by Bill Moriarity / A’s Farm Editor
August 11, 2020
MLB Pipeline recently updated its prospect rankings from last spring, with some promising young A’s players moving up the charts and others sliding down. MLB.com’s top prospect hounds, Jim Callis, Jonathan Mayo and Mike Rosenbaum, recalibrated their top 100 prospects in all of baseball as well as their top 30 prospects for each team.
With no minor league games being played this season, there’s not a whole lot, other than inside baseball gossip, to actually account for players’ movement up or down these lists at this point. But this summer’s amateur draft picks have now been added into the mix. And with that in mind, here are a few notable items from MLB Pipeline’s updated A’s prospect list…
Jesus Luzardo, who is still technically a rookie, remains the A’s top prospect. MLB Pipeline ranks the lefty as the 13th-best prospect in all of baseball as well as the second-best left-handed pitching prospect in the game, just behind San Diego southpaw MacKenzie Gore.
Lefty A.J. Puk and catcher Sean Murphy, both of whom retain rookie status, have swapped places on the A’s prospect list, with the injured Puk dropping a place to #3 and Murphy moving up a spot to #2.
Murphy is ranked as the 35th-best prospect in all of baseball and the third-best catching prospect in the game, just behind the Orioles’ Adley Rutschman and the Giants’ Joey Bart. Meanwhile, Puk is the 64th-ranked prospect overall and the 8th-ranked left-handed pitching prospect.
As for the rest of the A’s top 10 prospect list, shortstop Jorge Mateo, who’d previously ranked #4 on the list of A’s prospects, has disappeared from the list since he was traded to the Padres this summer. Young Dominican shortstop Robert Puason and infielder Sheldon Neuse have both moved up one position, with Puason taking over Mateo’s old spot at #4 and Neuse moving up to #7.
Shortstop Logan Davidson, the A’s top draft pick in 2019, and outfielder Luis Barrera have both moved down a spot, with Davidson now coming in at #8 and Barrera at #10. Shortstop Nick Allen, who could be the next position player in the A’s top 10 to have an impact at the major league level, remains at #6.
Besides Mateo, the only other player exiting the A’s top 10 list is outfielder Austin Beck, who dropped from #10 all the way down to #19, where he’s followed by fellow outfield prospect Lazaro Armenteros, who now checks in at #20. The two formerly-highly-touted prospects have seen their stock drop a bit after the pair posted big strikeout totals last year at High-A Stockton. And the fact that the A’s chose not to invite Beck, their top draft pick in 2017, to their alternate training camp this summer may have played a role in MLB Pipeline’s decision to drop him nine spots down the list.
Two prospects were added to the A’s top 10 list to take the place of Mateo and Beck. Pitcher Daulton Jefferies now checks in at #9. And the A’s top pick in this year’s draft, 18-year-old catcher Tyler Soderstrom, is the highest-ranked newcomer on the list, making his debut at #5. The left-handed hitter’s polished abilities at the plate and the possibility that he could stick behind the plate obviously impressed MLB Pipeline’s evaluators.
A pair of 26-year-olds represent the two oldest prospects in the A’s top 20 – pitcher James Kaprielian at #13 and outfielder Skye Bolt at #18. Meanwhile, Soderstrom at age 18 and Puason at just 17 are the two youngest prospects in the top 10. A pair of Colombian teenagers also appear in the A’s top 20 – 18-year-old outfielder Brayan Buelvas at #16 and 14th-ranked third baseman Jordan Diaz, who’s still 19 but will be turning 20 later this month.
MLB Pipeline estimates Puason and Soderstrom’s time of arrival in the big leagues as 2024, though that may be a bit optimistic since Puason would be just 21 while Soderstrom would be 22, and neither teenager will even be able to make his professional debut before 2021. Furthermore, they estimate Beck’s and Armenteros’s arrival in the majors as 2021, which seems unlikely considering that neither has yet to play above High-A.
Catcher Jonah Heim barely missed the top 10, checking in at #11 on the list. Rounding out the current top 20 are this year’s second-round draft pick, right-hander Jeff Criswell at #12, righty James Kaprielian at #13, third baseman Jordan Diaz at #14, outfielder Greg Deichmann at #15, outfielder Brayan Buelvas at #16, righty Grant Holmes at #17, outfielder Skye Bolt at #18, outfielder Austin Beck at #19, and outfielder Lazaro Armenteros #20.
You can find MLB Pipeline’s complete list of A’s prospects here. And you can find A’s Farm’s preseason top 10 prospects list here.
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I was sort of shocked that they didn’t give Neuse a shot at the 2nd base position, instead giving AB’s to Machin, who played in AA while Neuse tore up the PCL. Needless, I haven’t been impressed by Machin at all.