The A’s have selected the contract of outfielder Carlos Cortes from Triple-A Las Vegas and immediately optioned him back to Vegas, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. He’s now on the 40-man roster but is not yet getting a call to the major leagues for his debut. Right-hander Grant Holman was transferred from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to open a spot on the 40-man roster.
Cortes, 28, was a 2018 third-rounder with the Mets. He became a minor league free agent following the 2024 season and signed a minor league contract with the A’s back in November. The unusual nature of today’s addition to the 40-man roster and immediate option back to Triple-A suggests that Cortes may have had an opt-out in his contract.
The Athletics’ signing of Cortes has worked out well so far. He’s turned in a terrific .321/.418/.603 slash (140 wRC+) in 299 plate appearances thus far in Triple-A. Cortes’ 16 home runs tie a career-high, and his 13.7% strikeout rate is an even match with his career-low 13.7% strikeout rate. He’s been on a tear of late, including a Pacific Coast League Player of the Week nod in late June (on the heels of a week in which he recorded back-to-back four-hit games). Over his past 30 games, Cortes boasts a ridiculous .403/.500/.773 batting line.
That huge production and his selection to the 40-man roster now has Cortes on the cusp of a potential big league debut. He’s played the outfield corners exclusively this season. The A’s are generally set there for the time being, with Lawrence Butler in right and Tyler Soderstrom handling left field on most days. Cortes could eventually emerge as a bench option, particularly if the A’s wind up trading veteran bench players Gio Urshela and/or Miguel Andujar before this month’s deadline.
Holman, 25, was placed on the 15-day IL in mid-June due to tendinitis in his rotator cuff. He’s pitched 23 2/3 innings for the A’s this season and yielded a 5.09 ERA with a 16.5% strikeout rate, an 8.7% walk rate and a 43.4% ground-ball rate. He’s tossed a total of 38 2/3 MLB frames dating back to last year’s debut and has a 4.66 ERA in that time. Holman posted a dazzling 0.55 ERA in 48 2/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A last season and has fired 9 1/3 shutout innings in Triple-A this year. The move to the 60-day IL doesn’t reset his timetable; he’s already been out close to a month and will now be eligible to return on Aug. 18.
Syracuse Mets legend.
Not that many guys can throw from both sides.
5’7 200 pounds is overweight
He came dancing across the water…
With his galleons and guns…
Looking for a new team to help drive in some runs….
Glad to see Cortes’ career is still moving forward. But it unlikely that he would have had the leverage to get himself an opt-out. Cortes’ time in Syracuse was marked by inconsistency, and by the age of 26, he still never quite made it as an every day starter there, even in an org that has had no OF prospect depth in the upper levels for years.
Cortez > Soto plus Nimmo. I kid.
He doesn’t offer anything except the hitting.
And we’re not even sure he offers that at the major league level. He struggled badly in his first year in triple-A. And when he got demoted back to double-A, he regressed from what he had done the previous year. When he got back to AAA, he was inconsistent. And while he’s finally having a banner year in AAA, it is still Las Vegas. The freakish hitter- and HR-friendliness of which is matched only by two ballparks in the same division.
He happens to be in the right situation. The A’s are a team that has room n the roster, and can afford to spend three more years optioning Cortes back and forth to the minors waiting for him to adjust to the majors – if he does at all.
Another guy that the “genius” Mets front office didn’t give a chance to. Add him to the list of Jake Mangum, Justin Turner, Pete Crow Armstrong, Sam Haggerty, Seth Lugo, etc.
Wanted Cortes to be called up by the Mets. Hopefully he gets his shot with the A’s.
He never really gave them much reason to call him up. His performance in the upper minors was spotty. He took too long to adjust to AAA and was never a regular starter at that level; How long would it have taken to start hitting in the majors?
Plus, its not like the Mets released or traded him. He reached free agency before he’d done enough to deserve the call-up. Its part of baseball and happens each and every year.
Will the A’s be buyers in sellers?