Oakland Athletics’ Rising Minor League Stars

The Oakland Athletics’ farm system is full of talent. Lately, many of the A’s Minor League players have been making headlines and gaining recognition for their skills. This is a great sign for the future of the team.

First there is catcher Jacob Nottingham. The fan’s voted Nottingham the Top Breakout Prospect for 2015. Nottingham was acquired by the Oakland Athletics in the Scott Kazmir trade in late July. Before this year, Nottingham had not hit above .250. However, he greatly improved his offense in 2015, and ended the Minor League season batting .316/.372/.505 with an .877 OPS. He also hit 82 RBI and 17 home runs. If he continues to improve at this rate, he will surely see some Major League time soon.

Additionally, the A’s have three players that have been nominated to the Arizona Fall League All-Star Game. Pitcher Sean Manaea, middle infielder Chad Pinder and third baseman Renato Nunez will represent the Mesa Solar Sox in this All-Star Game. It is a great achievement for these three players to be nominated especially since they currently have a 4-14 losing record.

Each of these A’s prospects have been successful in their own way throughout the fall. Even though Manaea struggled during two of his four outings this fall, he has demonstrated some moments of brilliance in his other two starts. During his first outing of the season and his most recent one on November 2, Manaea pitched four innings and allowed just one run in each game. Additionally, he only walked one batter in those combined eight innings.

Then there is Nunez, who impressed everyone with his three home run game back in mid-October. His offensive power has since cooled off, but he has maintained a .528 SLG and .844 OPS through early November. Lastly, Pinder has been great at the plate and is currently batting .346 with three homers and seven RBI over six games played.

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With the prospect pool seemingly bursting at the seams with talent, let’s hope that the Oakland Athletics do not trade away any of these budding stars. The A’s do need to rebuild this offseason, but there are some more low risk moves that do not involve trading some highly rated prospects that Oakland could make. Hopefully some of these star prospects will be at spring training in 2016, so fans can really see how they perform in a Major League environment.