The Athletics are selecting outfielder Lazaro Armenteros onto the 40-man roster, reports Martín Gallegos of MLB.com (X link). That’ll bump Oakland’s roster count to 37.
Armenteros was a high-profile amateur signee from Cuba seven years ago. The right-handed hitter was viewed at the time as a potential power-hitting regular, leading to a fair bit of hype preceding the 2016-17 international period. The A’s eventually landed Armenteros with a $3MM signing bonus.
That offensive potential has been undercut by huge strikeout tallies throughout his minor league career. Armenteros has punched out in more than 37% of his professional plate appearances. That’d be alarming for any prospect but is particularly concerning for a player whom most scouts project as a left fielder. His stock has dimmed considerably. Armenteros has twice gone unselected in the Rule 5 draft.
The 24-year-old had a generally solid season with Double-A Midland in 2023. He hit .248/.380/.464. Armenteros connected on 14 home runs while drawing walks at a massive 15.3% clip. Swing-and-miss remained an issue, though, as he punched out nearly a third of the time he stepped to the plate.
Oakland’s front office clearly remains intrigued by Armenteros’ physical tools. He has spent parts of seven seasons in the minors, meaning he would have qualified for minor league free agency on Monday if he weren’t on the 40-man roster. The A’s will keep that from happening. Armenteros has a full slate of options and would likely start next season in Triple-A if he holds the 40-man spot throughout the offseason.
At last… A’s need to evaluate Lazaro to see if he rises…
That’s a name I haven’t heard in like 7 years.
The Lazaro Armenteros era has begun!
Good. Such an Oakland A’s move. The season does not start for another 5 months. Clowns
Possibly because they are looking to protect him from the Rule V draft?
Yep
No. He would be a free agent. As noted, hes gone unselected twice in the minor league portion of the Rule V draft.
Sorry, the A’s fired everyone except for executive leadership. The day to day management is currently being handled by chat GPT and a confused upaid intern.
the A’s GM is so bad its better to have no GM then him making bad trade after bad trade.
Rule 5 sir
Why though? He couldn’t crack the roster on one of the worst teams in the last 10 years as a 24 year old. I’m sorry, let me try that again. He couldn’t even crack their AAA roster as a 24 year old. 2058 plate appearances in the minors, and he has a career .791 OPS. The K rate is absolutely comical. 764 of them already. I guess his walk rate and SB numbers aren’t terrible, but if you’re getting excited about this guy, you’re probably stuck in 2017.
Still just 24.
And hasn’t even been to AAA yet. In a terrible organization. You can believe, but I don’t.
Reason #1 to Fisher. Minimum wage player. Fisher only cares about payroll being nothing than having real ball players. Funny how Vegas thinks getting the A’s would be a asset to the team.
The first out of the park baseball I owned had him available as an international free agent. What a blast from the past
Playing at A+ since 2019 but okay then.
Agreed. We let Cody Thomas go, who had 100 RBIs in Triple-A, but kept this guy?
Cody Thomas is a church mouse out of AAA
A’s just don’t get much luck with players like Armenteros they just don’t unfortunately. Everything the astors touch turns to gold they just have that bitta luck needed for players to make that step
Lol! Clearly the hate is real…
Late bloomer ala Garcia type
This guy is an equal parts mixture of Avisail Garcia, Puig, Cespedes, and Jurickson Profar.
Pretty sure they watched the Lazaro hype video one more time.
I believe in him . Plus have too little talent to give up on someone like him . They did that once with Nelson Cruz . Lazaro had a tough learning AZ fall league. , and is always a slow starter but his numbers are there at the end . They didn’t mention his walks are high . He still has some learning . Im waiting for that click .
The article said he had a “massive 15.3 walk rate.” The 37 percent K rate stood out far more. Kid might be 24, but if the A ball and AA pitchers are mowing him down like that, I doubt it gets better at AAA.
“Armenteros has punched out in more than 37% of his professional plate appearances. That’d be alarming for any prospect but is particularly concerning for a player whom most scouts project as a left fielder.”
If he were playing right field or second base, that would be seen as a good strikeout rate apparently.
“The A’s will keep that from happening.”
No – the A’s have kept that from happening. That’s the whole crux of your article, Anthony.
Might as well add him to the 40-man. A’s should have lots of room. It’s likely some team would probably claim him in the Rule 5 Draft since the cost to do so is dirt cheap.
I view the Rule 5 Draft as being a garage sale with a generous return policy.