5 Oakland Athletics to be excited about in 2024

This is an absolutely unhittable pitch from A's top prospect Mason Miller. 102 mph on the outside corner that George Springer just had to stare at.

According to Fangraphs, Miller was the A's number one prospect coming into the 2023 season, and the 76th ranked prospect overall. He battled through a couple injuries last year but ultimately proved evaluators correct in their rankings.

Miller pitched to a 3.78 ERA in Oakland over 33.1 innings, striking out over 27% of batters faced and consistently running his four-seamer into triple digits. His fastball averages 98.3 mph, which according to Statcast places the pitch in the 97th percentile among all major leaguers.

While Miller has some control issues, he has sky high potential. GM David Forst has been explicit about wanting Miller to pitch out of the bullpen in 2024 in an attempt to keep the young righty healthy all year.

Statcast uses pitch profiles to compare guys based on velocity and pitch movement. According to Statcast, the top comps for Miller are Jacob deGrom, Spencer Strider, and Gerrit Cole. If Miller is able to reduce the walks and further dial in his breaking pitches, he's sure to be a terrifying presence for opposing hitters for years to come.