Interesting A's Prospect Out of Winthrop Set for Pro Debut with Stockton Ports

Jun 1, 2024; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; A detailed view of an Oakland Athletics hat and glove on the field against the Atlanta Braves in the sixth inning at Truist Park. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

We've had MLB Opening Day, Triple-A Opening Day, and today we'll get the rest of the minor leagues in motion as well. Rosters have been announced for the A's three remaining affiliates, and while there is talent littered throughout their system in Double-A Midland and High-A Lansing, there is one prospect in particular that has caught our eyes here at Athletics on SI.

That prospect will be making his pro debut for the Stockton Ports in 2025, being added to their roster for the 2025 campaign. The guy we're talking about is Riley Huge, a 13th round selection by the A's last season.

Selected out of Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina, Huge stands 6-foot-3, 240 pounds and throws it from the left-hand side.

The reason that he's interesting to us is because of his strikeout rate last season in college, which stood at 37%, good for 15.0 strikeouts per nine. In raw numbers, he struck out 111 batters in just 66.2 innings of work. He also did that while walking a modest (given the strikeout numbers) 9.6%.

Of course, these are college stats, so they don't necessarily mean that he's going to be the next big thing by any means, but that strikeout rate was among the best in college.

Chase Burns, who went second overall to the Cincinnati Reds, struck out 191 batters in 100 innings, good for 17.2 strikeouts per nine, but nobody else on the leaderboard held a higher strikeout rate.

There are certainly questions about the level of competition that Huge was facing in 2024, and how that will translate to the minor leagues, but that's also part of what makes him interesting. There are some tools to work with there, but how they end up translating is something we'll need to keep an eye on.

After graduating high school, Huge went to College of Central Florida, a junior college. He told Yahoo! Sports after he was drafted, "I had to be better all around. But from the JUCO to D-I, everything needed to work all the time. Once that clicked after the first year at Winthrop, it helped me get here and it was perfect."

In a game against Maine last season, he struck out 20 batters in just 7.2 innings, becoming the first player since 2017 to achieve that feat, and was named to the second-team Big South following the season. The 20 strikeouts are a new school record, with the previous record-holder being former Minnesota Twins right-hander Kevin Slowey.

Somehow, those 20 strikeouts in under eight complete makes him even more interesting. Of the 23 outs he recorded, 20 of them were via strikeout.

This is a big arm that has some tremendous potential, either as a starter or a reliever. It will be interesting to see which direction the A's are leaning with him on that front, too. The Ports have yet to announce their Opening Day starter, so we may have to wait just a little bit before we get an answer there.