A's Sign Kevin Cron to Minor League Deal

Cron last played in the big leagues in 2020 with the Arizona Diamondbacks, and has been playing internationally the last two seasons.

The A's are bringing in Kevin Cron, son of A's assistant hitting coach Chris Cron, on a minor league contract. He has been assigned to the Las Vegas Aviators. 

Bringing father and son back together is the upside of this deal, because Kevin has struggled at the plate since his monster season in Reno back in 2019. That year, he hit .331 with a .449 OBP, and slugged .777, bashing 38 bombs in the Pacific Coast League in 82 games. 

Chris Cron was also his manager that season. 

Since that year, Cron the younger played in eight games with Arizona in 2020, going 0-for-17 with a walk and seven strikeouts. He was released by Arizona later that year, and latched on with the Hiroshima Carp in Japan, playing in both the Western and Central Leagues. He hit a combined .239 with a .296 on-base and a .433 slugging in 95 games. He managed 15 home runs. 

He spent 2022 with the SSG Landers in the KBO, playing in 67 games and hitting .222 with a .255 OBP. 

When Cron was going good in the minor leagues, he was striking out between 20-23% of the time. That rate went up after his 38 homer campaign in 2019 (he struck out 20.4% in Reno that season), touching 35% in small samples in the big leagues. 

The hope with this signing is that bringing Cron back home, and having his dad as a coach on the big league team could provide the guidance that Kevin needs to try and find some of the magic that he had in 2019. If he does that, he can still carve out a nice big league career. 

Kevin Cron will be 30 years old when Spring Training rolls around.