The Athletics announced that they have placed infielder Vimael Machín on the paternity list and selected infielder Nate Mondou from Triple-A Las Vegas.
Mondou, 27, has spent his entire professional career with the A’s thus far, having been selected by them in the 13th round of the 2016 draft. After that draft, he began in the lower levels of the club’s system and fared well. Over 2016 and 2017, he hit .290/.370/.375 in 186 games between rookie ball, A-ball and High-A, striking out in just 17.1% of plate appearances while walking in 10.5% of them.
Though he’s never been a highly-touted prospect, his performance up to that time got him a mention on the 2018 FanGraphs list of top Oakland farmhands. Carson Cistulli highlighted Mondou as “Cistulli’s Guy,” a slot reserved for a prospect that was perhaps a hidden gem. Cistulli noted Mondou’s lack of power but gave a compliment his bat-to-ball skills.
Mondou reached Double-A in 2018 but struggled there that year and in 2019, producing a .250/.344/.323 batting line at that level. After the minor league seasons were canceled due to the pandemic in 2020, Mondou got a bump to Triple-A in 2021 and has generally continued to fare well in that low-power way of his. Over the past two years, he’s hit just 15 home runs in 192 games in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League but has walked in 10.6% of his plate appearances while striking out in just 17% of them. That’s led to a Triple-A batting line of .283/.373/.431 and a wRC+ of 104, or 4% better than league average.
Defensively, Mondou has spent most of his time at second base while also seeing some action at third base, shortstop, left field and one mound appearance. The A’s have traded away or released most of their established players in the last year, leaving them with a whole bunch of rookies scattered all over their roster. The infield is no exception, as Nick Allen, Jonah Bride, Dermis Garcia and Jordan Diaz are all in the mix, none of whom having ever cracked the big leagues before this season. Mondou will get a very brief chance to showcase his skills before the offseason begins, though he has a full slate of options and could act as a depth piece for the A’s for the foreseeable future.
The obligatory Cat Mandou joke … gnak gnak gnak
Every time I see Vimael’s name it makes me think of Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili.
You are the only person on the planet who thinks this – congrats and participation trophy for you! Really glad you let us all know!!!
Will you put your participation trophy on your mantle with all the rest youve accumulated from the 1960s-onwards???
He’s been in the A’s system for six years and finally getting the call to the show. Congrats to him.
7 years in the Minors? He is practically a Minors lifer. Very cool he got the call finally.
This happens quite often, its a “gift” before reaching FA, also makes the team look “good” in that they “graduated” another draft pick.
I mean good for him and he might have a bit of a decent career in MLB, but this is more of an attendance/6-7 years of MILB service thing.
He won’t be on the A’s next year.
Unfortunate it was this late, would have liked to give him a reasonable sample size of ab’s to see how he does at the MLB level, even if predictions aren’t great. Unfortunately it was critical we get Andrus and Kemp as many ab’s as possible.
Did they call him up from a beer softball league?
Handles the stick like distant uncle Pierre Mondue of Hab vintage