Where Will the A's Start De Vries, Nett, and Jump in 2026?

The San Diego Padres season came to an end on Thursday night in Chicago, with a questionable strike three call helping to aid the Cubs to an NLDS berth. In games one and two, former A's closer Mason Miller struck out eight batters in 2 2/3 innings of work, and hit one more. He also notched the fastest recorded pitch in MLB postseason history at 104.5 miles per hour.

It will be interesting to see how the Padres piece together a roster for 2026 with some key players set to hit free agency.

The A's on the other hand will be attempting to piece together a roster that will hopefully take them to the postseason for the first time since 2020. With that in mind, Athletics on SI asked A's GM David Forst where we can expect Leo De Vries (No. 3 prosepct in MLB), Braden Nett, and Gage Jump (No. 60 in MLB) to begin the year in 2026.

"I imagine both Nett and Jump will start the season in Triple-A next year. That's not for sure, but they've both performed really well at the Double-A level. If your question is the same about Leo, I think we'll probably wait and see how Spring Training goes. He only has 100 or so plate appearances at Double-A, so we'll sort of gauge his readiness in camp when we get our hands on him."

The big takeaway here is that while it may be likely that De Vries begins next season in Midland, he did enough in his brief stint at the level as an 18-year-old to have the A's even considering moving him up to Triple-A at the start of 2026.

In 103 regular season plate appearances, the A's top prospect hit .281 with a .359 OBP and five home runs in just 21 games. That's the most playing time that an 18-year-old has seen in the Texas League in at least the past decade, and he really took off, especially in September. In 10 September contests, he hit .383 with a .420 OBP, slugged all five of his homers, and drove in 13 RBI.

The only player his age that has performed like that is Texas' Sebastian Walcott, who put up a 171 wRC+ (100 is league average) across 24 plate appearances last year. De Vries put up a 144 across a larger sample size, and only boasted a .303 BABIP, compared to Walcott's .467. There's a reason De Vries is rated MLB's third-ranked prospect, and it's because he's special.

Regardless of where he begins the 2026 campaign, if he's performing well, he'll continue to get promoted. There is a real chance that he's with the A's in West Sacramento for the second half of the season.

Nett, who was the second-best ranked prospect included in the Mason Miller deal with the Padres, posted a 3.75 ERA across 105 2/3 innings (24 starts) in Double-A, striking out 116 batters and holding a 1.47 WHIP. He's certainly in the next wave of arms that could give the A's a jolt at some point in 2026. He's also Rule 5 eligible this winter, so he'll find himself on the 40-man roster before long.

Jump is the only player of the trio that was not acquired from the Padres this summer. Instead, the 22-year-old was selected by the A's in the second round of the 2024 MLB Draft. He began the season in Hi-A Lansing, then moved up to Midland and continued to mow down the opposition.

Across both levels he put up a 3.28 ERA over 112 2/3 innings with a 28.4% strikeout rate. In Double-A, he held a 3.64 ERA in 81 2/3 innings and spent much of the year looking like the A's next ace. Through his first 17 starts with the RockHounds, he held a 1.89 ERA, but in his final three regular season outings he combined for 10 1/3 innings of work and 18 earned runs allowed.

This can presumably be chalked up to Jump being at the very end of his first professional season, and the lefty just fading a little in those final few outings. That happens, and shouldn't be a cause for concern moving forward.

Yesterday, we talked about how the A's pitching staff wasn't as bad as many people believed, especially over the final 98 games of the season. And with high-end reinforcements potentially on the way at some point next season, the future of this club is looking pretty good.