The Chris Carter Situation

Upon reading a few articles about A’s top prospect Chris Carter, I thought I’d write my own post about the chances of the top prospect being called up in the not too distant future.

Carter, who has gone 4-for-9 with two doubles, a home run and five RBIs in his last two games, is batting just .242/.337/.479 for the season with Triple-A Sacramento. Despite his struggles, however, Carter is still performing better than the other top Oakland prospects. Highly-regarded OF prospect, Michael Taylor, who was part of the huge Cliff Lee-Roy Halladay trade, has not performed well this season (he’s currently injured). Both Carter and Taylor are expected to be two crucial pieces for Oakland’s future, but only time will tell when either prospect will be called up to the show.

Carter has started three of the last four games for Sacramento in RF, despite him being a 1B/DH. Carter’s defense is not as polished as big-league 1B, Daric Barton, and he still needs a lot of work on defense. Carter’s versatility, however, could boost his value and Oakland, a team in dire need of a power-bat, could be tempted to call Carter up. However, despite needing a power presence in their lineup, Oakland probably will not rush Carter, since he would essentially have to share time at DH with Jack Cust. Carter’s value to the organization goes without question, but rushing the top-prospect is probably not something the front office would want to do.

Carter and Taylor should be up with the A’s during the later part of the season, most likely sometime this summer. The A’s young pitching has been carrying the team for most of the season, and with quick-start players like Cliff Pennington, Daric Barton among others cooling off, Oakland will need offensive production if they are to make the postseason. Carter and Taylor would provide the power that the team so desperately needs.