Where the A's Top Prospects Landed on Top 100 Lists

With the A's making so many trades recently, one would expect them to have stockpiled a plethora of young talent for the next wave of contention. That's how other teams generally do it, anyway. The A's are different in that regard, and this past teardown is a prime example.

Instead of targeting guys in the lower minors that are highly regarded prospects, they instead chose to target "lesser" prospects that are closer to big league ready and could be ready to compete for a spot in Oakland rather than Midland or Lansing.

The front office also went for quantity in some of these trades, not necessarily sacrificing quality, but instead giving them more lottery tickets with a chance to hit.

One reason that the front office may have taken this route is because some of their top prospects were already approaching the Majors. Tyler Soderstrom (2020, 1st Round) and Zack Gelof (2021, 2nd Round) made a quick debut in Triple-A at the end of the 2022 season, and should start the '23 campaign back in Vegas. Both could be in Oakland later this season.

With that being the potential timeframe for two of the organizations top prospects, it wouldn't really make sense to get guys that are three or four years away from making their debuts since the status quo has never been building for a lengthy run. Instead, they try to maximize their talent in two to four year windows.

In quick summation, that is what this A's teardown has boiled down to. There is some comfort in the fact that the A's have done this a time or two, and they know how to build a winning ball club. It's the keeping the group together part that has been difficult and led to frustration among the fan base.

Now that we know how we got here, let's take a look at which A's prospects ranked in the Top 100.

Tyler Soderstrom

FanGraphs has the A's top talent ranked #30 in all of baseball, and that's the highest he is on the three major lists. In their write-up, you can see why they're so high on him,"More than 51% of his contact comes off his bat at 95 mph or higher, and 21.1% of that is hit at a launch angle within the sweet spot range for power production."

Granted there is a big jump between those metrics in the minors and what he could produce in an A's uniform, but for reference, only ten hitters in the big leagues had a hard hit rate at 51% or above. Those ten: Aaron Judge (61.8%, and he also hit 62 home runs), Yordan Alvarez (59.8%), J.D. Davis (56.1%), Kyle Schwarber (54.4%), Teoscar Hernández (53.3%), Giancarlo Stanton (52.3%), Joc Peterson (52.1%), José Abreu (51.8%), Matt Chapman (51.2%), and Mike Trout (51.0).

MLB has Soderstrom ranked #39 on their list, and they had a similar, glowing review. "He can make consistent hard contact to all fields, and his combination of strength and bat speed point to the kind of power and run production consistent with his 2022 output."

In case you were wondering, Soderstrom hit a combined .267 with a .324 OBP, 29 home runs, and 105 RBI as a 20-year-old. He played 89 games in Lansing, 36 in Midland, and finished up with 8 in Las Vegas.

The lowest rank Soderstrom comes from Keith Law of The Athletic, who spent about a quarter of his write-up saying that Soderstrom isn't a catcher, even though he spent more time at first base and as the team's designated hitter than behind the dish in 2022.

Law has the A's "catcher" at #60, dropping him 25 spots from where he was ranked a year ago. "Soderstrom is a hitter first, aggressive without overly expanding the zone, and he continued to make hard contact even after the thumb injury."

No matter the ranking, there's no denying that Soderstrom will be raking on any field he's playing on. He's entering his age 21 season.

Ken Waldichuk

Waldichuk was part of the return in last summer's trade that sent Frankie Montas and Lou Trivino to the New York Yankees. Both he and JP Sears, who was also acquired in that trade, look like pretty good shots to make the A's Opening Day roster. So where is he ranked?

This time, it's MLB ranking him higher, at #76 overall. "There’s deception in the 6-foot-4 lefty’s delivery thanks to his lower three-quarters arm slot, not to mention his angle and extension. He’s struggled with his command at times, but made some nice strides in the strike-throwing department in 2022, helping him look more and more like a mid-rotation big league starter."

The A's love a pitcher with some deception, and one that is projected as a mid-rotation starter, that's not a bad floor, either. On the Locked on A's podcast earlier this week, I talked about why his quest for added velocity on his slider could help unlock another level in 2023.

Over at FanGraphs, they have Waldichuk ranked ten spots lower at #86, and agree that he's a big-league ready mid-rotation starter. They also added, "He’s shown the ability to induce significant swing and miss across all four offerings, both in and out of the zone, aided largely by his funky arm action."

Between Waldichuk, Shintaro Fujinami, and even Kyler Muller (who was compared to Madison Bumgarner by A's coaches), the A's have some starters with intrigue and upside vying for a spot in the rotation to begin the season.

Waldichuk was not ranked by Keith Law, and he and Soderstrom were the only A's prospects ranked by MLB. There was one more guy that FanGraphs felt compelled to rank, however.

Mason Miller

Miller impressed in the Arizona Fall League last year, after compiling just 14 innings during the regular season. Miller suffered an arm injury last Spring and spent most of the year rehabbing, before posting ridiculous numbers in the Arizona Complex League, Lansing, and then wrapping up in Vegas. Across those three levels he combined for 16.1 strikeouts per nine, and just 1.9 walks per nine.

He also tallied 16.2 innings in the AFL, posted a 3.24 ERA, and held a 0.780 WHIP after allowing just four walks and nine hits. He also throws absolute gas.

FanGraphs has him ranked #98 and has some great stats in their write-up. "He blew triple-digits at the top of the zone past batters at every stop, with his fastball averaging 99 mph at Triple-A. Miller pairs the heater with a sharp, mid-80s slider and locates both with consistency, good for a combined 50% strikeout rate, while issuing just three walks across 14 innings in 2022."

There are just nine pitchers in baseball that averaged 99 miles per hour on their fastball, and they're all relievers. Jacob deGrom and Hunter Greene just missed the cut, averaging 98.9. In terms of velocity, Miller's is elite, especially for a starting pitcher.

Zack Gelof is widely considered one of the A's top prospects as well, but he didn't make his way onto any of these three Top 100 lists. Last season MLB had him ranked as the A's #3 prospect. They have yet to release their top 30 prospects by team at this point.

Gelof spent most of his 2022 in Midland (87 games) and hit .271 with a .356 on-base and .794 OPS, hitting 13 homers and driving in 61. His strikeout rate was a little high at 27.4%, but his walk rate was in the double digits at 11.7%. In his 8 game call-up to Triple-A, Gelof went 9-for-35 with five homers and a double. He also had a little time in the Arizona Fall League and attempted to steal a few bases, going 4-for-5 in 21 games. He finished 2022 10-for-12 overall.