A's Add Two to 40-Man Roster
The Rule 5 roster deadline has come and gone, and the non-tender deadline is still looming for a little later this week, but let's look at which top prospects the A's did and did not protect on Tuesday.
A's #10 prospect according to MLB Pipeline Lawrence Butler was a pretty easy pick to land one of the roster spots available. He's 22, has played primarily in right field but has time at all three outfield spots as well as first base. He clubbed 11 homers and stole 13 bases in Lansing this season, and was just awarded the Arizona Fall League's Dernell Stenson Sportsmanship Award.
The one knock on Butler this season was that he struck out a bit much in High-A, collecting a 31.5% strikeout rate, while also walking 12% of the time.
But in the Arizona Fall League he cut back on the strikeouts in the 19 games he played, and walked as much as he struck out, 15 times for each for a rate of 20.8%. Butler has tremendous potential and he could have a very bright future in Oakland in the next year or two.
The other player the A's protected from the Rule 5 Draft is lefty Hogan Harris. He appeared in 23 games (22 starts) in 2022, and climbed all the way from Lansing to Midland to Vegas over the course of the season.
With the Lugnuts he posted a 1.38 ERA across 13 innings, striking out 18 and walking seven.
In Midland, he had a 1.67 ERA in 32 1/3 innings, and struck out 48 while walking 19.
He got the call up to Las Vegas in the middle of August and saw his ERA climb to 6.35 after he allowed six homers in 28 1/3 innings. He hadn't allowed a single long ball in his previous two stops. His strikeout rate (12.8 per nine) and walk rate (5.3 per nine) stayed remarkably stable at all three stops.
It should also be noted that the highest level of competition that Harris had faced in pro ball before this season had been in Stockton back in 2019 when the Ports were the High-A affiliate and the Vermont Lake Monsters were still a minor league team.
He missed the 2020 season like a lot of minor leaguers due to Covid-19, then missed the regular season in 2021 due to an elbow injury. He tossed ten innings in the Arizona Fall League last season and allowed eight runs, walking 14 while striking out 14, so for Harris to have the workload and the results that he did in 2022 against the competition he was facing, was pretty impressive.
Harris could find himself in the rotation mix a little later in the year next season.
One prospect that wasn't protected was Euribiel Angeles, the A's #17 prospect. Angeles was acquired in the Sean Manaea trade with the San Diego Padres before the season, and spent the year in Lansing playing shortstop and second base primarily, but he also got a few games at third base.
Angeles hit .278 with a .316 on-base and he struck out just 14.9% of the time.
Even though he was left off of the 40-man roster, there is only a very small chance that he gets selected in the Rule 5 Draft. The A's will place him on their Triple-A roster ahead of the minor league portion of the Rule 5 (he doesn't have to start the season in Las Vegas, however), so he won't be selected by a team in the minor league phase. The only way that he'd be picked is if a team was confident that he could cut it in the big leagues, at 20 years old, and last the entire season.
Since his highest level of competition has been in High-A, that would be one heck of a gamble to take, and the A's are betting that no other team will.
The other prospects in the A's top 30 that were not protected were #19 Logan Davidson, #21 Brayan Buelvas, #24 Colin Peluse, and #30 Jorge Juan.
Buelvas is 20 years old and has some tools, but he hit .195 in Lansing this season in 69 games before a hamstring injury cut his season short. He should also be safe.
The A's roster now sits at 39, and they have the second overall pick in the Rule 5 Draft in just a couple of weeks.
We'll be highlighting some guys that the A's could go after soon, so make sure to follow @InsidetheAs on Twitter so you don't miss out!