The A’s are promoting Denzel Clarke from Triple-A Las Vegas, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. It’s the first major league call for the outfield prospect, who was added to the 40-man roster last November. A’s manager Mark Kotsay said this afternoon that infielder Gio Urshela was headed to the 10-day injured list with a left hamstring strain (relayed by Martín Gallegos of MLB.com).
While that could be a simple one-for-one swap, it’s possible there will be a broader set of moves tomorrow. Passan suggests the A’s could make multiple changes to the roster after losing their ninth consecutive game today. They’re the first team in MLB to drop nine in a row this season, and things won’t get any easier this weekend. The A’s host the Phillies — winners of seven straight and holding the NL’s best record at 32-20 — beginning tomorrow.
Clarke, 25, is from Toronto but played his college ball at Cal State Northridge. The A’s selected him in the fourth round of the 2021 draft, taking a flier on his immense physical tools despite concerns about his pure hitting ability. Clarke is listed at 6’4″ and 220 pounds. He draws praise for his raw power from the right side. Perhaps more surprising is his excellent athleticism despite that size. Offseason reports at both Baseball America and FanGraphs credited Clarke with plus-plus speed and projected him as an elite defender in center field.
It’s an obviously intriguing toolset, but the concerns are equally apparent from Clarke’s minor league numbers. Like many hitters of his size, he struggles to make contact. Clarke has struck out in 30% of his plate appearances during his five-season professional career. To his credit, he has dramatically improved in that regard this season. Clarke is fanning at a manageable 21.8% clip while drawing walks at a massive 17.3% rate this year with Las Vegas. He owns a .286/.436/.419 batting line.
However, the lower strikeout rate has come with a dramatic spike in ground balls. He’s putting the ball on the ground nearly 70% of the time he makes contact. Clarke has the speed to turn a lot of those into hits, but that’s an obvious cap on his power production. He hasn’t hit a home run in 133 plate appearances in Triple-A. He’s obviously much stronger than that would suggest, evidenced by his three consecutive double-digit homer seasons in the lower levels between 2022-24.
It’s unlikely the A’s would bring Clarke up for sporadic playing time. He might push JJ Bleday out of the starting center field role. Clarke should immediately provide a big defensive upgrade over Bleday, a natural corner outfielder who has graded as one of the sport’s worst defensive center fielders over the past two seasons.
The A’s were willing to live with that when Bleday was producing offensively last season, as he hit 20 homers with a .243/.324/.437 slash. He’s not producing on either side of the ball this year, as his offense has slumped to a .204/.291/.365 showing. He’s hitting .175 with a .254 on-base percentage this month and has fallen to eighth or ninth in the lineup after starting the season as the #3 hitter.
Urshela signed a one-year deal over the winter to compete for the starting third base job. Luis Urías has outplayed him to take that position, leaving Urshela as a semi-regular depth infielder. He’s hitting .219 without a home run in 31 games. Max Schuemann is already on hand as a utility piece, so the A’s don’t need to directly replace Urshela with another infielder.
Go Matadors!
It’s early but something has to give. The expectations are high and there is talent with a very young A’s team. Feels like they were regressing a couple of years back. They need a couple of good SP plus they need to be more discipline at the plate. They swing at first pitches too much. Patience is a virtue. Go A’s.
The A’s could use an “elite defender in CF”. It’s a bad plan to pair questionable pitching with subpar defense up the the middle. The A’s have gotten away with it for years because the Coliseum was such a pitchers’ park. Now playing in a hitter friendly stadium with the weather getting warmer, defense is going to matter.
Larry Butts and Denzel are going to be solid building blocks, it’s a shame they play for a franchise owned by 10lbs of dogshet in a 5lb sack.
If you use an upside down exclamation point, you can write sh¡t wherever you’d like. I’m here to help.
I’d post the “the more you know” gif if I could. Appreciate you BHJ.
I haven’t muted you, @FC420.
You’re my hero of the day
JJ Bleday & Mason Miller will be wearing different uniforms come August 1st.
Interesting promotion. He is a great defender, has raw power and can take a walk but the bat to ball is questionable and he hits too many ground balls to really get into his power.
Historically he has run high BABIPs though which often happens when you hit the ball hard at low launch angles but he will need to continue to do that at the MLB level where it is much harder due to defensive placement and ability.
If he can hold his K rate in the high 20s and run a 320 babip he could hit 240/320/380 with 15 homers but he could also easily strike out 35% and not really produce.
Still an interesting upgrade, maybe the mlb coaches can help him to get into his power a little more and they definitely can use a defensive upgrade, by DRS nearly every single one of their regular position players is below average and overall their team ranks second worst in the majors.
With an already weak pitching staff and without the colliseum protecting those pitchers they can’t afford to be bad defensively everywhere even though their offense has been good (10th in mlb with a 107 team wrc+)
Brown doesn’t belong in the majors.
An A’s prospect to keep an eye on is Henry Bolte. He’s a toolsy outfielder with some potential.
He strikes put alot, has improved but still an issue. The tools and age is helping his upside. Also got colby thomas. I have a feeling one of these guys will be traded for pitching but this last stretch buried them from contending
Bleday has acted like a guy with a chip on his shoulder all season. I wonder if he is upset the organization didn’t offer him an extension instead of Lawrence Butler. I think Bleday’s days in the organization are numbered. I also feel that it’s time for the organization to stop holding a roster spot open for Seth Brown just because they feel he is a good guy.
I feel bleday has been overdoing the launch to the pull side thing to maximize his power. It is good to have a not too low launch angle and decent pull rate but bleday is 95th percentile in launch angle, 83rd percentile in pull rate, 86th percentile in flyball rate and 89th percentile in pop up rate.
His strikeout rate is about average and walk rate above average. For a guy with about
average exit velocities this approach just will cause a very low babip because very often it will be either a rolled over ground ball, a pop up or a just hit under lazy warning track fly out.
That approach helps his power output and I’m not suggesting to go fully slappy Mcslapdick but if he could tone it down a little bit (maybe 60th to 70th percentile in those launch metrics rather than 80th to 90th) he might be a more balanced and less streaky hitter.
I remember watching him (not) hit in Miami. I can’t believe how bad he looked while hitting. I was shocked by his statistical rise in 2024. He is what he is, which is a subpar MLB player.
Love this guy’s movies. Denzel is one of the great ones.
Let’s hope he’s a Man on Fire for the A’s.
The A’s need help everywhere on defense and getting Bleday out of CF should help. Brown needs to be DFA’d, Kotsay and Emerson need to be fired.
The problem is Soderstrom is now in LF because they A’s called up Kurtz. Pushing the A’s most productive hitter in April into a new position on the fly.
There was a lot of talk that the A’s were a possible post season team coming into this year. Then reality hit that Kotsay is still managing the pitching staff and Kotsay loves to give away outs with bunts. Two weeks ago the A’s were a GB of first place – now they are dead last in the AL West and 7 games out.
I agreed Bleday and Brown need a fresh start with with a different team… Kotsay was just extended – he got 3 additional years I believe – so unless the A’s stumble to a 0-20 record then I don’t think the front office will go all that rowdy on the skipper and fire Mark. To Kotsay’s credit, he has managed the team through growing development pains. Soderstrom is a heck of a baseball player and adjusting well to LF no matter what. Emerson does what he can with a very inexperienced pitching staff except for Severino. JP Sears is also a wok horse. Again, I just think the team is still pretty young going through all related MLB challenges. A’s will be alright.
In order for Kotsay to be fired, someone has to personally go up to JF and inform him that the team he owns isn’t doing so well…
Too bad he’s not a member of the Washington Nationals.
The plate discipline looks cleaner so far with a big difference in taking walks, enough to warrant the promotion, and this should bring him closer to becoming a regular, more so than without this aspect.
It appears that Andujar, not Urias, has replaced Urshela at 3B.
Urias is at 2nd right now doing an acceptable job. When Gelof returns to the lineup – he is not doing any rehab right now – then it will be an interesting decision to make.
Bleday leads CF’s in putouts. This year and last year. Isn’t that good?
No.
That’s interesting. I wonder what a closer look at the details would reveal.
What they need is a few decent pitchers, the offense isn’t really the problem. Almost everyone they put in is getting shelled.
Las Vegas Aviators season ticket holder here. Denzel Clarke quickly became one of my favorite players this season. I agree with the assessment that he plays elite defense. There’s no such thing as a ball hit over his head. He runs down a lot of balls that other outfielders wouldn’t get to. He can leap and bring back balls hit over the fence on occasion. He made one of the best catches I’ve ever seen at Las Vegas Ballpark in his very first game here. I also agree with his speed on the basepaths. He not only beats out infield grounders, but he forces infielders to rush their throws. Of course, MLB infielders aren’t going to miss those throws like Triple A infielders do. He also takes the extra base every chance he gets. I’ve seen him score from first base on singles more than once. Now, the negative: It’s not just that he hasn’t hit a home run this year. It’s that he literally has not hit a ball within 10 feet of the warning track all year. It appears that he’s been coached the same way that Lou Brown coached Willie Mays Hayes.
Denzel Clarke is the cousin of Bo, Josh and Myles Naylor. Myles also plays within the A’s organization.
He did an awesome job last night. Great potential and attitude. Hope it works out well for him.