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The A’s Position Player Core Is Emerging

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The A's have quietly been one of the better teams in the American League for the past two months. As USA Today's Bob Nightengale observed last night (on X), only the Astros have a better record among AL clubs since the start of July. Oakland was above .500 in both July and August; last night's walk-off win over Seattle has pushed them to 31-22 since July began. They've outscored opponents by 37 runs in that time.

Their second-half success doesn't have much impact this year. The A's had a dreadful first half that ensures they're headed to a third straight losing season. They'll probably avoid a third last-place finish in as many years, but they're not likely to finish higher than fourth in the AL West. Even with 90 losses still in play, the past few months offer a glimpse at a better future for A's fans who'll stick with the team in Sacramento and Las Vegas. That's particularly true in the lineup, where a controllable core is beginning to take shape.

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A’s To Designate J.D. Davis For Assignment

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The A’s are designating corner infielder J.D. Davis for assignment, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN (X link). MLB.com’s Martín Gallegos reports (on X) that the A’s are recalling outfielder Lawrence Butler from Triple-A Las Vegas in what is presumably the corresponding move. Oakland hasn’t announced the transactions, which will likely be made official tomorrow with the A’s off tonight.

It’ll end a brief stint in Oakland for Davis, who landed with the A’s in somewhat controversial fashion. He and the Giants went to an arbitration hearing over the offseason. Davis won that hearing and was set for a $6.9MM salary. Arbitration salaries aren’t fully guaranteed until Opening Day unless the team and player agree to terms before the hearing, though. The Giants signed Matt Chapman a couple weeks into Spring Training. Rather than push Davis to the bench, the Giants released him to get out from under most of the money.

San Francisco paid him 30 days termination pay, around $1.1MM, and sent him to the open market. Davis’ extremely late entry into free agency didn’t do him any favors. He signed with the A’s on a $2.5MM deal that contained an additional $1MM in incentives.

His run in green and gold didn’t go especially well. Davis lost a couple weeks to an adductor strain and appeared in 39 games. He hit .236/.304/.366 with four homers in 135 trips to the plate. That’s essentially league average production in a pitcher-friendly home park and a down overall run environment. Yet Davis needs to be an above-average hitter to provide much overall value. He’s a limited baserunner and defender who has spent the majority of his time at first base this season.

Davis has tallied 97 innings at the hot corner and logged 148 frames at first base. His defensive grades haven’t been great at either spot. While this year’s workload is an exceedingly small sample, that’s in line with Davis’ overall track record as a middling defensive third baseman.

Nevertheless, the Fullerton product has been a solid regular for most of his career. He was an above-average hitter each season from 2019-22, running a cumulative .276/.363/.457 slash in more than 1200 plate appearances between the Mets and Giants. Over that stretch, Davis walked at a strong 10.5% clip and showed above-average power to offset a 27.3% strikeout rate. He had a league average .248/.325/.413 line with 18 homers in a career-high 144 games in his final season with the Giants.

At the time they signed him, the A’s planned on Davis playing regularly at third base and hitting well enough to be a midseason trade candidate. He has been nudged to a bench role in recent weeks. Abraham Toro jumped Davis for the starting third base job with an excellent showing in May. Toro hasn’t hit at all in June, yet the A’s have stuck with him at the top of the lineup. He is under arbitration control through 2026. Tyler Soderstrom, one of the top offensive talents in the organization, is playing regularly at first base. Soderstrom came up as a bat-first catching prospect but seems like a better long-term fit at first thanks to the presence of Shea Langeliers.

The A’s will have five days from the time of Davis’ official DFA to explore trade possibilities. (Players can spend up to a week in DFA limbo, but teams need to start the 48-hour waiver process within five days if they can’t line up a trade.) Any return would be modest, but it’s not out of the question the A’s find someone willing to take on part or all of the approximate $1.38MM still remaining on his contract. If there are no takers, Davis will become a free agent in a week’s time — either via release or rejecting an outright assignment to the minors.

There are a few teams that could look to add a corner bat. The Yankees lost Anthony Rizzo for upwards of a month to a forearm fracture. The Red Sox haven’t gotten much out of Dominic Smith at first base, although they could just wait things out with Triston Casas potentially a few weeks from returning. The Astros released José Abreu last week and are relying on a Jon Singleton/Mauricio Dubón platoon at first base. The Nationals and Pirates haven’t gotten much from the position, while the Reds might be without righty-swinging first baseman Christian Encarnacion-Strand for the rest of the season.

Athletics Promote Brady Basso For MLB Debut

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The Athletics announced a few roster moves today, with left-hander Easton Lucas and outfielder Lawrence Butler optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas. To fill those roster spots, infielder Zack Gelof was reinstated from the 10-day injured list while lefty Brady Basso was recalled from Vegas. Basso will be making his MLB debut as soon as he gets into a game.

The Oakland pitching staff has been pretty beat-up lately, with Paul Blackburn and Joe Boyle each landing on the injured list in the past week-plus. Alex Wood is also battling a shoulder issue and may require an IL stint of his own.

Lucas was added to the club’s roster on May 8, less than a week ago, to provide a fresh arm to the staff. He was optioned three days later when the club promoted Joey Estes. But when Blackburn landed on the IL, Lucas was quickly recalled and proceeded to throw 39 pitches in relief last night. The lefty may have been unavailable for a day or two and the long relief options are limited, as Mitch Spence also threw last night and Kyle Muller tossed four innings in relief of Wood on Sunday.

Amid all of that, the club has decided to call up Basso for the first time. A 16th-round selection of the 2019 draft, he missed 2022 recovering from Tommy John surgery but was back on the mound in 2023. He split his time between High-A and Double-A, tossing 63 1/3 innings with a 2.42 earned run average. He struck out 26.3% of batters faced while walking 6.2%.

The A’s added him to their 40-man roster in November to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. He was sent back to Double-A and made six starts with a 2.84 ERA. He was recently promoted to Triple-A, with his first start at that level going poorly, allowing nine earned runs in 2 1/3 innings. That one rough outing aside, he’s been in good form this year and will now gets his first call to the majors.

A’s To Promote Lawrence Butler For MLB Debut

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August 11: The A’s have now officially recalled Butler, with Kemp moved to the paternity list in the anticipated corresponding move.

August 9: The Athletics are recalling outfield prospect Lawrence Butler, reports Martín Gallegos of MLB.com (Twitter links). It’s his first big league promotion. Butler was added to the 40-man roster over the offseason, so the club will only need to make a corresponding active roster move. That figures to be the placement of Tony Kemp on the paternity list, as Gallegos notes the veteran utility player is headed to Nashville for the birth of his second child.

Butler, 23, was a sixth-round draftee out of an Atlanta high school five years ago. It was an upside play on a 6’3″ outfielder with significant power potential. He started slowly in his pro career but had a breakout showing in Low-A coming out of the canceled season. Butler continued to perform well in High-A last season, leading the A’s to select his contract to ensure they wouldn’t lose him in the Rule 5 draft.

He has spent the majority of this season at Double-A Midland. The lefty-swinging Butler hit .285/.352/.465 with 10 homers, 13 steals and a solid 18.9% strikeout percentage in 318 plate appearances. He was tabbed to participate in this summer’s Futures Game and bumped to Triple-A Las Vegas thereafter. Butler has hit .281/.340/.512 in 22 games since getting moved to the top minor league level.

The Oakland front office was sufficiently pleased with those results to give him his first big league call. Whether the A’s are simply giving Butler a cup of coffee in Kemp’s absence or plan to afford him regular run from here on out remains to be seen.  He has experience at all three outfield spots but is generally viewed as best suited for the corner outfield or first base. With Esteury Ruiz back to man center field, Butler seems likely to mix into the corners alongside Seth Brown, Brent Rooker and JJ Bleday.

MLB Announces Futures Game Rosters

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Major League Baseball announced rosters for the 2023 Futures Game this evening. The contest — a seven-inning exhibition between some of the sport’s most talented minor leaguers — kicks off All-Star festivities in Seattle on Saturday, July 8.

As Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com notes, 28 of the 50 players on the roster are included on MLB Pipeline’s recent Top 100 prospects list. Six of Pipeline’s top ten will participate. The full rosters (MLB Pipeline prospect rank included, if applicable):

American League

National League

A’s Select Lawrence Butler, Hogan Harris

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The Athletics announced Tuesday that they’ve selected the contracts of outfielder Lawrence Butler and left-hander Hogan Harris. The pair of moves brings their 40-man roster count to 39 players.

Butler, 22, spent the bulk of the season in High-A where he slashed .270/.357/.468 with a 12% walk rate and a 31.5% strikeout rate. Baseball America  tabs him 15th among Oakland farmhands, lauding his 70-grade raw power (on the 20-80 scale) and penchant for top-of-the-scale exit velocities. He also boasts plus speed, per their report, but has a tendency to swing and miss even though he’ll also draw plenty of walks. Butler is an outfielder for now but has also garnered some experience at first base.

Harris, 26 next month, isn’t considered among the organization’s top-ranked prospects but put himself on the map with a promising showing across three levels in 2022. The 6’3″, 230-pound southpaw didn’t pitch in 2020 due to the canceled minor league season and missed all of 2021 recovering from Tommy John surgery.

However, he returned with a sub-2.00 ERA and a 35.8% strikeout rate in 43 1/3 innings between High-A and Double-A before getting torched for a 6.35 ERA in 28 1/3 innings late in the season in a very hitter-friendly Triple-A Las Vegas setting. Walks were an issue even at those lower levels, but Harris’ success in Double-A and ability to miss bats from the left side might’ve made him an appealing Rule 5 target even with questions about his ability to consistently locate the ball.

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