The Athletics have signed left-handed pitcher Jamie Arnold, reports Jim Callis of MLB.com. The A’s took him with the 11th overall pick in last week’s draft. His $5,985,100 signing bonus is full slote value for that pick.
Arnold, 21, spent the past three years pitching for Florida State University. He finished both his 2024 and 2025 seasons with a 2.98 earned run average. He struck out over 33% of batters faced in both of those seasons.
Pre-draft rankings from MLB Pipeline, Baseball America, ESPN and The Athletic’s Keith Law all had Arnold listed as one of the top six guys available in the class. All outlets mention his mid-90s fastball. His best secondary pitch is a slider/sweeper, though his changeup also gets some positive mentions. FanGraphs was a bit more bearish, putting Arnold at #17 and mentioning that his fastball declined this year, both in terms of velo and his feel for the pitch.
The A’s are rebuilding and have put together a strong lineup, but the pitching staff still needs work. They will have a tough time luring free agents in the next few years, as they are currently playing in a Triple-A park. The amenities there have led to various complaints from players. As a Pacific Coast League park, the playing conditions are specifically unfavorable for pitchers. Developing homegrown arms should be an important focus of the organization in the next few years and Arnold could be a key component of that. BA already lists Arnold as the second-best prospect in the system.
Photo courtesy of Abigail Dollins, Imagn Images
This guy looks like the real deal. Too bad MLB won’t allow teams to trade draft picks. He’s a future Dodger
They’ll be deferring salaries til 2099 by that time.
This one belongs to the Reds, I knw you blocked me, but at least the Dodgers win by doing so, perahaps you should go hit up Bob Castellini or the Reds FO so they can start doing the same thing, or you can stay your miserable behind at home and make deferral jokes like you’ve been doing the past year.
You whine about Krall and “Buffalo Bob” like you always do, but don’t like teams like the Dodgers doing something the Reds are too dumb to figure out….
The A’s got a steal in the first round.
The only team wanted to pay the full value of their slot it seems…
Which surely grinds John Fishers gears
@halosheavenjj. Especially at the price. That means angels probably could’ve got him for what they paid bremner.
Morales, Barnett, Arnold at al… Heck of a future A’s pitching staff, in Sacramento or Vegas lol 😂
* et al…
Add Perkins, Jump, and Ginn to that mix and yeah there’s a lot of potential for the Vegas rotation. Lopez, Hoglund, and Estes aren’t bad either for the back of the rotation.
Now if the F.O. could just clear some spots in the rotation (Sevvy, Springs) so the youngsters can get some innings and experience that would be great.
They will clear the rotation up for sure. There are rumors that Billy Beane is back assisting GM David Forst… If true, that will highly valuable, Billy’s huge experience trading players…
slote
I was hoping his middle name would’ve been Kevin or Wayne. Unfortunately it’s not. It’s actually Charles. Even Jack would’ve been cool.
So full it spilled out into an extra e.
Declining velocity in a young kid usually doesn’t do to well when he gets to AA and above.
50 years of paying attention to this and an example of one the Reds prospects (Chase Petty) will make them look foolish. I saw projections he could as went as high as #3.
They are all essentially lottery tickets. This one has better but essentially equal odds as the other guys in the first four rounds.
Walker Bueller had the same thing happen to his fastball in college and that worked out fine. Sean manea was another one.
Sonny Gray was another one
Florida State rode him too hard.
The A’s will likely give him the Summer off to rest his arm.
Sounds like this youngster is a future hall of famer before he even throws a minor league pitch. Hmmm…
Why is he a future Dodger?
Save something for your Sports Illustrated thinkpiece.
The Dodgers aren’t even mentioned in this article and I’ve seen two comments related to them, along with the usual This one belongs to the Reds obsession about deferrals.
So weird.
One thing that’s gone under the radar due to a lack of big league success and the stadium issues is the A’s have done a much better job in the last 2 years of developing quality pitching in the minor leagues. Prior to that, the A’s had been one of the worst teams in baseball at that. Recently, their pitchers have had success at all minor league levels and a few of those guys are close to the big leagues
depending on how the trade deadline plays out, I would imagine Morales and Barnett will be up with the A’s before the end of the season
Bob Melvin and Billy Beane made John Fisher look good the past 15 years.
Billy Owens too
Those two were good in a lot of ways, but I’m trying to think of the last starter the A’s drafted to be a solid big league starter for them, and I can’t think of one since Sonny Gray
What a mistake
His player comp is DL Hall
A’s got screwed in the ridiculous MLB draft lottery, so I’m glad they nabbed & signed a really good player.
White sox got screwed too. And Nats, rockies will be lottery ineligible next year. Indians got #1 pick in 2024 and mariners got a top 3 picks this year, both benefitted from lottery. And rangers benefited from moving up from 7 to 4 in 2023 what most considered the top 5 spots as the best talent.