The Athletics announced that they have activated infielder J.D. Davis and selected infielder Brett Harris. They had already cleared one active roster spot by optioning first baseman Ryan Noda after Wednesday’s game and also optioned shortstop Nick Allen today. To open a 40-man spot for Harris, right-hander Freddy Tarnok was transferred to the 60-day injured list. Robert Murray of FanSided reported on the promotion of Harris prior to the official announcement.
Harris, 26 in June, was a seventh-round pick of the A’s in the 2021 draft. Baseball America ranked him as the #30 prospect in the club’s system going into 2022, highlighting his defensive versatility and pitch recognition.
In 2022, Harris split his time between High-A and Double-A, hitting a combined .290/.374/.475 for a 123 wRC+. He drew a walk in 10.4% of his plate appearances while only striking out 17.2% of the time. He continued producing in similar fashion last year, this time between Double-A and Triple-A. He had a 10.8% walk rate, 15% strikeout rate and hit .279/.383/.424 for a 113 wRC+.
Baseball America bumped him up to #17 in the system coming into this year. He returned to Triple-A and his strikeout rate just jumped to 23.6% in the early going but his walk rate has also climbed to 16.4%. He has hit .289/.418/.456 so far this year for a 125 wRC+ and has now gotten the call to the big leagues.
Defensively, Harris has primarily lined up at third base but has also seen a bit of time at second base and shortstop. The A’s have a fair amount of fluidity in their infield mix but Davis is likely to be the regular at third. Now that Allen has been optioned, Darell Hernaiz will probably get regular run at shortstop. Abraham Toro and Max Schuemann have been playing second base but both are capable of playing other positions. With Noda optioned, first base is open for these guys as well as Tyler Nevin to get at-bats as the club sees fit.
As for Tarnok, he was shut down during Spring Training due to a “flare up” in his surgically-repaired right hip. He’s been on the IL all season due to right hip inflammation and this transfer makes him ineligible to return until late May. As of earlier this week, he was scheduled to throw a bullpen and some live batting practice, per Martín Gallegos of MLB.com. But Tarnok will effectively have to redo Spring Training from this point on, meaning he wasn’t going to be an option for the club in the next few weeks regardless.
If they can’t find a spot for him on the roster, there should be an available spot for him in the stands …. say like 55,000 empty seats for him to choose from.
Finally something new. Your “both of them” joke was getting old.
Technically, it would be 54,998 seats to chose from.
Touche’!!!
Nice. Is it Brown the odd man out!? Or Wood? He hasn’t pitched well but the A’s are paying him and they likely would want something value in return if they can trade Woods that is…
Knock on wood?
Wow, I expected JD Davis to come off the IL today to take the spot left absent by Ryan Noda, but happy for Brett Harris as well!
Hope he does well he has some decent numbers in minors but curious why he had a late start at Gonzaga to be a freshman at 21?
Harris’s college career: ‘17 U. Houston (redshirt); ‘18 Central Arizona C.; ‘19-‘21 Gonzaga
They will probably move Davis to first base and Harris will start at third. They need to release brown, but I don’t think they are going to do it because he seems to be a pet of management.
The A’s also sent Nick Allen to AAA.
They needed to make some moves to try and bolster some offense. The pitchers have been just terrific and need more support
The A’s pitching is a couple years ahead of schedule. If the A’s actually wanted to finish above .500 and make it fun, they COULD. They would only need a slightly-below-average offense to content. They currently have a historically-bad offense
This infield mix of Harris, hernaiz, Schumann, gelof is semi interesting. Then you got toro and davis as older guys. Add in top prospects muncy and soderstrom at some point. And maybe Noda figures things out and gets back to mlb level.