A's Nab Right-Hander From Houston Astros in Rule 5 Draft

The A's built up their depth with this pick from the Houston Astros

Apr 27, 2025; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Houston Astros hat and glove in the dugout during the second inning against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: William Purnell-Imagn Images | William Purnell-Imagn Images

The Athletics were busy on Wednesday for the Rule 5 Draft, losing former first-round pick Daniel Susac, and then snagging right-hander Ryan Watson. Susac was taken by the Minnesota Twins, then traded to the San Francisco Giants, while Watson was selected from the Giants and then traded to the Boston Red Sox.

In the minor-league portion of the Rule 5 Draft, the A's swiped an intriguing right-hander from the Houston Astros, taking Abel Mercedes in the first round of the Triple-A portion of the draft.

A 23-year-old from the Dominican Republic, Mercedes was signed by Houston in June of 2021, and in his time in the minors he has yet to make it past A Ball, where he has spent the past two seasons.

This past year he racked up 41 1/3 innings in relief, posting a 4.35 ERA with a 1.86 WHIP. In 2024, he was ranked as the team's No. 11 prospect according to FanGraphs. Here is what they said of him at the time:

"A powerfully built relief prospect, Mercedes' fastball has been in the 97-99 mph range for the last couple of years, but he's walked a little more than a batter per inning since coming stateside from the DSL. Mercedes epitomizes variance. His arm strength and raw breaking ball quality give him late-inning upside, but he needs to experience a pretty serious strike-throwing progression to be a big leaguer at all.

"His mid-80s curveball has ridiculous depth when Mercedes releases it correctly, which doesn't happen very often. With pure stuff this lively, Abel is going to get lots of time and opportunity to polish his control enough to play some kind of big league role. If/when things click for him, he'll probably move quickly."

And that right there would be why the A's selected him. The green and gold have had a knack for targeting arms with poor command or control in recent years, and have had some success in developing them into effective big-leaguers along the way. The hope here is that Mercedes will be their latest success story in the coming year or two.

Since he was selected in the Triple-A portion of the draft, he will not need to be on the 26-man, or even the 40-man roster at this time. If he pitches well and looks to be a big-league talent, that would be when the A's would have to put him on the roster, in order to avoid him being taken by another club in a subsequent Rule 5 Draft.

The upside here is clearly that he has terrific strikeout stuff. The righty struck out 32.7% of the batters he faced this past season, which is a solid building block for a young pitcher to work with. He also walked 23.8% of the hitters he faced, which is about twice as high as you'd like to see.

Mercedes will be an interesting player to keep an eye on in the minor leagues this season, with the hope being that he can be a piece for the A's to utilize in the coming years.