Hard throwers top A’s pitching prospects list
Oakland’s top two pitching prospects are, technically, Jesús Luzardo and A.J. Puk, but we can safely assume that, if healthy, they’ll be in the A’s rotation to open the 2020 season.
Are there more such gems on the horizon? That’s a tall order: Luzardo and Puk are special talents, lefthanders with devastating stuff. The A’s, though, excel in identifying pitchers, period. Old ones, young ones, via drafts, trades, free agency. That means there are some names in the system that warrant attention — several could be in Oakland this season, or dealt to improve the bigleague team.
Daulton Jefferies: The 24yearold from Cal is back from Tommy John surgery and pitching up a storm, even with limited innings this past season. He was named the A’s minorleague pitcher of the year by MLB Pipeline after putting up a 3.42 ERA at two levels, striking out 93 batters in 79 innings and walking just nine. He’s ranked the A’s No. 9 prospect overall by Baseball America.
“Daulton’s command was phenomenal. He had an incredible year,” A’s director of player development Ed Sprague said. “I’m just super happy for him. I was in Stockton when he made his first appearance in two years, sitting with his parents, and they had tears in their eyes. It was an exciting thing to watch.”
Jefferies, who is from Atwater (Merced County) and was a compround pick in 2016, is a lock to be placed on the 40man roster this season, so he’ll be at bigleague spring training and is likely to be at TripleA Las Vegas soon after spending most of this past year at DoubleA Midland. With good results, he could be an option for the A’s at some point, especially if he keeps up that strikeouttowalk ratio. Parker Dunshee: The 24yearold was in bigleague camp last year, was promoted from Midland to Las Vegas in May and was a workhorse for the Aviators in a very tough park for pitchers. He made 25 starts overall and threw 130 innings with mixed results, going 67 with a 4.36 ERA. For his minorleague career, though, the righthander has a 2.94 ERA and a .216 average against and he gets high marks for poise and competitiveness, so his second season in the Pacific Coast League might be a better gauge — park factors aside, of course.
Dunshee, a seventhround pick out of Wake Forest in 2017, doesn’t have the dominating stuff that some other top prospects might, but he mixes speeds well and has a good changeup; he’s ranked the A’s No. 11 prospect by Baseball America. “When his command is good, he’s going to be really good,” Sprague said. James Kaprielian: The 25yearold was acquired in the 2017 Sonny Gray deal with the Yankees while still recovering from Tommy John surgery and his return was slowed by shoulder trouble. Now healthy, Kaprielian — a 2015 firstround pick out of UCLA who was once New York’s No. 4 prospect — turned in nice work after being promoted to Midland, with a 1.63 ERA and a .186 average against.
He made one appearance at Las Vegas to finish the season and is likely to start there to open next year, but when he’s on, Kaprielian has electric stuff, with a fastball that is back in the 9496 range. If the A’s have a need in the rotation, he could be in the conversation.
“He’s been good, we’re happy with him, and he started to get some velo back,” Sprague said. “Once he realized he’s going to have to pitch at 9293 and command the baseball and committed to that, all of a sudden, the velo started to tick back up — that was encouraging.
“This guy is built like (sixtime AllStar) Kevin Brown — he’s physically a specimen and mentally tough to go through all those injuries.”
Grant Holmes: Like Kaprielian, he was part of a big deal. The 23yearold came to the A’s organization in the same 2016 trade with the Dodgers that netted Jharel Cotton and Frankie Montas. Shoulder trouble slowed his development, but Holmes long has been a favorite of scouts. Baseball America has the righthander listed 13th among the A’s minorleaguers.
The team is cautiously optimistic that Holmes, a firstround pick in 2014 who so far might be best known for his mass of long, curly hair, might be ready to fulfill his promise. Like Kaprielian, he finished the season with a start at Las Vegas and could be there to open 2020 after putting up a 3.31 ERA in 22 appearances at Midland, with a .235 average against. He’s throwing in the mid90s, plus he has a good cutter and curveball.
“He’s kind of turned a corner,” Sprague said. “He’s always had good stuff, but was able to put it together; that’s the best I’ve seen him.”
Brian Howard: The 24yearold is ranked 12th among Oakland’s prospects, and though he has been mainly a starter in the A’s system after being selected in the eighth round out of TCU in 2017, he could be a force as a reliever — he’s 6foot9 and has a good cutter and slider, plus he has been known to throw an eephus pitch, which has a very low speed to catch hitters offguard.
A lateseason move up to Las Vegas didn’t go well; Howard allowed 22 earned runs in four outings, and he went back to the Texas League, where he was an AllStar. He’ll need to navigate his next jump to TripleA better, because he’s not going to want to be at Midland for a third consecutive season.