks’ shoes. With a fastball that reaches 100-plus mph and devastating off-speed stuff, Rosenthal, 30, more than makes up for the loss. Rosenthal played the first six years of his career with the St. Louis Cardinals, making stops in Detroit, Washington, Kansas City and San Diego where he established himself as one of the game’s best closers.