When the Oakland Athletics make trades, there are two things fans generally look at: how this affects the team right now and how this will affect the team in the future. What fans don’t think about is how trades affect the other teams involved. No, I don’t mean the other major league teams that the A’s traded with. I mean teams like the High-A Stockton Ports, who now have an influx of talent – making them fun to watch, and also giving them a chance to make a run at the playoffs.
Must Read: Re-ranking the Oakland Athletics’ Top Ten Prospects
A’s fans, or even baseball fans in general, who live in the East Bay area and San Joaquin County have more of a reason to make the trip to Banner Island Ballpark because of the latest trades.
Now, you not only get to see the number one and number five overall prospects, shortstop Franklin Barreto and third baseman Matt Chapman (according to MLB Pipeline), but you also get to see the two pieces that came over in the Scott Kazmir trade as well: catcher Jacob Nottingham and pitcher Daniel Mengden. If Chapman’s 22 home runs weren’t enough to get you to the park before, then maybe Nottingham’s 14 home runs and 61 runs batted in will bring you out. With Nottingham, you get to witness an offensive catcher who can hit the ball around the ballpark as he works his way up through the ranks.
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Nottingham and Mengden won’t be the lone newcomers, as it is likely that Casey Meisner, who came to the A’s from the New York Mets’ organization via the Tyler Clippard trade, will join them. Meisner is projected to be a league average starter by FanGraphs, and while league average isn’t a dazzling prediction, the ERA of 2.35 over 18 starts between Low-A and High-A make him worth watching. This kind of production will be fun to watch, but more importantly it could be a lift to the Ports, who currently sit eight games back in the second-half Cal League standings and three games back in the wild card race.
Related: Prospect Profile – Jacob Nottingham
There is just about a month left in the season for the Ports to make up playoff ground, and while Billy Beane definitely wasn’t thinking about them when he made his trades, these moves could close that gap. The two other catchers on the Ports roster currently, Beau Taylor (who is on the disabled list) and Santiago Chavez (who was recently called up from Low-A), have given the Ports little production from behind the plate. The addition of Nottingham changes all of that. Now, they have a guy who not only hits for power and drives in runs, but is hitting at a .321 clip so far this season.
While the added offense is nice, the added starting pitching from Mengden and Meisner will be the real boost for the team down the stretch as they try to close the gap. Mengden has already made one start for the Ports, pitching five innings of one-hit ball with no walks. The one hit was a solo home run, but if Mengden can keep up this kind of production and Meisner can maintain the numbers that he put up in the Mets’ system, it will surely help the A’s High-A team close the playoff gap and possibly do something that the A’s aren’t going to do this year: play for a chance at a title.
Related: Prospect Profile – Casey Meisner
It could be a very exciting year in Stockton, thanks in large part to the A’s trades, and if you would like to see how the trades are working out in person without having to wait two to three years, head to Stockton and see the future for yourself.